The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1921-02-10
Chapter v.

Chapter v.
There Is an old saying that where
there is lots of smoke there is gen.
orally some fire. People from all
parts of the county said that they
did not believe all of the flock mas
tiers and herdsmen were reporting
the full number Of animals they were
the owners Of. For long time some
of these people have been citing
specific instances of tax lodging; for
a good while q number Of people
have been gathering information in
a general way and others have been
gathering information more specific
ally.
There has been a good deal Of talk
to the effect that stockmen did not
report all of their stock to the as
SCISSOR. A good many people have
been assuming that the man who
owned 1000 head of cattle was re-
porting 700 or 500. 1t has been as
sumed that the sheep man who had
5000 head of sheep was probably re-
porting 1000, but people have new
guess coming on those matters in re-
gard to lot of the stock men whose
, records we have been looking up.
Large numbers Of the stockmen have
been absolutely lodging the payment
of their taxes and the entire assess
ment of their taxes. We could 90
out and round up enough stockmen
in one day to fill all the jails in
several counties. Not all stockmen
are criminals in regard to the way
they give in their assessments or fail
to report at all, but one would think
they were all tax dodgers and con-
sequently criminals if he would
spend a few days examining the
records to see how they have been
transacting their business.
Last year a good many men mort
gagged their teams and paid taxes on
them. A good many men mOrtgaged
horse or two or few horses and
did not pay any taxes on them. They
did not report them to the assessor.
In Bingham county last year, 1856
horses were mortgaged upon which
no taxes were paid at all and no as
sessment was made whatever. Either
the assessor did not find them or the
owners of these horses did not report
them. If any one could show that
the assessor had knowledge of these
particular 1856 horses and left them
all off of the assessment roll, then
the assessor would be subject to fine
and Imprisonment for neglecting his
duty and his bondsmen might have
an unpleasant bill to pay. There
was nothing to hinder the assessor
from having knowledge of these 1856
horses because the records in the
court house show that these horses
were in existence or else the men
who had given the mortgages were
committing crime by mortgaging
property they did not own or did not
exist. In either case there was work
for the prosecuting attorney to do to
find out who was the criminal. 1t
is a pretty safe conclusion that the
owner of these 3S6 horses knew
whether they had reported them to
the assessor or not and it is safe
conclusion that the owners knew
that they had not reported those ami
mails to the assessor. Therefore we
could take our list and go out and
round up the owners of those horses
and hold them all for trial without
any IRISH that we were holding
single innocent man.
We will agree that the public senti-
ment has been so lax on this matter
of the reporting to the assessor, the
men may not have realized the de-
gree of their own guilt, but the law
requires that they shall report all of
their property to. the assessor and
then it is up to him to fix the assess
ments If he places the assessment
too low or leaves 1t off of the roll en-
tirely because the men are poor or
because they are in debt or because
they are influential or because they
are his friends or because he wants
to make a good impression on them
as to his fitness as an assessor or his
as personal friend to them
or for any other reason
that an assessor might act upon, then
the assessor is at fault and has vio-
lated the law and is subject to fine
and Imprisonment for each individ-
ual case.
Most of these mortgages of horses
run from ten head up to 200 or so
and each of them is worth while look
ing after, both by reason that each
one of the owners have committed a
crime punishable under the law and
because the assessor Is in some
measure liable on his bond and liable
before the law for not having as
sessed them and because the owners
Of these horses should have paid
taxes on the stock.
As we have said before we are go
ing to keep these cases under our
thumb and see how these gentlemen
operate in the year 1921. If they
will come up like men and report to
the assessor everything that they
own this office will forgive them
their sins and crimes of the year
1920 and take of our hat to them for
acting on the square in 1921. II the
assessor shows due diligence in as
sessing those same gentlemen on
whatever stock they possess in the |
year 1921, we will forgive him for
whatever mistakes or neglects he
has made or been guilty of in the
rear 1920 in regard to those particu-
lar horse owners and will commend
him for having mended his ways and |
lone right for 1921.
l