The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1921-11-25

the other mans property. By that
means he can assess any district in
a very few days. When the assess
ment is made have the equalization
board to perform it's duties as it for
due at stated date, and If not paid,
bear 6 per cent interest per annum
until they are paid up to six months.
At the end of six months If they are
not paid advertise to sell the proper
ty the usual way, then give the de-
linquent six more months to redeem
his property by paying all cost and
interest to the buyer. Doesn't this
eliminate the back-tax machine?
Mr.. Louthan will say that with this
law you cannot equaliZe one county
with the other. l would eliminate
Mr.. Louthan and the necessity for
his board by adding this section:
That any man who sells his proper
ty, after it is assessed by him and
his neighbors under oath, for a
stated amount more than they as
sessed it for, that he couldNnot make
good title to said property until he
paid his back tax to the Trustee. 1t
occurs to me, with this plan or law,
that we would have no further use
for State Equalization Board or a
back tax machine. The appropria-
ton at the last Legislature for Mr..
Louthan's office was 100000 and
travelling expenses for thirty or forty
men which will be that much more,
and God only knows what the back
tax collectors cost Tennessee per an
mum. We should have a severance
tax in Tennessee. Gov. Parker, of
Louisiana, tells me in a few years
with this tax they have reduced the
taxes on real estate one-third. A sew
erance tax is to collect small
amount for all the timber cut in Ten
nessee for commercial purposes, and
a small tax for all the minerals,
coal, iron and other ores of all kinds,
of the earth. West and Middle Ten
nessee lands are assessed four times
as high as the land in East Tonnes
see, and consequently pay four times
as much taxes. East Tennessee is
filled with foreign operators who are
cutting all the timber off the land
and digging all the coal, iron and
other ores out of the earth that Prov
idence put there for coming genera
lions, and are not paying a dollars
taxes for same, not even a road tax
to keep UP the roads they use in
marketing this produce. They should
be made to pay their part Of taxes
to run this State and relieve the
farmers and merchants of Middle and
West Tennessee OF their burden. The
greatest curse that we have in Ten
nessee is non-taxable bonds. For in
stance, Obion County should sell a
hundred thousand of per cent nom
taxable bonds. A takes a hundred
thousand dollars of lawful money
which is taxable and buys these
bonds. Thus said hundred thousand
dollars of money goes out of existence
so far as taxes are concerned. Where
do you get the taxes that that hun
dred thousand formerly paid. 1t
naturally has to come from the other
property. The rich man buys the
bonds and is not taxed. So the poor
farmer, real estate owner and mer-
chant have to pay their taxes and
his too / am told by the Comptroll-
err of Tennessee that the bonds issued
on Tennessee of every kind are some
thing staggering. We should have a
law or constitutional amendment
the Legislature or the
County Courts Of Tennessee from is
suing bonds without the consent OF
the people, who have them to pay,
or Tennessee must go bankrupt in
the next decade.
OF course everybody wants good
roads and good schools, and we are
paying an enormous road and school
tax and we are getting mighty little
back for same. / think that we are
NOW paying the State University Of
Tennessee something near million
and a half dollars a year in taxes,
and it costs just about as much to
send a child there as it does to Van
derbilt. l think this is one of the
greatest schools in the South and am
willing to pay what's reasonable and
right to maintain this school. But
the people should not be taxed for
this gigantic amount and then pay
the price they do to send to it. The
State normals and the polytechnic
school at Cookeville, am told, are
great institutions, but / do not think
it's right for the people of Obion
County to be taxed to maintain these
schools and then pay the same amount