Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 19, No. 2, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 12, 1899 Page: 4 of 16
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m:
"Reasoni! Why
we need a jiew State Constitution,"
the Austin correspondent of the Bout-
ton Poet, touching our tax laws says:
"Of equal importance > with the
changes necessary to bring the Judici-
ary system up to the requirements of
the times are those called for in the
methods in vogue for the assessment
of property and the levying of taxes.
The rapid development of the State
has brought about conditions hardly
anticipated by the framere of the con-
stitution of 1876 condition, for the
meeting of which they could not have
provided without being possessed of
a greater measure of prescience than
is as a rule allotted to the average
mortal. Botchy tax laws have follow-
ed as a consequence until the stage has
been reached where the whims of com-
missioners courts and city boards of
equalization are about all that govern
in the preparation of tax rolls, and
speculative holders of realty find it
easy to shift a good share of their tax
burdens to the shoulders of those who
are enterprising enough to improve*
their property and help push the com-
munity along on the road to prosper-
ity. In other words the prevailing
method of reaching out for the pock-
ets of the tax-payers puts a premium
on mossbacklsm and gives the hustling
citizen the worst of it at every turn,
In so much as it permits him to do
nothing for the betterment of his con-
dition, and that of his neighbors as
well, without taxing him to the limit,
while the fellow who waits for those
around him to spend their money in
Improvements, satisfied with the in-
crease in property values resulting
from the growth and prosperity of the
country, is allowed to get by without
paying anything for the material ben-
efit he derives from living among up-
to-date people."
This is doctrine that the Mercury
can freely endorse without any men-
tal reservation, let it come from what-
ever source it may. And any meas-
ure of reform which will tend to re-
move these glaring Inequalities ana
give us a fair system of taxation will
not want its support or approval.
Industry has too long been made to
bear more than its fair share of the
tax burdens, while the holders or real-
ty and the speculators in land values
have been permitted to go free by pay-
ing a nominal tax on their idle land
holdings.
Continuing, the Post correspondent
says;
"Apparent as are the inconsistencies
and the methods under which the
belongings of the citizens are assessed
under the existing tax laws they are,
if anything, less glaring than those
followed in the valuation of corpora-
tion property, which is saying much.
To be specific it is only necessary to
call attention to the fact that in a
county like Fayette, for instance, rail-
road property is assessed at an
average of $8,000 per mile, while in
the Panhandle a value of $10,000 per
mile is put on it There Is no
room lor argument here. One of these
valuations is necessarily incorrect. The
State or the railroad is bound to he
the worst of it In one case or
i oth4t. And the inequality becomes
manifest qach year, which is
^no remedy beoome necessary tor them to absent
for it under the present system." themselves from their posts of duty
These are discrepancies and party and we would find ourselves again
shortcomings that we hear but very without a taxing board during the time
little about in the heat of a state po- they were absent. If we are to have
lltical campaign. Then the efforts of a taxing board let it be separate from
and wholly independent of the execu-
tive and responsible only to the people
and the legislature which is asked to
create it
But the Post man continues:
"The many opinions to which the
capacious style of assesment of rail-
road property followed in most eases
in this State is subject only to that
adopted in the treatment of other cor-
the bosses and the party organs are
lent wholly to cover the faults and
failings of the party and to secure po-
litical advantage at the expense of tne
truth.
In his message to the 24th Legisla-
ture Gov. Culberson called attention to
this condition of affairs and gave con-
vincing figures to sustain a recommen-
dation for the creation of a sate board
for the assessment of railroad prop- N porate property as well. The large land
erty, such as many states, notably In-
diana, have provided themselves with.
Said recommendations, which cou&sd-
ed as follows are doubly in order now
"If under section 8, Article VIII of
the Constitution, requiring railroad
property, except rolling stock, to be
assessed and the taxes collected in tne
counties in which it is situated ,thls
method is impractical,provision should
be made, directing assessment of sucn
property by assessors and county
boards of equalization at its real val-
ue, having just reference to the stock
and bonds of the companies, and re-
serving the right of appeal to the State
, insurance, fidelity, trust and other
companies the devolopment of which
was not contemplated twenty-five
years ago are a puzzle to assessors and
boards of equalization, and no statute
has yet been formed that will equitably
reach them. Makeshifts have been
adopted under which neither the cor-
porations nor the State get fair treat-
ment in the matter of taxation ,and
the frequent transitions from one ex-
treme to the other which have mark-
ed the course of legislation in this re-
spect have been followed by results
always the opposite to satisfactory.
There certainly is a way to reach these
and other interested parties from tne institutions so as to make them pay
assessors of the local boards and
thence to the existing State board of
equalization. The provision of the
Constitution referred to should be a-
mended and .a State board of assess-
ment of railroad property should be
created, composed of the governor,
comptroller and chairman of the rail-
road commission, who should perform
these services without extra compen-
sation."
Extra service performed without ex-
tra compensation sometimes proves, at
best, to be but poor service. Holding
office is an easy way of earning an as-
sured income, and requires the in-
vestment of no capital; and the aver
age politician is not very fond of work.
