The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1917-09-13

which could not be reached by the
county officials. Mr. Van Der Veer
stated that he already had knowledge
and proof of such property upon which
the taxes due and coliectib,e amount
ed to more than 100000. Mr.. Jessup,
In the course of his remarks, stated
that there was undoubtedly an i'm
mense amount of such property.
Mr.. Van Der Veer had present his
proposed written contract with the
county, by the terms of which all the
costs and expenses of the discovery of
the property and the collection of the
taxes due thereon were to be paid by
himself, and not dollar was to be paid
to him for his work until the county
had actually collected the taxes, and
the county was to be amply indemni-
fled by him in this regard. 1t was
thoroughly understood upon all hands,
denied by none, that the county was
to be at no cost or expense whatso-
ever and was only to pay Mr.. Van Der
Veer in the event and after the back
taxes were discovered and paid into
the county treasury.
The gentlemen who opposed the ap-
preparation were citizens of the coun-
ty, and hence, entitled to the most
consideration; that the banks were
patriotic and helped to float the Lib
erty Loan without charge to the gov
ernment; that If tax ferret" were
employed the depositors would become
alarmed and withdraw their deposits,
thereby injuring the local banks; that
the "tax ferret" would harass our citi-
zens; that the inheritance tax law
would sufficiently we'll disclose prop
erty omitted from taxation; and that
taxes would soon become high by rea-
son OF the war, and that this was not
the time to employ tax ferret" but
that the whole matter ought to be
postponed and taken up at some in
definite time in the future when con-
ditions were more favorable. The
soundness of these arguments was
contested and denied by Mr. Robbins
and myself, and we insisted that in
view of the fact that outside collectors
had recently been employed to collect
delinquent taxes from citizens who
were in poor circumstances, it would
be manifestly unfair and unjust to now
let the wealthy tax dodgers escape
the payment of their taxes by perjury
and fraudulent concealment; that the
tax ferret" could in no way injure
the banks, as his work was all based
upon investments made outside of the
county and had nothing whatever to do
with bank deposits; that no one would
be harassed when merely called upon
to pay what he justly owed, and that
If there ever was a time most oppor-
tune for making the tax dodger' come
to the front and bear his share of the
tax burden and make him pay the
back taxes he owes for the years that
he has lodged" that now is most
certainly the time, when the costs of
government and general expense is so
largely increased by reason of the war.
Let it be understood that tax fer
rets" work is wholly different from
that of the collectors above referred
to who collect delinquent taxes. 4 de.
linquent tax is one which has been as
sessed and goes unpaid. The tax fer
ret's'' work Is based on property which
has never been assessed by reason of
the owner thereof swearing falsely on
his assessment list that he did not
own the property concerned.
After the discussion, the Council vot- |
ed to make the appropriation. When
separately voted upon it was voted for
ny SLcNcAS vi ScAlSI tOWuSIllp,
John B. Fawcett of Washington town
ship and Richard Davenport and Lee
B. Nusbaum of Wayne township. Will |!
liam Bockhoff and Jesse pruley of
Wayne township. and Hugh Allen of
jefferson township, voted against it. |
When the budget OF appropriations, |
this item included. was subsequently |
voted upon as whole, every member
of the Council voted for the budget ex-
cept Mr.. Bockhoff, who was absent
The Council, having thus responded |
to the prayer of the Commissioners
and voted for the appropriation asked
for by them, Mr.. Van Der Veer, Mr..
and myself appeared before
the Board of Commissioners at their
open session last Saturday Mr.. Van
Der Veer, reading from his notes and
files. told the board that he had picked
three tax claims from his information
files to serve as examples to them of
instances in which citizens of Wayne
County had for many years last past
avoided the payment OF taxes here up
GALL! EE3 DUN
l.k,<.,NS 2S(2