very deeply that if we take good care of the nation, our states, counties and towns will take good care of themselves.

Is there any further discussion? If not, I am going to bring up another topic that will arouse opposition. These important matters that have two serious sides are the ones we feel should be brought up and thrashed out. One came up in two ways this morning on the simple matter of the assessment of automobiles. I was rather surprised to find that some states do not get a thorough check, leading off with Illinois. We have evolved the very simple practice in the assessment of automobiles, of taking the license numbers, which every state has. Illinois and these other states which have not got to that point, can easily get to it from the registration by the state. I will now ask Judge Leser to lead off the discussion on the appointment of assessors.

MR. LESER: Mr. Chairman, I had no idea that I would be asked to stir up a hornets' nest. When the chairman led off about a subject that would provoke opposition, I made the remark to my companion that evidently he was going to talk about assessors because at nearly all of our meetings that subject arises. I can only say that I am wedded to the principle of the appointment of assessors, probably because I do not know any other kind. Although there are a number of peculiar provisions in the Maryland law, not only relating to taxation but to a great many other subjects, we do find that there never has been a wrong step taken in that direction. Of course the chief elementary reason why the assessor should not be elected is that he is by his election more or less subject to political exigencies; he is subject to neighborhood pressure, and his judgment cannot be entirely free. In the Maryland system, so far as we have assessors-and we haven't any very complicated system of assessors, although we have local supervisors and assessors who are appointed from time to time as they may be needed-the local supervisor is selected by the state tax commission on the nomination of the county commissioners. His pay is graded according to the amount of taxable property in the county. His term is during good behavior. That, I take it, is one of the vital features con

nected with the appointment of assessors. You probably could not have an elected assessor holding office during good behavior, but you can have appointed assessors who hold office during good behavior, with some provision for removal in case he does not behave well. I think that is enough to start the ball rolling. I am sure New England may be heard from on the other side.

CHAIRMAN LINK: From the assessor's side, I am going to take one more shot at Colorado. We have with us an assessor from one of our largest farming counties. He brought in a valuation of $96,000,000, and he is doing work now that will make that $96,000,000 over $100,000,000. He is a cousin of Mark Hanna-Mr. Robert Hanna of Weld County, Colorado.

ROBERT E. HANNA OF COLORADO: I am glad Judge Leser opened up this matter as he has because, I see, his heart is in the right place. He is after results. I do not believe candidly that any taxing officer will ever be able to give his best blood to the work into which he has thrown his life when he is subject to the political tide of his state and his county. I speak somewhat of experience in my own county, which is the one in which the famous Union Colony, founded by Horace Greeley, is located, where the tide ebbs and flows and with it the rise and fall of office holders. We have been fortunate in the majority of instances, but I do candidly believe that the wise and business-like suggestion is the elimination of the election of assessors and that this should be done not only in the western states, but in my judgment by every state. My personal belief is that the assessor of every county, or locality if a township assessor, should be under the jurisdiction of the tax commission, and I might say, gentlemen, that I fully concur in the belief also that the tax commissions of all states should in themselves be not elective officers, but should hold office during their good behavior. Then you will see that the tax commission will be interested in obtaining throughout the several counties the best available men for the position of assessor, the man whom three tax commissioners can choose better, in our county, than fifty thousand people. The best way of getting results is in making a proper selection of as

sessors and permitting them to hold office as long as they see fit to hold the office and their work is satisfactory and their conduct is proper. I think twenty-three of the assessors of the Colorado counties were changed in this last two years. I happen to know the majority of them personally,-good, clean, sensible fellows; but the political tide changed by the writing of a letter and many of them fell by the wayside, giving their places to less experienced men, and, I think it may be safely said, in a majority of instances, to men who are not as well qualified as those who surrendered their offices on account of failure in election. One thing to me seems paramount, and that is the fact that in Colorado an election is held every two years. We have the primary ballot. If there is more than one applicant for a particular office, one must go into the campaign first in the primaries for his nomination, and secondly he must go into the general campaign, as all other officers, and be taken away from his office at the busiest season of the year, the season when he is most needed in his office to properly transact business and see that his levies are extended against his roll. If he has any pride in his work, naturally he does not wish to be defeated because he is compelled on account of his work to remain at his post of duty. The fellow who remains at his post of duty with the opposition out vigorously against him, stands a fair chance of defeat. As a result, I know personally that it took me out two months in each campaign, to campaign the county. It is a mistake. I feel that either myself or some one who is the choice of the tax commission should fill the position in my county and in all other counties of the state, and that the appointment should be for life or during good behavior. When that condition is brought about, you are going to find a more wholesome condition existing in the several counties than under the present condition, when they are elected once each two years. I personally hope, gentlemen, that each of you from your several states will think this matter over seriously, and if it is your judgment that it is best, endeavor in each of your legislatures to take at least that one office out of politics and give the assessor a chance to go out and do his full duty, knowing that no man can rise up against him and create a fight because

