Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-04
MAYOR COUZENS
TELLS THE TRUTH
He Does Not Seem to be afraid Of
Smirching Detroit by His House
Cleaning Methods g.
WuusH!D exclaim certain Philadelphlans

unsatisfactory conditions here. you must
not say that. 1t will hurt the city"
They used to talk that way in New
Orleans when yellow fever appeared. A
concerted attempt was made to cover up
the facts in the hope that business might
not be disastrously affected by the plague,
But the policy of concealment hampered
the work of the health department, and it
frequently happened that the disease had
so many victims that the truth could be
hidden no longer. The city suffered from
its ostrich policN and it came about that
when rrimors of yellow fever circulated all
strangers would avoid the place because
they could put no faith in any statements
about its health conditions.
New Orleans learned better through Bit
ter experience and abandoned its efforts to
hide the truth. 1t fought yellow fever in
the open before the preventive methods
were discovered, and now people have con
fdence in any health reports that come
from the city.
nETROIT, which has reform admins.
~ tration has already begun to adopt the
policy of government in the OPEN on the
theory that the way to correct abuses is
to tell the truth about them 1t does not
suffer from epidemic diseases, but it has
been troubled for years by a plague Of
delinquent personal taxpayers
Mayor Couzens has recently caused to be
printed fivecolumn advertisement in the
daily newspapers of the city stating the
facts and announcing that the delinquents
are expected to report the amount of their
taxable personal property. The only
threat in the advertisement is contained
in the provisions of the law for the collec-
ton of the tax with the penalties fixed for
disregard of them. The pertinent sections
of the statute are printed. An appeal is
made to the desire Of the taxpayers for
fair play.
1t is announced that the board Of assess.
ors has the power to assess any person or
corporation failing TO make statement on
such an amount as it believes to be proper
And it is also announced that the Mayor
and members of the Council will refuse to
ask the board of revision to decline to
make any reduction of O preliminary as
sessment if no voluntary statement of per-
sonal property is made by any individual
merchant or corporation
FTNHE advertisement reminds the owners
l. of personal property that the man with
possessions in the open must not be asked
TO bear a greater share of the tax burden
than is fair; that the laborer and the me-
'chanic cannot escape because all they have
is plainly before the assessor; that real
estate holders, Corporations and merchants
cannot escape because their property is
where 1t can be seen. 1t says, further
that there are thousands of investors who
have concealed their personal investments
and have evaded the law. Some of them
have failed to make returns because some
body else they knew had not made re-
turns.
In order to show the exact situation. the
following summary of the number of per-
sonal taxpayers and the amounts on which
they paid last year is printed:
NutOher Of nd
Amount of taxable property. s10,O00.000
Number of merchants. ..... II. 900
Amount of taxable property. $61,177.5S0
Number of corporations 2,295
Amount of taxable property. $233.75S.770
Then list of the kinds Of personal prop
erty taxable under the state laws is given,
in order that the citizens who may happen
to be ignorant of their liability may no
longer be able to plead that ignorance to
their consciences as an excuse for tax
lodging.
Included in the property liable to per-
sonal assessments are household furniture
musical instruments, statuary. pictures
and other works above the total value of
$500; jewelry, gold or silver plate and
watches, horses and all vehicles save auto
mobiles, all moneys represented by notes,
all deposits in trust companies or with
any corporation or individual. and all
moneys on hand or in safe-depost vaults,
all sums or amounts due or to become due,
all shares of stock in any corporation eX-
cept national banks organized under the
laws Of any other state or country, and all
shares of stock in any corporation char
tered in Michigan but doing its business
outside of the state, and so on.
HNHE citizens are reminded that the
i Mayor and the Council have taken oath
to enforce the laws, and the advertisement
announces that the Council and the Mayor
believe that the mere statement of their
intention to enforce the laws impartially
is all that is necessary to induce the citi-
zens to cooperate with them. And it is
| further said that it would be better to
| abolish the personal property tax alto
| gether than to permit the present condi-
| tions to continue. 1t is unfair that the
| man whose property is easily discoverabe
! should be taxed while the man with much
! more property hidden from view should
! escape.
| TT IS evident that the new broom in De-
| i troit Is sweeping clean regardless of
| the amount of a smudge it may stir up.
| There is no fear of what any outsiders
may think about the matter. There is to
| be government in the open. Every one
who believes in this sort of thing is con-
| fident that the city will gain more than it
| will lose for the only time when a city
suffers from truth-telling about its evil
conditions is when it refrains from serious
effort to cure them
1t is evident, too, that Mayor Couzens
and the Council are not afraid to spend
the public money in advertising m order
to inform the people of the existence OF
abuses and of the determination of their
servants to correct them. Some moss
backs may object and may say that II
ought not to be announced to the country
that Detroit is full of personal property
tax-dodgefs; but the mossbacks were sent
to the rear when the reform administra
ton was elected There is new order o.
things in the Michigan metropolis, tn,
working out of which should be watched
with curious interest by reformers ant
stand -patters in every other considerable,
community.
Detroit was rescued from the control o
the professional ward heelers in the las
7 uYa to A