The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-04-17

league has been called to be held Tn Montgomery during this month. It win be an interesting contribution to the archives of Alabama when the news papers carrying the names of those in this assembly are filed away in a place which can never be touched by the storms of the years to come. am wondering how many good citizens wiN want their names written theret
 For what purpose is the meeting to be held? The propagandists say it is to protest against unjust and burdensome tax assessments. This means an effort will be made to reduce the assessment from 35 per cent to some lower Der centage of the reasonable cash value. Any attempt at a. reassessment must necessarily fail because the law says each assessment must stand for two years and the assessment for 1920 must stand through 1921.
 WHERE CUTS BEGIN
 But, for the sake of argument, let us suppose the assessments could be T educed and then consider what would be the result. For every dollar of re- duction of the amount of taxes it would be necessary to make a corresponding reduction in appropriations. That would mean a cut in the salaries of school teachers, which now average less than the wages of unskilled com AiiOh 40OOICISs UT SIIOTItT SCHOOl .LGIIIiS, reduction in pensions paid Confed- crate soldiers which are now pitifully small; reduction in the maintenance funds for the insane hospitals, the deaf, dumb and blind institutions, the Boys Industrial school, the Training School Tor Girls and all other charitable in- stitutions, none of which is receiving enough for the. proper care and com fort of it's wards.
 " But said opa oop,p,ittea tbat oa ,,, in my office demanding a reduction in assessments, but which would not, of course, consider a reduction of appro- prlations for schools and soldiers, the Legislature should reduch the expenses or the state government by cutting the salaries of officials at the capitol.'
 That suggestion raised a point and developed fact with which people gen. erally probably are not advised The tax payers of Alabama do not contribute penny toward the expenses of the state government. Every dollar of the cost of the legislative the executive and the judicial departments of the state govern ment is paid out of the profits derived rom the labor of convicts and the Nii- cense taxes of foreign corporations. Not only is this true, but money received from convict labor and foreign corpora tons is sent by the state to 51 counties to supplement school and pension funds In other words.s 51 counties take more money out of the state treasury than they pay in. Every dollar paid into the state treasury by the people of 51 coun- ties is sent back to, them for the educa- tion of their own children and to pa y pensions to their old soldiers.
 COUNTIES THAT KICK
 Surprising though it be- the bitterest utterances about oppression and con- fiscation' and excessive taxation come from some of those counties which do not pay their own way and which are constantly knocking at the front door of the state treasury for funds with which to meet their obligations to their own people. Take for example, the county from which the committee quoted above halls. That county paid last year into the state treasury s125,65S. It drew out last year $19S,411. It Is the home of schools for the deaf, dumb and blind which received an additional $103,6 an amount spent largely among the people of the county. It is also the home of one of theF chief propa gandists of the Alabama Tax Dodgers league
 "A comparison of Alabama taxes with the taxes of other southern states for general purposes is interesting:
 Rate for state Tax for state
 gen. fund on Assessm't gen. fund.
 each 500. basis on $1O0