of the fact that one or two or a few taxpayers feel that they have been unjustly dealt with, but that they may take it to the body appointing the assessor and let the tax commission have the right to review his work and pass judgment upon it, instead of passing the buck to the people of the county in which he resides. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

CHAIRMAN LINK: Gentlemen, I am going to ask you to bear with us just a few minutes for a couple of brief remarks. We have with us the assistant attorney general of the extreme south, Mr. Sneed of Louisiana, who I am going to ask to explain briefly something in regard to the special and business taxes of the south.

MR. SNEED OF LOUISIANA: It is rather a heavy undertaking on such short notice and a bit of a disappointment to feel that any time I devote to talking, may be that much time lost. In all the papers and the discussion that was had upstairs today, it seems to me that the central effort has been to take the human element away from the administration of tax laws. I suggest that that is a matter of impossibility. It is quite as impossible to take the human element away from the administration of tax laws as it is to take the human element away from the administration of general republican or democratic government. Most of the evils that are pointed out in discussing the general property tax, are not evils of that tax itself, but evils of the administration of that tax; and those evils can be cured by the appointment of proper officials. I use the word "appointment" advisedly. Along the line just suggested, the elective assessor is about as big a misfortune as the elective judge. The man who invented the elective judicial should be put in jail; the man who invented the elective assessor should be given the same penalty, but for a longer time. The special taxes to which your chairman has called attention are not so much in the line of special taxes as they are in the effort of the tax-administering authorities to find all property that is subject to tax and list that properly. We have now an appointive body called the board of state affairs. It is the result of laws with teeth in them. And the board is fortunately composed of men with jaws strong enough to use those teeth.

They maintain an active and accurate supervision of the work of every assessor in the state. At the present moment. they are engaged in what they call reviewing the rolls. The assessor for every parish, as we call it, or county as you call it, brings his roll to the board of affairs on a certain day, which goes over every listing he has made. He stands what might be called a cross-examination made by one of the members of that board and during that cross-examination any favoritism, any padded values or any property that has been under-valued, is readily discovered. For that reason the legislature has been able to reduce the state rate of taxation very materially, down to four mills, which we consider a low rate of taxation, and which compared to the rates of other states, is low. There are a few special taxes that we levy and collect, but only one I think would present any novelty. That is what we call a severance tax. There is a tax laid upon the severing from the soil of natural products, which includes forest timber, sulphur, oil and salt. The theory of this tax is that for every pound of sulphur removed from Louisiana the state is that much poorer; for every pound of salt removed the state is that much poorer, and so on down the line. This tax was levied you may say, while the state was still good. These lands may be exhausted; the sulphur may, the forests may, and the salt may. We have the most litigious taxpayers in the world. These men may be residents, they may be corporations with branch offices in the state, or subsidiary corporations. That tax was contested in the federal court. The auditor of the state at that time the board of affairs had not got into good working order-was made the defendant in an injunction suit to restrain collection of that tax, the theory being that it was not an ad valorem tax and was not a license tax, and that since it was not graduated as the license tax requires, and the property was not valued as the ad valorem. tax or general revenue act required, it was unconstitutional and void. The state's answer to it was very simple. Louisiana is not bound to levy an ad valorem tax; it is not bound to levy a license tax; it can levy a tax by any name which it chooses to call it, and it chose to call this a severance tax. Unfortunately I have not the figures to show what this form of