Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-02-14
PROUD
OF PARDON ROLL
tcontinued From Page one.)

or power IN the nan0s OF the TAX DOdFQ,
and that is why it failed. The board, of
tax commissioners could not say to a
township assessor you must assess this
property in a certain way They had
no control over that.
They could not say to the public serv-
ice corporation, you must pay taxes
in proportion to your value They could
not say to the great corporations Of the
state "You, too, must submit to us a
record of your property, SO we may as
certain the fair value of that property,
lecause of that eakness, because of the
lack of Capitalization of power.
During those years the evils Of the
old law crept into its administration. In
stead Of assessing property at the true
value, as the law provided, they assessed
1t according to the whims of hundreds
of assessors and tax boards throughout
the state. Gradually, under this law,
different classes Of property began to
be assessed in different ways The
simpler the form of the property the
higher it was assessed, according to It's
value. The more intricate the property
the less 1t contributed, in accordance to
! its value. That continued from year to
year, as Indiana changed to a great in-
dustrial state, and the great industries
coming into Indiana were found not
to have contributed their fair share OF
the burden of taxation, and, as values
remained low, taxation increased until
intan glble property was practically
driven from the duplicate and the
simpler property, homes and such prop
erty was being assessed to such an ex-
tent that the taxes on home amounted
almost to the rental value.
MARSHALL'S RECORD
/ CITED nv GOODRICH,
Marshall discussed this in his cam
paign in 1908, and said If elected ne
would use his power to revise the tax
laws of our state and equalize the our
| den of taxation, but he contented HIM
| self during his first four years with one
! single recommendation, and that recon-
mendation is significant. He recon-
mended that no taxing unit in the state
! could issue bonds until they had obtained
! the consent of the state board OF tax
commissioners, and that the tax commits
| sioners should require them to render a
! full account OF exactly what they had
/ done with the money. Talk about CEN
/ tralIzation of power Why, Gov. Mar
shall, In that recomen dalton, would nave
! gone further than the present law goes.
There is a good deal of criticism about
the horizontal raise. That power must
exist until the people of this state vest
in the tax board the power to appoint
every taxing official in the state OF In
/ diana. When you do that you can take
away the power TO make horizontal raises.
\ in order that the burden Of taxation
may be equitably distributed 1t is abb
/ solutely essential that the tax board have
that power, but when you give them, as
/ Ohio and many other states have done,
! the power to appoint the county and
! township assessors, then there will be
no excuse for the power Of horizontal
! raises, because they Will hold within
their grasp the power to hx the levy in
! the first instance. But, after all. my
friends, this horizontal increase and de-
crease doesn't change by one single penny
the amount of taxes you pay in your
/ city or township, but only on your coun-
| ty and state taxes.
After all 1t isn't matter that concerns
the individual property holder very
much. But here is the reason 1t created
| some counmotion this year. Heretofore
| the assessments were made so lor' that
when the horizontal raise came in no
property was assessed at its true value.
but now, when they assess property at
| it's real value, when the horizontal raise
came some property holders were as
sessed at more than the true value, but
! the tax law takes care of that. 1t pro-
|
tify through his auditor to the tax
board that he has been over assessed
they have the power to, and do, correct
that in thousands of cases in the state.
DEMOCRATIC EDITORS
QUOTED IN ADDRESS.
Down at Indianapolis the democratic
editors had meeting and adopted this I:
We believe that every man should pay
his Just share of the burdens OF govern
| ment, but we sre unreservedly opposed
TO the Goodrich ideas, which have I'M
doubtedly been educated into him by
his association with large corporations.
The law contemplates that the burden
shall be shifted from the shoulders OF
those best able to bear them to the
shoulders Of the honest investors in
property and homes Now that is what
they said.
HAS my association with corporations
so warped my judgment al to cause me
| to break my oath--that l have favored
the corporations in the administrator
! of this tax law? Go ask the corporations
whether have or not. Go and look at
the tax assessments my corporation will
pay and then let them answer the ques-
ton. They, the democratic press know
it Is not true when they say it and they
do not dare go before the people of this
county, or of any other county In the
state, and say that this tax law takes the
burden from those able to bear it and
puts it on the backs of those not able
! to bear 1t.
''They condemn me for a Wholesale
liberation of convicts in this state.
want to tell you how many l paroled and
pardoned, and the reasons for it. In the
three years and one month l have been
governor of Indiana [ have paroled par
dOned and RENTED fines for 625 persons,
no, in that time, Ed Bush was gov
ernor twenty seven days and pardoned
sixty-three, and beat my record about
three to one. l paroled seventy eight
young men to go into the army Of the
United States, to enlist and fight for
their country. / won't act In life cases !:
| haven't since / have been governor
Since have been governor of Indiana 1
have pardoned or paroled only three
men who had ever committed a second
offense Now, when the war broke out
these young fellows said Wont you let
me out, l want to enlist in the army ,
and l turned seventy eight Of these
young men out and let them go to
fight the Huns, and they did it.
REFORMATORY FIRE
BLAMED FOR ACTION.
1--WE had a fire at the reformatery and
turned tbirty-seven out because they
were about due for parole and they had
not room for them, ard The parole board
asked me to parole them before they
could doit by law. Eighty eight showing
or my record are not paroles Certain
men committing offenses were given sixty
1