The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-12-13
TAXATION. 

The City Attorney s commuhlca- fion to the City council on Monday night will doubtless give the city fathers food for thought. It ought 10 give those who pay taxes also some important matter for ref1ec- tion.
 Ii is intimated in rather plain language that the merchants ol Nome, with the best intention in the world. have been in the habit of re- turning their property of a personal nature under, rather than over, the nroper values, and that some have not hesitated to turn in sworn state ments which are wrong in fact
 There is no other sphere outside taxation where we view in all its beauty the realization of that moral ity which business of profit making begets. No one feels the slightest oualm of conscience in beating the city or the government out Of the taxes which are supposedly due ln legal way. Although the govern ment or the city is entitled to an mex that portion of persons pri- vate property to a definite per cent age per annum, the business inter- ests and property owners have no hesitation in stealing that amount by keeping it for themselves ana withholding it from the government or the city. That such condition is we'll nigh universal no one Will deny. And in fact public opinion at the present time fails completely to see the immortality of tax evasion as identical in nature with any other form of theft.
 As the city attorney so ably point ed out, the failure of the business interests in this community to re- turn proper appraisements of their taxable property has resulted in the real property, especially the cablf dweller and owner, being taxed
 
 value of his property.
 Not only that, but on account ol this excessive value placed upon req estate numberless cabin owners who were unable to pay this wholly ex' cessive tax, and who were in no DO sition to litigate themselves free oi this injustice, have had to let theii property go in a city sale and all because of the fact that the resl eyaded their payment Of taxes and kept for their own use moneys due the city and which were really the property of the city.
 The City Attorney has fairly wei analysed the situation when he says that this custom of merchants being under assessed is due to the fac' that some merchants have made practice of doing this to a wholesale extent. and the others who woulo make legitimate and reasonable re turns of their personal property dc not do so, lest they enable the rogu ish man getting the best of then through his dishonesty. They prac tice it themselves. Because every body's doing it, the other fellow has got to do it also.
 Obviously also, the city attorney is correct in saying that if every merchant or business concern re turned true values as to persona property which were assessable, the moneys collected would be the same because the per centage would be re .duced as far as the taxation is con cerned.
 That is true and that is what i: so difficult for the merchants ane others to realize. In point of fac what those who have been willing tt return reasonable figures as to theil .assessable property have been doing is to protect the tax evaders by plac ing themselves in the same boat SC that to punish the guilty one the, would all be punished. In tax eva sion there has resulted a genera commercial solidarity which ever Chamber of Commerce would have difficulty in realizing and repeating
 The main trouble is. without any question, that this matter has been ignored by the council too long. Pro- per notice should have been given of the law and proper notice also of