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

istence,. In this comfy and that thev
were the owners OF them.
When you read the law requiring
man to report to the assessor all
or his property, how will you classify
these forty sheep men who went far
enough to mortgage these sheep and
show where they were and what their
value was and then neglected to re-
port them to the assessor?
1t may be said that the sheepmen
had a hard time in 1920; so did the
rest of us. 1t may be said that the
sheepmen are all broke; while they
are going broke they might as well
go down with colors flying and not
be lodging their taxes in the opera
ton. We do not know of anybody
that gave the sheepmen perm isston
to dodge their taxes and leave 1t on
the shoulders of the hay makers who
spent $14 ton raising hay and are
selling 1t for 81 or. worse still, have
it in their fields yet with nobody to
buy it. The sheepmen complain that
they could not sell their wool and
consequently could not buy hay. The
hay men had to choose between let
ting their hay spoil, in the field in
July and August and paying prices
for help to put 1t in the stack, where
1t still remains. Whenever the farm
ers give their permission to have the
sheepmen's taxes RENTED and added
on to their own taxes, 1t is time
enough for the friends of sheepmen
to put up the plea that they had a
hard year. Whenever the merchants
give their permission to have the
sheepmen's taxes RENTED and added
onto theirs will be time enough for
the friends OF the sheepmen to say
that the sheepmen had a harder year
chandise descended in value as rip
idly as the sheepmen's wool Clips, but
it is not valid excuse to say that
the sheepmen were justified in not
reporting to the assessor just because
they were gambling and ran into
bad year or just because they We're
taking chances and ran into bad
year or just because they were carry
ing out the request of the govern
ment made during the war to produce
all the meat they could to help win
the war and ran into bad year. We
all got into bad year and when it
came time to pay the taxes, people
advocated paying all that we could
pay while others advocated letting
them go delinquent. Since we have
examined the records and got these
forty sheepmen tabulated; since we
have made up our minds just how to
classify them; since we know just
what they did in regard to taxes in
the year 1920, we sat down and
thought hard for long time to re-
call as much as we could of just what
these sheepmen said at the time we
held the mass meeting in the Isis
theater considering what to do about
paying the taxes or letting them go
delinquent. If you talked with any
sheepmen just before thai meeting
or during the meeting or just after
the meeting, do you remember what
they said about paying the taxes?
AS we remember what was said by
some of these forty men we have
tabulated, it is rather amusing to us
to remember what were their re-
marks about it. 1t is about as anus
ing to us as to recall what has been
said in favor Of passing that law to
make the taxpayers of the state pay
the railroad fare of the students to
and from the university in north
Idaho. People who are actually pay
ing the taxes have not been heard
talking in favor of this MEASURE the
agitations we have heard in favor of
the passage of the law to pay the
fare Of the students to and from the
university have been pushed along by
people who do not pay much if any
taxes. If you can recall what any
of the sheepmen said about letting
the taxes go delinquent or bracing up
and paying them, in their converse
ton about the time of that tax mass
meeting, it might be amusing to you
in view of the fact that forty of the
sheep men of this county were abso-
lutely lodging the payment of taxes.
1t is matter of passing interest to
hear responsible men say that they
do not believe all of the stockmen are
paying taxes on all of their stock,
but that would not arouse very much
interest, but when we say that forty
sheepmen have lodged the payment
of their taxes and that these sheep
men comprised the owners of. some
of the largest herds in the county
that makes more of an impression |