Show THE CITY TAXES In theory If not in practice the city council is simply the agent of the community com-munity The councilmen are chosen by the city to represent the latter in their corporate cor-porate capacity t manage the affairs of the municipality for the benefit and best good of all to carry out the wishes of the people In short to obey the people I sometimes city councils assume the powers of masters instead of acting as servants ci j tney usurp functions not belong nJ to them 1 Here In Salt Lake the council has undertaken under-taken to impose an exorbitant and oppressive tax It has done this under the pretense that the money is need for the necessary expenses of the government and to pay for improvements which it is assumed are required by the community and will prove for the best general good I is possible that all this money could be expended ex-pended to the of the advantage municipality municipal-ity and that in the long run the corporation corpora-tion would be benefited by tho investment That is a question of judgment aud in this instance the seven men making up a majority ma-jority of the acting members of the council are putting their judgment against that of the entire community Hundreds after I hundreds of tho property owners are streaming into the council chamber night after night and entering their earnest and solemn protest against what they openly denounce as an outrageous exaction the rich protesting quite as vigorously as the poor tho intel ent as earnestly as the ignorant In truth the protestants may to said to practically include every man and every woman who owns property for i all do not go t the city hal and file their objections it is not because they think the tax is righteous u because they have no faith in appeals for relief Under these circumstances what is the duty of tho council Every person who understands the theory of the government will give I ready and correct answer I is plain enough that i is the will of all that tho extortionate should not be collected hence the duty of the council as the agent or servant of the people is to modify the assessment to such an extent as will bo reasonable and will receive the approval of the public To insist upon I the outrageous valuations put upon property prop-erty by an assessor who makes more money by placing a higher valu on taxable possessions pos-sessions will be to defy the popular will as expressed it will be little less than robbery rob-bery because tho law permits tIt t-It may be that certain improvements should be made but if the people unanimously unani-mously declare that the work should not be done this year that they are unable to pay the bills without distress the council must be held blameless for failing to mako the improvements Tie HERALD holds that the council will in nA U H Is I nh I n AVU U U VAUO has undertaken and proceeds in defiance to the popular protest to collect this outrageous out-rageous tax We hold that as the agent of the people in the light of the demonstration demonstra-tion now being made the council should promptly come to tho relief of the threatened threat-ened taxpayers by reducing valuations generally gen-erally besides making individual reductions reduc-tions whore it is shown that the assessor took leave of his judgment a he did in so many instances in estimating the worth of property |