Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1892 — The Tax Oases. [ARTICLE]

The Tax Oases.

The first of the suits which many of the railroads have initiated to have the tax law of 1891 declared unconstitutional will come up for hearing in the Marion circuit court June 14. It is the Big Four railroad case. The cases of the other roads have not yet been set for trial, but as they involve the same questions raised by the Big Four, the decision in the first case will be watched with a great deal of interest. These corporations attacked the constitutionality of the law for the reason that it does not provide for what is known as “due process of law,” in that it does not provide for notice to be issued to railroad companies, where prop, erty is to be assessed by the state hoard. Also that it does not proride for the giving of notioe to the railroad companies after the assessment is made, so that the railroads may object to such assessment. Now, the provisions of the new law relative to the manner of assessing railread corporations were copied from the eld law, under which the railroads have been assessed since 1873. For twenty years the railroads of Indiana have been paping taxes on the assessment made without the so-called “due process of taw,” without protest. If this provision of the law is unconstitutional, then the eM law was unconstitutional. Why was there no attempt to have it declared invalid? Because under the old law, the railroad paid taxes on about one-fourth of their real value.

Of course it was to their interest not to kick at the law then. But when the Democratic hoard of state tax commissioners complied with the new tax law and made the railroads pay their full share towards supporting the government, then these corporations began to kick and refused to pay the increased taxes by enjoining the county treasurers front collecting the same. Then they sent up the howl, “Unconstitutional I” “Unconstitutional!” Had the members of the state board left the railroad assessment as their Republican .predecessors had fixed, then the railroad taxes would have been paid without protest.

fteggrdlees of results these suits will ooet the railroad companies at least SIOO,OOO in attorney’s foes and other expenses. A few months ago the Republican press, inspired by the state organ, the Indianapolis Journal, reiterated changes that the new tax law was famed in the interest of corporations. The most partisan papers went so far as to state that the provisions relating to the assessment of railroads have been drafted by corporation attorneys. Of course, since the banks and railxsads have combined to break down the law we hear no mare about the “favored corporations at the hands of a Democratic legislature.”