Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 75, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1908 — A Republican Assessor Did It. [ARTICLE]

A Republican Assessor Did It.

County Assessor Lewis is another efficient republican official, and he has just caused to be placed on the tax duplicate some $17,400 that Dr. Hartsell had neglected to put there when the 1907 assessment was made. It is probable that a part of this amount should have been on the duplicate for several previous years, although a part of it had been derived from the sale of farm lands, and the real estate had shown for itself. There is no doubt that Dr. Rartsell lived a selfish life and that there was no excuse whatever for the evasion of a just assessment, and his failure to list all his property can not be defended. But the statement of the Jasper County Democrat that "he had a big funeral with lots of flowers, and Always voted the republican tieket straight” is a contemptible manner of speaking of it. We recall an exposure that followed the McCoy bank failure which showed that a certain I

go6d citizen who had always voted j the s democrat ticket straight had | failed to list money and lots of It that he had in the McCoy bank. So | the failure to do this is by no means j associated solely with men who vote the republican ticket straight. And we believe the records of Jasper county will show that there is a democratic editor who for a great many years did not list till his property for taxation and did not pay taxes on what Was listed and the' i record will also show that there was a peculiar claim of wife ownership when it looked like the collection was going to be made, and that there was a printing press attached by a re- j publican official to compel payment ) And all these things happened to, an editor who so often boasts of the ! thousands Of dollars he has saved! Jasper county. It Is easy to pounce on the faults of the dead, and it is correct to enforce settlement against the estate' of Dr. Hartsell, but a man who has done some dodging himself should be charitable to the other fellow, and every one knows it to be veritable J rot to suggest that the tax dodging is: done alone by those who vote "the republican ticket straight” Such political tactics smack of the mud-slinging variety of years long gone by and have no weight as argu- 1 ment with thinking men.