The weekly soliphone., 1915-09-24

lected for general purposes. It is presumed the collector received no cash from the taxpayers, because the law says if he did receive any cash he shall pay it over to the county. Furthermore a place is provided upon each tax receipt for the collector to indicate what amount each taxpayer pays in cash and in scrip. Inasmuch as the at tention of the public was called to this matter by the commissioners of accounts last year it is presumed the custom prevailing prior to that time was not followed this year.
 When Judge Light was interview ed this morning on the serious con- dition facing the county, he had no remedy to suggest at this time. He has made efforts to enhance the price of scrip by holding down the expenditures, but if the assess ments continue to decrease his work VIII COuhJ lOl lloIhiliS' iiC he'o oC tempted to get good men to serve on the equalization board, but so far has failed to induce any of them to shoulder this responsibility.
 Several prominent citizens sug- gested this morning that a fund be subscribed to induce two well qualified men to fill the two va cancies on the board. The remu- neration of three dollars a day in the legitimate expenses of a citi- zen to come to Paragould and dc the work It will probably require one hundred and twenty-five dol lars to finance this work, paying each member of the equalization board five dollars a day in cash in addition to the three dollars day in scrip allowed by law. If twenty five or thirty citizens will subscribe vacancies on the board can be fill ed at once and the work can per haps be finished by October 1. The Daily Press believes this suggestion is a good one, and leads off the list with a contribution of five dol lars, which will be doubled if nee essary County Treasurer Tom Lloyd authorizes contribution of five dollars If others will volun- teer contributions within the next twenty-four hours, the work of equalizing the tax assessments may be started by the latter part of the week
 If this is not done, it will be nee essary for the county judge to call upon the state tax commission and a member of that body will come to Paragould and make readjustments in the assessments. In the very na- ture of things he could not make individual increases or decreases but would probably make raises on the percentage basis. For instance, he will find horses assessed at an average valuation of $40, and mules at $3S. He would probably con- tend this is too low and would make an increase of fifteen or twen- ty per cent in the assessed valua- tion of all the horses and mules in the county. There would be no equalization in raises of this kind. The man who assessed his horses and mules at $55 or $60 would get an increase of fifteen per cent, just as would the man who assessed his horses and mules at $30. But the result would be a substantial in crease in the taxable value of this character of property. The same is true of all other classes of prop erty. This would unquestionably result in much dissatisfaction, but unless an equalization board makes a comprehensive review of the 1915 assessments and equalizes the val ues it will clearly be up to the members of the tax commission to make the increases on a percentage basis,