The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1922-02-23

ON the train and learned that H. o.
HARNESS., chairman of the board,
owned some large herds of cattle In
this new county, and at McCammon
he got OF and learned all he could
about Mr.. Hardness. who was the
owner of the place. Jacob Keeney
was another rich cattleman, who was
at that time going back and; forth
q great deal between Green river and
Pocatello-rich, happy and pros
porous. He was fine looking and
was the picture Of gentility and pros
perity. He and Hardness were at
the point where Keeney was start
ing to lose and his career was
marked by steady decline. At that
time everybody called him, "Mr.
Keeney." After while he walked
more like this (indicating) and peo-
pie called him, Jake Keeney." Later
he appeared more like this (indicat-
ing) and people called him. Jake"
All this time Mr.. Hardness was sue
ceediAg, but now to get back to the
tax man from Omaha, he landed In
Blackfoot and had sitting with
the commissioners. They smoked
together and said but little about
business. They were sparring with
each other. After he went out they
recorded the raise of $500 mile
for the railroad. The tax man went
up the street looking for some man
he knew, whom he could use as his
instrument. He found an acQuaint-
ance, not q man of much standing
or Importance, but he would do, and
he arranged with him to 60 to Mr..
Hardness and slip him the Informs
| ton that this man from Omaha had
complete information about Mr..
Hardness property and knew just
about how many cattle he had on the
ranges Of this county, and that Il
the board still judged that the as
sessed valuation Of the road should
stand the raise, the road would look
with disfavor on the fact that his
cattle we're assessed at something
like i've head out OF every 1e0. He
instructed. the man to slip that idea
to Hardness and then to depart In
peace from his presence, leaving him
+ to think about It. The tax man then
Eboarded..a train and went into Mon
tana to attend. to q tax matter there,
and when he came bck there was
an entry on the minute book saying
that this other order heretofore
made regarding the raise Of $500 q
mile on the property Of the Utah
Northern railroad was hereby re-
voked.o You can read it II you like
in book number one Of commission
ers' records. a.8
Now l want to come down to the
time the county was divided. In
l1893 Bannock and Fremont coun-
ties were cut out Of Bingham, and
/ In 1911 Bonneville was formed. Our
territorial dimensions were cut down
and our assessed valuation stood at
| $5,O00,000 when Heber C.. G. Rich
i was appointed assessor: He went
out and found enough property to
raise it to more than 100000 the
first year and the next year he still
i further increased 1t and collected
the money. Next came q Republic
| can assessor, Hyrum Grimmett, and
he increased the assessed valuations
on the books to more than SIS, 000,-
600, and The Idaho Republican
claimed he did not. get 1t all. Then
| came his successor and it dropped
back to something like $14,O00,000
and in all the years since that it has
increased so little that 1t now stands
at only $4,000, 900. 1t appears
then, that we had great increase in
our material wealth during Mr..
Rich's term as assessor or that he
was able to find and collect on prop
erty that others have not. 1t ap-
pears too, that our increase in ma
terial wealth has been very slight
in recent years as shown by the tax
rolls.
l have chart here that gives the
cost of running the county immedi-
ately following the county division
when we had less territory, and it
shows a slight decrease from opera
tion, but the commissioners did a
lot of road and bridge building and
they expended about $4,000 more
than the revenues of the county.
Up in Bonneville county they
started with a clean slate and their
collections that year were $4,000
in round numbers. 1t was ,consid-
cred a pretty stiff tax, but the Of
ficers said they had to buy so many
new things-furniture, books and
everything, and they had to trans
scribe the old Bingham county rec
ords, and it cost them great deal
of money. They said they would be
able to operate cheaper after that,
and taxes would not be so high, but
the taxes went on up every year till
in the year 1917 they expended as
much for schools alone as they had
for all expenses in the year 1911.
Still it continued to rise and in the
year 1921 they expended for schools
alone, $1.66 for every dollar they
had expended for everything in
1911. The total tax collected in
1921 was '$9S7,000, as against $244,-
900 ten years before; nearly four
times as much; to be exact it was an
increase OF $50 per cent, and the
population and increase of material
wealth had not Increased at any such
ratio, tho l am unable to tell just
what that was Three or four years
ago they decided to quit paying rent
on court house and build one Of
their own. and now they are collect