The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 30, 1916, Page 2

Trwo ~ TAXATION ) By E. M. Kennedy Good morning, Mr. Farmer! My name is J. B. Dole, The guy that assesses all your prop- erty, ] Including your body and soul. My business with you is lengthy, And 95 questions are quite a few. ‘So settle down and lock pleasant, ‘While we hold our annual interview. There’s furniture and wearing ap- parel, Your diamonds, watches and clocks, - Rags, carpets and washing machines, And don’t forget the baby’s blocks. 1 3lso want that plated ware, Picture books and works of art, Everything similar, not listed fore- going, . Including the old jews harp. Plows, drags and cultivators, Mowers, hinders and headers, Threshing machines and engines, Gasoline motors and manure spread= ers, ‘Wagons, sleighs and cutters. All implements, including the old ones. Shotguns, rifles and slingshots, And forty-two centimeter guns. Poultry, stallions and race horses, Goats and all ages of hogs, And don’t overlook the thomas cat And fourteen kinds of dogs. There’s sheep of every age, Mules, bulls and bossie cow. But that-isn’t all—that calf and colt Are a different, kind of critter now. I think my exam has been minute, Exhaustive as it can be done. Three hours have elapsed gince ¥ came; The clock has i'nsb struck-.one. I must be ambling on my way, My business isn’t very mild. -+ - Oh! One moment my ruben friend I forgot to assess your child. - HAS NEW TAX PLAN Ditsworth Would Deduct Mortgages From Assessed Value . Editor Nonpartisan Leader: "1 am taking the liberty of writing you a brief outline of what I think would be a fair and just form of equal taxation. - - I would exempt all improvements and tax each piece of real estate according to the eclass it was appraised. I don’t consider it just. .to fine a man - for impreving the country as is now the case. I would have personal property as- sessed at its full value and would not exempt anything that had any real value, except improvements on real estate. whole amount, the amount of the act- ual indebtedness. This would leave Erom Of I would. then deduct from the-- : only the property one actually owned. - It is plain to see that if a man were to pay on full amount of the agsess-- ment roll;, he would be paying taxes on the money he is paying interest on, and which should he paid by the paxty receiving the interest. I would make it the duty of .the assessor to compel the property: owner to be sworn as te the accuracy of the property listed, and also as to the amount of the in- . debtedness. All moneys and credits should be exempt from assessment; including notes and mortgages. I would then authorize the county treasurer in each county to make stamps which -would be known as tax stamps, bearing the name of the .county were to he used, and anyone loaning meney would be compelled to put on enough of these stamps to cover the amount of taxes for. the period of time the pote would run. If the note was not paid at that time enough more stamps would have to he added to cover the taxes earned and not covered by the first stamps.—W. W. -DITSWORTH, Nameless, N. D. WANTS A CREAMERY TOO Editor Nonpartisan Leader: I read the Leader over two. or three times a week. In connection with the matter of packing plants it seems that there should be a large creamery. It could be run under the same roof, heated by the same fire and lighted by the same wires. Let us all join in and throw another big chunk of lignite into the big road crusher and smooth the road for success for the old hay- seeds that work and sweat in the hot gun all day to raise and care for his crops and feed the pigs, and milk the cows. with little time to rest his wear bones. Hurrah boys, boost. We're on the road to suecess.—V. J. MeF. - which they . = . THE NONPARTISAN LEADER r Readers’' V SINCERE PURPOSE OF LEAGUE'S MEMBERS S IS LIKE THAT ter man won and I was glad. Then our hearts—our homes. i my memory. and we are bound to win. “0 Z ELWO@D ECK: The sentiment of the farmers (suckers) of this neck of the woods, is that they are going to stick to the League, because they realize they have something to stick .to. Well, boys, let’s hope we put uom%&t ofththqtge politicians t:)atd are all ¢ farmers (sucker: Q' gglt river on .the polit(:ical scrap p{‘lzg J. M. H:: 1 like your best, of all. I am one of the $9£s , and when I get over this attack, I wil give you $9 more. ED. SUMMESE: The Grand Forks Herald surely strikes the nail on the head, when it says we farmers can’t run our own business—we can’t as in- dividual farmers, For this reason we. started the League. HENRY SCOTT: My father isa o e, A e 8 - throngh if we all stick together .GLAD FARMERS ARE GETTING - TOGETHER ok - Xor: > ‘nave ;md I am glad us farmers will get to- R _out: we should, for its about time we faxrm~ ers get a chance to run this state a little for our own good. S.. lgbo HAST%NG_S: .S(:;x;xe of tll;.y neighbors are ‘beginning to think that T QthAI\ISON: dl reag‘s&m& inter- st the correspondence and the sug- gestions in the Leader and Iike 1t bel- er than any other paper I have had e R Pollowing are extracts from a Wilder, of Esmond, N. D., which show the character and spirit of the men who compose the League membership: 3 “] am more than ever a worker and helper in the League. I was a close second in choice for delegate at our precinct meeting. But a bet- show him we were all with him to a man, i “It surely would have done you good if you could have seen the earnest sincere faces of these farmers in this -meeting. think of those men when this nation was in the making, when they sat in convention drafting a Declaration of Independence. : “There were twenty-three men in all, sitting in a farm-house,~whose