The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1932-07-15
To The Voters of Roosevelt County
"a reply to the pamphlet circulated
nv nv O~nDOneQt1

~ uy OppohOht(
In placing this statement befor
the voters and taxpayers OF tn
county / am assuming that the,
have seen and read the pamphle
issued by my opponent, Mr.. J. c
Sullivan, put out under the same
caption used over this. In thu
pamphlet referred to Mr.. Sullivan
makes some statements and use:
some figures by way Of criticizins
my work as former assessor OF the
county. I will quote from his criti
cisms n at a time so that those
who read this may know to what
I am replying.
The reader may not have seen
the campaign matter put out by
Mr.. Sullivan. 1t seems to be deeply
secret stuff, and, so far as | have
been able to learn, has not yet
been published in any of the Roose-
welt county newspapers. He did not
ever trust the printing of his
pamphlet to any of the county
print shops.
First, ne says the expense of his
first year as assessor was S349.52
less than my last year. I will as
sumo that this is accurate. The
sum can just about be accounted
for by the fact that in four of the
towns I employed competent men,
deputized for the purpose, to list
the property while Mr.. Sullivan
allowed the people of the towns to
assess themselves. Assessing twn
personal property, stocks of mer-
chandise, ETC., is particular work
that can best be done by a disin-
terested person we'll acquainted
with the town. Many town people
prefer not to assess themselves. AS
one piece of evidence that Mr.. Sui
livan's system of assessing towns
does not always work to TIE bene-
fit of the county, I CHANGED to note
over in Froid an instance of 10
automobiles and trucks, assessed
with a town lot. The taxes on the
lot have been delinquent since
1923. This is nothing unusual, many
town lots have gone delinquent.
But here is the way the county
lost out again. The law is such that
license plates can be secured for
cars, assessed WITH real estate,
without the taxes being paid. If
can be secured, of course the
may be sold and the county is
To date the taxes have not
been paid on either the lot or the
and trucks. If cars are asses
;ed separately the taxes have to
,e paid before plates can be had.
70 doubt this matter escaped the
lotice of Assessor Sullivan. A few
leals like this will soon eat up the
.349 saved in expense. 1t takes time
experience to get wise to many
f the details of the work of assess {
ng. '
He tells the landowners that he l
educed land to SIS per acre. That {
) fine. He must refer to Glass Az 5
md which had been assessed at {
II. With agriculture in the depths {
f depression and still sinking with I
arm prices, 81 was little enough |
} cut land. I had already reduced I
arm land values in the different l
ones throughout the county. 1
He tells how he added to the as :
essment roll of Roosevelt county :
than SS5, 100000" Probably not '
luch more" because for my last :
ear as assessor, 1880, the records :
{ the Clerk and Recorder show the :
)tal of assessed property as :
l9,450, SAG. But for the year 1881, :
is first year, the official total was :
Is, 500, 562. A drop of SS40,9S4. +
his peculiar sort of economy does :
Of help the county pay it's debts.
ach of the years I served as as :
.ssor showed an increase in the :
'tal of property assessed. :
My opponent complains that in =
rockton one oil station was as =
sssed at $500 while a larger T
station" was assessed at only
Now the facts are that the
anger" station, in March 1880,
hen I assessed it, was just get :
ng ready to enter business. 1t .
I'd only a very small metal COW =
ed shed, no tanks and no gas on =
md. He cites a case at Culbert- :
in which 7 assessed a filling
alton at $3.50 and the next year
assessed it at S1,400. The reason
that after I assessed it the lot
yned by the station was improved
r a tourist park and a tourist
tchen built. Stating all the facts
axes a big difference. =
He brings up instances in Wolf
lint, where I did the assessing
yself. He refrains from describ-
2 the property but in some cases
know, by the valuation mention