Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1921-01-10

'7'' A'tNse ~ u Soit of esprit dc
corps among the bureaucrats;
which on the whole is not GOOD
influence by any means | realize
mat 1t is fundamentally due to the
raise proportions. to the warned
point of view apparently made nee
essary by the eXigencies of our
present political system. And for
this reason we should certainly
have the greatest possible patience
with 1t. Mr.. Joerns in his minority
report has perhaps unwittingly
fallen into the style and tendency
prevalent among this group of
men.
They Are Fatalists.
"Kart, the philosopher, stated
that the problem of existence as a
whole, or any phase of it. might be
summed up in these three ques-
tons:
"What can l know?
what ought I to do?
What may / hope for?"
Now If you should put these
questions to some of the class of
people refer to here at the presen;
time, their answer to all of them
would probably be Nothing"
Fittings are not so bad--they might
be worse-it is impossible to know
anything about these taxation and
revenue questions-you can't do
anything about it-there is really
no hope"
This attitude was pretty clearly
reflected in a recent editorial in
the Albuquerque evening paper
about the penitentiary. It was,
stated that that institution was said
to be in bad shape, that the peni-
Tertiary commission and the reve-
nue. commission and the national
prison association had all strongly
recommended that the wardenship
be taken out of politics as a pre-
liminary measure toward reform
and efficiency; that that was all
very well but that it probably
couldn't be done, that politics had
always dictated this appointment
and undoubtedly always would, and
as / remember it. that the institu
ton was not in such bad shape
after all. That is certainly not
correct, as the conditions there are
about as bad as they could be and
the badness is due in a consider
able degree to the fact that the
wardenship has generally been a
political job.
Some Taxpayers oppose.
The other group of persons who
will fight for the preservation of
the status quo are those taxpayers
who believe that by doing so. they
can retain an unfair advantage as
to taxes now enjoyed by them.
This advantage may be in escaping
adequate assessment or in escaping
the payment Of taxes after they
are assessed. To say that the
owners of mines. or of railroads,
or of lands, or of stock. or of mer-
chandise all belong to this group
is the height of unfairness. There
has, I think, been altogether too
much generalization in regard to
this phase of the matter, especially
as it affects the mining interest
believe that some of the mining in
terests are intensely selfish as /
know the representative of some
other interests are intensely selfish.
In this connection l am going to
read you-an extract from letter
received yesterday from the ad-
ministrative head of one of the
greatest of these interests. I do
not feel at liberty at this time to
name him, although do not
Doubt that he would give me his
permission to do so.
Agrees With Findings.
IT agree heartily in the
conclusions you have reach
ed after your very full ex-
animation of tax matters and
values in the state of New
Mexico, and I believe with
you that reasonable and con-
sentative valuations should be
made of the mines of the
state and that they should be
assessed on those valuations
provided that other classes
of property are valued and
assessed ON an equal basis. 1
fear that in the past the
mining interests of New Mex
leo have not been willing to