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Show CHATTER. meing the personal opinions of the ' writer and for which no one olso ,g any manner responsible.) The writer does not want to he classed as a chronic Wckor. But .here are conditions prevailing which uriit to be changed and the only ly changes are effected is by somo ono directing attention to them. For Instance take tho personal property tax imposed upon tho citizens of all classes. While tho law exempts all household effects under a certain i value from execution for debt of or-' or-' binary kind, it does not exempt from j ,he ievy of tho collecting power, should the collecting power want to make a man trouble. For an ordinary ordin-ary debt the householder of limited means can sit down and laugh at levies, for his stove, chairs, beds, personal per-sonal effects; even his piano, Is exempt ex-empt from execution. Not so however, how-ever, for taxes. Under the law if a man,' no matter how poor ho may bo, has to pay tax, if tho county treasurer treas-urer so wills it. Happily for a number num-ber of poor people In this city tho j present county treasurer does not carry his work beyond tho confines ! of common sense and justice. But let us suppose a case. Lot us suppose that some man is elected treasurer who has no bowels of compassion; com-passion; who is a grasping sort of cuss. A man who knows not tho meaning of mercy, but thinks with Sir Joseph Bowley, that every fellow In tho land has a check book at his side ready to pay everything on demand. Let us suppose there is a man who has about forty dollars' worth of furniture that is taxed and ho is unablo to pay. Suppose Sup-pose this treasurer should levy and sell a part to pay tho taxes. Suppose , that tho next year hard luck or illness ! has kept tho poor devil In such a shape ; that ho again defaults payment and another levy is made. Under the rule ' governing tho purchaso of proporty at . forced sales it would take about two i years to clean the poor man out and i then it is ho, for tho county Inflrm-; Inflrm-; ary with himself and family. ' Now what sort of a system Js that? Nothing except thoroughly bad. There ought to bo some protection for tho Indigent outside the feelings of tho of. flelals in charge of affairs. Every timo ho shows mercy to tho oppressed ho Is technically guilty of malfeasance in ofllce. It is a bad system and ono that ought not prevail. Speaking of taxes, thoro ought to bo a uniform system of taxation established estab-lished in this state by law. As tho matter stands at present Salt Lake is charged moro than a just proportion. Tho valuation on which taxes arc based in this county is greater than In Weber county, in Utali county, in Cache county, to say nothing of tho cow counties, where tho assessor assesses as-sesses with an opera glass. Tho Salt Lako proporty owner of moderate means pays taxes on a house and lot. say valued at $3,000. Tho Ogdcn man has just as good a house as tho Snlt Laker, but ho pays taxes on $1,G00, oven though his home may bo situated; moro centrally. In Cacho county tho proportion is less, and In other counties coun-ties it is a sort of hit and miss proposition. propo-sition. Out attempt to even up maters mat-ers and make an equitable adjustment and every country member of tho legislature legis-lature stands up of his hind logs and howls that Salt Lako county Is trying to "hog" everything. If thoro ever was a state of affairs so manifestly unjust un-just as in the tax system of this stato tho writer has failed to note it. It should bo changed. An nttempt was made during tho Inst session to Influence In-fluence certain Salt Lake members to mnko the attempt, but the embryo statesmen wcro too busy trying to catch tho speaker's oyo for self aggrandizement ag-grandizement in smaller ways, so It was let go by default. But somo day a bunch of intelligent men will bo elected and then there may bo something some-thing doing. |