owner was a member and had invited us there to assemble. . “Men of different religion and nationalities, yet there was no discord. -~ We indeed seemed of one mind as we in turn discussed the issues nearest “I shall always look upon that meeting as one of the most pleasant It proved to me that the farmers’ problems are kindred ne word more. We all note the improvement in the Leader. We watch eagerly for its coming. In the fall we intend to send you several subscriptions to be sent. to relatives and farmer friends in distant states.” "% W BRIEFLY TOLD < eg! are those who stayed = if they had kno QF THE NATION’S FOUN'l')ER,S’ letter received from Monroe A. we gave him a unanimous vote to It made me 4////'/;, g s K. K. EHRIK: I like the Leader and will say. that every farmer in Williams precinct will vote right. The state is the same. We will have. . a good lead in the November elections. Just keep. her going. ’ ?d »en&husiaatie ov(fr' this organization and expect good things to grow out of same, Al farmers of Reno. Valley township are highly in- terested in goed government and pro~ gressive, . o W. T. MOWBRY: The Leader is O. K. and I consider my $6 well nt. Unless we can get some honest legis- lation in our favor we can not exist very long, and in order to get this we must send honest farmers to the legis- lature. We want the old gang to know we don’t want any more Judas JIscariots. GEQ. DOCKTER: I have heen read- THEO. NEGARD: We farmers feel proud this your paper a great deal and want -&ssay that it is the only paper I have ever read that comes right out with the goods. ‘I the farmers would have fought this out long a wh J. A. ROSVOLD: T've been getting the Leader now and think itglithz i By e e L ‘ab least one paper among the hum: hole ] _anything < at an average value makes his next trip.: HOGS AND TAXES Berg Discusses, Statistics ‘and Audit- . : () r’s Report . Editor Nonpartisan - Leader: - Per- mit me a few words regarding State Auditor Jorgenson’s statement on ' taxeg in the Leader for February 10. He seems to think that the farmers do not give up to the assessor for tax- ation all of their property, especially livestock. He says accordin h government estimate “that - should have been 706,000 hogs in the state in 1915 at am-average value of $9 and only 254,351 were assessed, and $4.29 each, and he adds: “If it is your hogs that have been assessed you are getting the worst of it. If your hogs were not assessed, well then there is n@ need to worry about whatever assess- ment. has been made on others.” But it seems to me this is.just what we should worry ahout, to the end that everybody pays his just share, : Just a word about that hog story: How the government got its statistics I can net say, but think they probgb came from the assessor’s lists an that is.in April and May when there are many little pigs on every farm which are of very little value at that time. As a rule the faxmer keeps very few hogs-over for winter feeding, 50 when the assessor asks the farmer how many hogs he has, he really has ly a few to agsess. the assessor is done, then come the statisties, and the farmers are agked again’as te how many hogs they have of whatever age, and this is where the government gets its 706,- 000 hogs. It would be just as fair or unfair to make him pay taxes on the “crop he raised the year before. That too is raised and shipped and sold be- fore the assessor makes his next kng. * The auditor says that the South St. Paul stock yards records show that . during 1915 North Dakota shipped 525,000 hogs. Very well, here are the little pigs that the farmer had, but that the assessor did not gssess. Do ‘not think for a minute that:the farmer keeps all his hogs until the assessor ‘What is said about 3 on horses and cattle, for where e finds eight or.10 cows the assessor - is also liable to find jus{ as many little calves. . : Seo for the fun of it; I will suggest that in order to catch the farmers with 'alt thxa'pro&erty on hand, and soak them for still more taxes, they change the time for taking assess- ments from spring to fall. . The farmers are as a rule just as willing to pay taxes as amybody but they do not like to pay taxes on some- thing they have not got, There is y enough property in this - certainly state on which to levy taxes to run i& without taxing the pig or chicken, i that property were not hidden. What about House Bill 3317 If those smart senators had not deliberately fixed it so it became unconstitutional it would have brought $600,000 into state treasury annually. 'And what about tllllevls that do not pay taxes at 8 I have sexrved my township as as- sessor for eight years, and I must say that I feel sorry for the next assessor when he gets out with that long field slip and has to ask all those questions, and the worst of it is. that some of the pgoglo will blame the assessor for the high taxes. . - ' I am well satisfled with the Non- artisan Leader. It is werth the $6 cost me. The article about 'the supreme court expose of: legislative trickery was worth the $6 alone. Tl:x Grand Forks Herald never said a w. JULIUS C. BERG, Grand Forks. “LET US STICK TOGETHER” Editor Nonpartisan Leader: As one of the 40,000 or more members of the Nonpartisan League, I can tell the “Normanden” that it is wisinformed or ignorant of the purpose of our or- ganization. The League was organ- ized neither in favor of nor against resubmission of woman suffrage, but . fo get legislation which will of “benefit togtlhe entire farming cla?:n of . our state, such as state hail insurance, similar import. . Those who are in® favor of the %‘but outside of g to the . ogs will hold, - single tax on land, ts, 3 misal elevatas, And. ner liwa of i i, i, e T 2