The Columbus dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 19??-1922, 1919-06-08

alton. The best that can be hoped
for is a code of laws that will make
substantial justice possible. 1t is a
matter of common knowledge that
prior to the enactment of the state
tax commission law assessment of
property in Mississippi for taxes was
a melancholy farce. now have be-
fore me prospectus sent out by the
Hibernia Bank & Trust Company of
New Orleans, Bond department 1915,
which offered for sale among others,
Yazoo Mississippi Delta Levee Dis
trict bonds, in which the following
financial statement is given: Assess
ment valuation 1914 (about one-fifth
actuaD $37,712,524." Two pages far
Their over, / also notice an offer to
sell Copiah county, Mississippi Super
visor's District number Road Bonds
in which the following financial
statement is given ESTIMATED value
$2,500,000; assessed value of taxable
property 1914, $1,95O,OO0." Such
statements as these rendered by a re-
sponsible banking house must have
been reliable, or else the bank would
not have made them. 1t appears
from these two financial statements
that in one section Of the state prop
erty was assessed in 1914 at about so
per cent of it's actual value, while
in another section of the state, prop
erty was assessed at about 20 per
cent of its actual value.
Opponents of the tax commission
law base their objections on minor
features and seek to becloud the issue
by setting up matters not germane to
the subject. The law is not perfect.
No one claims that it is. But it goes
a long way toward the goal estab-
lished by the constitution, that prop
erty shall be assessed uniformly and
according to it's true value. None of
its opponents claim, so far as know,
that it is ineffective. 1t is effective,-
and therein lies the root of their OBJ
jections to it. The law places abund
ant safeguards about the citizen to
protect him from injustice in matters
of assessment, and the supreme court
was very careful to state that those
safeguards remained intact, when
4Lo,- ,,,oL,ll +ba oovocf itutio litX of
the tax commission act. No man in
Mississippi is required to pay or can
be required to pay tax on more than
the true value of his properly; and
his right to a hearing in the deter
mination of the question of value is
amply and wisely protected at every
stage of the proceeding. The man
who objects to the tax equalization
law is usually the man who was get
ting by before it's enactment, and
who now objects to being required
to pay his part The argument that
taxes have not been reduced and that
people are paying more now than
ever before is being made every day
by opponents of the new law, and is
only intended to deceive. The reason
they are paying more taxes now than
ever before is because it takes more
money to run the government and |
the popular demands for more liberal
appropriations and better
roads carry with them heavy taxes.
But neither the state tax commission
nor the law under which it is acting
is responsible for the extravaganza of
the legislature or the demands of
the people for the conveniences and
comforts of modern life. A certain
of money is required to meet
the demands of the state at each
biennial session of the legislature; a
certain amount is required in each
county to satisfy the local demands.
There is only one way to get it and
hat is by taxation. The only ques-
ton, so far as the state tax commits
sion law is involved, is whether the
AK burden shall be equitably and in
diligently divided and each man car
" his Just share; or whether we shall