The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1921-02-21
THE IDAHO REPUBLICAN
Equalizing the Tax Burden;
Five Million a Year

Oe~ ~ SS4
tools and instruments to encourage
them to take these courses and to la,
! in stock of instruments for publ
J. good. Four or five hundred dollars
worth of instruments was more thai
:, anybody hoped to get in those earl,
days and so the exemption was place.
/ at that figure to cover all that any
body would expect to have. In thes,
days the use of instruments an(
equipment, electrical :, machinery
x-ray machines and various othel
things costing hundreds or thousand,
OF dollars, gets to be q part of tn.
standard equipment of an office
these professional men charge large
fees and become wealthy; are able
to buy out some Of the other bust
nesses around them and yet they
escape taxation. 1t is no fault OF
the professional men engaged ii
those pursuits; it is not their place
to ask for a change in the law or tt
run the assessor down and tell him
that they have something that ought
to be taxed; it is the peoples bust
ness and the assessors business tC
adjust these matters. Some of these
professional men are money-lenders
here in Blackfoot and they do not
pay any tax on the capital they have
put out at interest drawing a fine
income. They are probably perfectly
willing to pay their share of the
taxes. but no opportunity has been
extended to them.
Do BARRIERS Pay Taxes?
Barber shops seem to be treated
the same as dentists, doctors and
lawyers by the assessor. A search of
the record fails to disclose that they
are paying any taxes. For the year
1919, the Knowlten barber shop was
assessed $19.41, but it was never COL
lected. Mr.. Knolten has gone to
Aberdeen and engaged in the hotel
business and now has sold that out.
When Auditor C. E. Moon turned in
his report to the county month ago,
he turned in long list of delinquent
personal charges that it was the as
SCISSORS duty to collect at the time of
assessment or to get security for and
Frank knowlten's delinquent taxes
the barber shop was among them. We
have reason to believe that in the
month that the list has been ready
Mr. Malcolm has not made any at
tempt to collect any of it. When Mr..
Knowlten was operating this same
barber shop he got into fight with
some man in the shop and they had
rough house during which time
Mr.. knowlten lost a part of his
clothes that were ripped off of him in
the tight and the police was called
in to straighten matters out and Mr..
knoWlten owes the county $19.41
for Strengthening up his roughhouse
on that one occasion. Jim Martin
was the man who took charge and
actually Strengthened things out, but
Jim donates that to the county. We
do not find that any Of the barber
shops paid any tax for the year 1920,
nor does it appear that any of them
were assessed. The Broadway, op-
Grated by Smith and Dahlstrom, one
in the basement in the Eccles hotel,
operated by Snyder and Knox, one in
the DeKay Cigar store, operated by
Otis Miller, D. F. Arthur's in the
Club Cigar Store building, the one in
the Nippon or Japanese pool hall, OPP
Grated by a Mr.. Patterson one in the
Empire Cigar Store operated by
Glenn and Gruson and the Bridge
Street Barber shop operated by Sol
lender and Taylor. These men are
not given any opportunity to pay
taxes on their business; they have to
be interested in something; most of
them manifest considerable interest
in baseball, prize fights and other
athletics, SO they might take an in
terest in the payment of taxes and
conducting good government il
they were given an opportunity to
break into the game.
Do Educators Pay?
Considerable is being said lust
now about the educators being paid
with 95 cent warrant and people
are divided as to whether school
teachers should be permitted to suf-
Fer any losses along with the rest of
the public when the extravaganza of /,
war and the war period is being adj
iuHted. Just to see whether the edu-
,ational and spiritual people pay any |
taxes or not and for the purpose of |
informing you, we searched the |
records for the taxes paid by the sup
erintendent Of the city schools, the
principals in the city schools, the !
representative of agriculture in the
farm bureau and two of the pastors
who have been in town quite a while
and we find none Of them paying anv
AK. When these folks at the head of
he professions are not assessed, we
assume that noneeof the other teach
IFS are, so we may as we'll dismiss
he whole fraternity of teachers as
class that bear no part in the up-
leep of the government or any of it's
departments. They do not even bear
he expense of maintaining the school
o educate their own children. Pro-
essor E. A. Melton was the city sup
'rintendent of schools year ago and
.. D. Bloom succeeded him in that
c. e. Eichelberger is the
principal at the high school and Miss
Anna Doyle is the principal at the
central school. M. O. Monroe was
he county agent for couple of years
nd ha has hoon fo11ownd h1, n VIZ |