Were Gov. Culberson's Ideas about a
State taxing board, composed of tne
governor, the comptroller and the
chairman of the railroad commission,
to carry, the chances are that the in-
terests of the people would be left to
taxes in just proportion to the priv-
ileges and protection enjoyed by them
under the State's laws, and the best
way to find this way out is a consti-
tutional convention."
Touching the proper disposition of
the school fund, he says:
"Twenty years ago it might have
appeared that the essence of wisdom
was contained in what is to-day, for
lack of something better, passing an
ample provision for the management
of the school fund, but, as the con-
stitution now sjtands, about all that
can be extracted therefrom with regard
to this fund is that It provides for a
gradual extinction of what is supposed
to be the permanent part thereof and
opens the door wide for the squander-
ing of the portion yearly accumulated
to help in keeping the schools open
for the constitutional term of six
months. With a less honest State ad-
ministration than that with Texas has
suiter very materially about the time proylded hergelf (or th9 paat quarter
the governor and the other two state
functionaries thought their political
fences needed repairing, when it would
The foods we eat furnish
energy for the body just as
burning coal makes steam
for an engine.
The experiments of Prof.
Frankland, Ph. D., of Lon-
don, shows that cod-liver oil
yields two and one-half times
more energy than starches
or sweets.
Scott's Emulsion is pure
cod-liver oil combined with
hypophosphites of lime and years, until called attention to by
soda. It forms fat, gives Populist party of Texas and Its <*wn-
, . « . , P * date for governor last year. During
Strength, enriches the DiOOa, these seven years the school fund was
invigorates the nerves, and robbed of not less than $3,150,000.
repairs tissues. The "*der8 of Mercury
* „ ^ Interested In knowing that In the first no mule, no vote.
SOOXTaywwCciiiiiiii, a)MrTA place the real permanent school fond
of a century, the school fund might
have disappeared long ago without, so
far as it is concerned, violence having
been done the Constitution. Fortu-
nately, though, the democratic party
has in a great measure in this state
included its care of the school fund
among the performances by which its
fitness to remain in power was to be
tested, and none of it has been mis-
appropriated. It has not uniformly
been handled, however, subject as It
is in its disposition to legislative ca-
price."
This will sound like a pre-concelved
untruth to a good many people of Tex-
as in view of the methods pratlced
by democratic politicians in all sec-
tions of the State, to rob the school
fund', and indulged in for seven long
and the permanent school
does-duty as a "sacred heritage*' on
stump and serves as a text for
literature, lacks a-great deal of being
one and the same. The permanent
school fund of fiction is $50,000,000
strong. The sure enough permanent
school fund amounts -, to $15,500,000.
Were this fund actually as large as
those who romance about it think it
there would be no occasion for tne
levying of taxes for school purpose
As matters stand, however, the perma-
nent fund yields barely one-third 'of
the amount expended in the attempt
to keep the schools open six months
in each year. The trouble with those
who are responsible for the $50,000,000
impression Is that about three-fifths of
their capital is based upon the intang-
ible remains of a much overrated land
endowment figured at impossible fig-
ures. As a matter of fact what they
insist upon valuing at thirty or more
millions produced but $822,000 in 1897,
or only about one-seventh of the avail-
able school fund.
If the above is true additional reason
is given why the fund should be safe-
guarded from the encroachments of
the political corruptionists and spuan-
derers of public moneys on partisan
favorites, and makes the $3,150,000
robbery of the school fund a real crim-
inal act which would land the perpl-
trators of this great crime in the pen-
itentiary were justice evenly and im-
partially meted out to them.
The theory of the framers of the
present constitution was that turned
into cash the 37,500,000 acres of land
given the schools in 1876 would, added
to the nucleus of a permanent school
fund in the shape of land notes and
bonds then on hand, yield enough, sup-
plemented with slight taxation, to keep
the schools open for a reasonable length
of time each year. This theory would
have panned out all right had it been
possible to check the inroads made on
it by the democratic politicians. It Is
reasonable to suppose that the lands
would increase in value as population
increased,and that if properly and hon-
estly managed It would furnish suffi-
cient revenue to meet the scholastic
requirements of the future.
If we are to have a constitutional
convention—and we need one badly—
in addition to other matters to be en-
grafted into the organic law of the
State, should be provisions for the con*
struction of the Relief railroad, di-
rect legislation, local option in taxa-
tion and a free and secret ballot The
"Larry" Jerome marries his moth-
lesques the Australian ballot system as
it operates in Australia.
;
Jm
in
to disfranchise: the masses.
— ' f j
How can it be accomplished without 1
exciting their just suspicions? This Is K
the task plutocracy has set itself to do,
and that the movement is slowly but
surely gaining favor, is evidenced by
the systematic efforts being made in .1
certain quarters, under one pretext or
another, to limit the suffrage and cur-
tail the voting power of the masses.
Property rights are set above human
rights, and again is heard the argu-
ment—an old one in some parts of
the globe—if a man owns a mule, he
should have a vote for the mule. But
Popular government *s Is relates to
mi
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Park, Milton. Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 19, No. 2, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 12, 1899, newspaper, January 12, 1899; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth185785/m1/4/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .