Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1901 — NO PARTIALITY [ARTICLE]

NO PARTIALITY

Will Be Shown In the Tax Investigation, So the Ferrets Say. There has been considerable comment by the tax-payers of the county, in regard to the postponement of the settlement or adjustment of some of the larger accounts of certain persons and firms who have been large money loaners of the county, by the taxferrets, and The Democrat interviewed Mr. Workman, who has charge of the work hefe, regarding their delay, and he made the following statement in reply to our interrogotories: “The work could not be done successfully in any other manner than that already pursued, and as illustration, carefully consider the following: “Mr. A executes his note or mortgage for SI,OOO payable to ‘B.’ Mr. ‘B’ afterward sells it to ‘C,’ sometimes executing an assignment to *C,’ but Mr. ‘C’ fails to have the assignment placed upon record, thereby, permitting the record to show that ‘B’ is still the owner of the mortgage; notes with personal security are treated the same manner, as you are all aware of the buying and sale of notes. “Now suppose that you take for consideration at the beginning of our work, the case of Mr. *C’ and make settlement with him, you miss the mortgage, for the record does not show him to be the owner. Afterward ‘B’ appears to a notice and it is shown that lie sold this mortgage years ago to ‘C,’ then you must notify ‘C,’ to return and go over his account again; this plan would require an endless amount of labor and trouble, which can be avoided by the examination of the smaller accounts ! first. “There are persons in Jasper county, that have had from fifty j to five hundred transactions like i the one above mentioned and I have the evidence of more than one thousand transfers of notes and mortgages thnt the records do not show. “The public must remember that a period of twenty-one years is being gone over; that we cannot stop to explain to the public just where we are going to look for evidence,! nor how the account of Mr. ‘C’ appears at the present date, but we will try our best to learn the fads before we pass upon his case, even though it often takes us to other counties and states before we can report. “All cases will be considered before we leave the work here, if it takes another year.to arrive at the facts and obtain the evidence in full. We have a reputation to sustain and improve, and there could be no incentive for us to slight j larger cases, and especially from a i financial standpoint. “All cases will be treated with 1 the same fairness and justice, in accordance with the law and the evidence as we find it.” Mr. Workman then allowed us a list of a number of the more prominent cases which Hre now being considered and pending, but as we have made it a rule to only publish the names of those cases had been passed upon and after the amount hail been placed upon the tax duplicate, we refrain from mentioning them. If the ferrets will treat all alike, showing no partiality whatever in their tax investigation, as they say they will do. they will have the support of a large majority of the taxpayers of the county, regardless of political affiliation. Wo know that the sentiment among democrats is to investigate Bmith as well as Jones, if Smith lias also been remiss in listing Ids property for taxation or it has [escaped through unintentional oversight. This is all the democrats ask in Hie tax investigation, and all taxpayers of the county should lie interested in seeing that this is done. _