The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1921-03-07
COUNTY CENTRAL
COMMITTEE MEETS
Committee Appointed to
Investigate Assess
ment Charges

routine business, Chairman o. Buch.
anan referred to the articles being
published in the Idaho Republican
which he said were the talk of the
county and said he felt it his duty
to call the committee together and
see what they would do about it. He
said he realized that an assessor had
difficult position to fill, but that the
government was powerless unless the
assessing was done right so that there
should be money to conduct the ex-
penses of the government.
There were present A. s. Dickin-
son, T. S. Anderson, l.. Ivan Jensen.
T. Cobbley, William Young, c. A.
Packham and some represented by
proxey The press was represented
by C. S. Lisle, Joseph Adams and
Byrd Trego. The county officers
present were w. E. England, J. R..
'tWilliams, Nelson Miller, F. M. Fisher,
A. H. Simmons, E. T. Malcom and
Hamilton Wright. In response to
Ethe chairman's remarks, George T.
Cobbley said he realized that the sit
uation was serious and that If the
statements made in The Republican
| were true, some action should be-
taken to correct the means of assess
ment. If they were not true, Asses
| sor Malcolm should be vindicated and
| Editor Trego should be required to
make apologies and corrections. w.
E. Jordan spoke along the same lines
at considerable length. A. s. Dick
inson said that he realized the as
SCISSOR had difficult position and
to give satisfaction to everybody nor
to have his work perfect. He said
there was such wide range for the
exercise of individual Judgment in
assessing property; so much was left
to the discretion of an assessor, he
did not suppose that any assessor had
done the work just as other men
would do it and he did not expect Mr..
Malcom to- He said that he had not
read the articles referred to; he was
very busy and had had too much else
to do, but that he had heard some
talk about them and he believed
that person could take the work of
any assessor and pick out isolated
cases and publish them and it would
look like the assessors work was all
wrong He did not feel at all
alarmed or disturbed over the fact
that something Of the kind was be-
ing done with Mr.. Malcom's work.
He said that Mr.. Malcom had been
elected and reelected by good ma
jorities and so far as he knew, his
work was well done. He said he, too,
had picked out individual cases OF
clients of his who thought they were
not assessed right and had taken the
matter up thru the proper channel,
the board of equalization and got re-
lief. He thought 1t was every mans
duty if his property was not assessed
as it should be, to 60 before the
board of equalization and have mat
ters adjusted there.
Editor Trego stated that the mat
ters he had published were not iso-
lated cases; he published them just
as he had come to them. He said
he considered that the last speaker s
remarks carried with them the in
ference that he sifted out the cases
that looked the worst and eliminated
or dropped the others that seemed
all right. He wanted the committee
to know that this was not the way 1t
had been done. He had taken the
names of the owners of business
houses and business locations that
were very much alike in value and
location and had published the as
sessments just as he found them. He
had taken residence property in the
same way and published everything
that he investigated and he did not
know whether all the property of the
county had the same variations or
not; he was publishing those things
for the people to make comparisons
on and for the most part was publish
ing them without comment. II the
matter were the talk Of the county,
it indicated that people making COM
paris0ns on them had opinions OF
their own to the effect that they were
not as they should be.
Appointing Committee
1t was decided that committee
should be appointed to Investigate
and report to the county central COM
mittee. A. s. Dickinson proposed
that the chairman Of the county
central committee and Editors Lisle
and Adams should constitute the
committee to investigate the publ
cations made by Trego to see whether
or not they were true and correct.
Several speakers reviewed that phase
of the situation and said they did
not think 1t was the thing to do;
they did not approve Of appointing
two newspaper men to pass judgment
on the work of their competitor.
They said 1t was laying the founda-
tion for another newspaper fight and
this county had had all the news
paper fights it ought to have; they
did not want to start another one nor
lay a foundation that might be the
means Of starting another one.
Messrs. Isle and Adams both de-
clined to act in such capacity and Mr..
Adams said that there certainly was
brains enough and talent enough in
the county Republican central COM
mittee to investigate and report
Continued on page four