THREATEN TO DETHRONE KING CONSTANTINE · 2017. 12. 20. · Its $700 actual value, leaving $400....

FRENCH ARMYATTACKSGREEKS

THREATEN TO DETHRONE KING CONSTANTINEOne of the rubber companies of

Stockholm is renting automobiletires by the day to owners of cars. The Tacoma Times

i r THE ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER IN TACOMA. I wm/r-.30c a _—______——_____________________^________— I HUME

| MONTH I VOL. XII. NO. 281. TACOMA, WASll.._TrKSDAY, XOYKMBKU 18, 1915. [ EDITION

WEATHERTacoma: Occasional rain.Washington: Occasional rain

west, rain or snow east, colder eastportion tonight.

MAYOR DENOUNCESFRAUD ON PEOPLE

Pending Suit May Makea Taxpayer of You, Mr.Man- Who's - Exempted

By E. A. PetersThere is soon to go to trial

In the Pierce county courts alawsuit of iiii|i<>i-«aii<i< toYOl' and to me and to everyother owner of property ivthe ni.mc.

It's entitled "The KtHtoTax Commission of Washing-ton vs. James .1. Oimeron,**s< -,i>r of Pierce county,M ill."

It'.s a suit to determinei lu-iiii-i we littlefellows willJig ill* alwut twice as nun htaxes m-. we now pay, for tiiobenefit of tike big taxpayer.

Ifour assessor loses, thereivill he thousands of n- notnow |Mi)ii>}( taxes—heiaiisnof the $;»<><> exemption—o.i.icrvoiial possessions, whoivill I><-iiin |«.i> ii>ii more thant cents on e\ery dollar' 4north of pijinos and furni-ture and bicycles and • nipiismid clothing and everythingelse tliat we own except realestate.

Something that affecMevery one of us vitally. Yet,ten to one, you never heardof It before,

» • •For 1 ."> years the assesso's of

counties in Washington have onlytaxed us on part of our wealthIn Taconin, we have paid IMMon half of what we own. Andthe commonwealth has kindly al-lowed us an exemption of It1)9on personal property.

That is, married men andheads of families have been al-lowed this exemption. Bachelorsand other independent personshave paid on everything they own.Which Is as It should be. Butthat's another question.

Our assesors have for yearsfollowed the custom of subtract-ing the $300 exemption from thehair valuation of our person;.]property, and taxing us on wb.itremained.

For Instance, V. F. Adams,1709 South Bth street (we pick3.lhis name at random from th\u25a0\u25a0 as-sessor's hooks) figured his per-sonal property this year at $?'I >.

Assessor Cameron took out the60 per cent valuation, as has al-ways been done, and put Adaptsdown on his books as owning$350 worth. Then he took awaythe exemption, and found thatAdams should be taxed for J r>oworth of personal property. Aliatax on it is $2.

• • •nut a few weeks ago tho

stale tax commission hail anoutburst of originality anddecided that Assessor Cam-eron and all the other as-sessors of \\ .ishiuton weragoing at it wrong.

The commission declare)that the exemption should betaken from the actual valua*tion and not the assessed val-uation. And It sent ordersaround demanding that everyassessor change his methods.

It overruled all precedentin taxation systems.

Assessor Cameron refusedpoint blank to obey. And thecommission immediatelyjumped on him with a man-il.imiis suit. It in that suitwhich is to come frp for trialin a few days.

• • •Now let's see what happens un-

der this apparently trivial changeof method. Take Adams' case,for instance.

At present Adams pays $2 taxeson $K0 taxable valuation. Underthe proposed system, the $300exemption would be taken iroinIts $700 actual value, leaving$400. Then the 00 per cent val-uation would be cut off, leaving$200 on which taxes would haveto be paid. Adams' taxes nextyear on the same amount of personai property would be $8.

• • •Mere's another example, Hiioiv-inK how some of us who don'tpay any taxes now because ofthe exemption, willbe caught un-der the new ruling.

Charlie Epp, a waiter at theMajestic cafe, has personal prop-erty worth $400, or $200 on a60 per cent valuation. He doesn'tpay any personal taxea, beingmarried, because the $300 ex-emption covers him. But thestate wants to deduct the exemp-tion from Epps' $400 worth, di-vide the $100 by two, and tax

him for $50 worth of stuff.

We said a while ago tint thenew scheme would be to the ilia-advantage of us littlefellows, aialthe benefit of the big taxpayers.

We'll prove it.Under the proposed new system

there would be $r>o,ooo taxes pai:lby persons in Pierce county whodo not pay a cent on personalproperty. The taxes of those al-ready paying small sums wouldbe increased by fully $2.'),000.

These are conservative figuresby Assessor Cameron. This mean)

$7ri,000 added to taxation rev-enue.

The total taxation amounts to$3,600,000 at present. ¥7'>,o'iOis one-forty-eighth of $3,(!UU,OO*',meaning that we would reducethe total amount of taxation fromother sources by 1-48th.

It would mean that the Stone-Webster syndicate, for example,now paying $200,000 taxes a yearin Pierce county, would get a $:\u25a0,---000 reduction, because tho littlotaxpayers would be digging i.pthe money that the street car cor-poration had heretofore paid.

Get it?

'^^^^ \ WE fIRE!

m /k—B^ \u25a0BTIT ALL,

\u25a0s\J*_*_*^ Guess

LEAGUEBEGINSINQUIRY

And It doesn't work pro-portionately for all tuxuiM'-ers, either. While Mr. Adamsof South Bth street would bepaying lour times as mm hpersonal taxes, Mr. ChesterI'lhh-iu-, whose residence atThoruewood In the most pa-latial in the Northwest,would pay just 90 more taxes

on personal property worthtf.tt.4MO.Mr. Thorn pays $657 taxes a

year now on his personal prop-erty at Thornewood, and unuerthe new system he would pay ex-actly $663. Figure it out foryourself.

Edward Forserg, a cabinetmaker, Ittl North 7th street,would pay $2.4 0 taxes on $':!0worth of property, while he paysnothing today.

A. A. Hinz, a florist, 618 SouthX street, would pay $19 taxea on$1,290 property, where he pays|1| today.

The law says that a county as-sessor must obey all mandates ofthe state tax commission, but. As-sessor Cameron says that thecommission is wrong, and h»* Ismaking au effort to prove it.

The Tacoma Central lmorove-meiit league today began an activeinvestigation of pending actionby the city council, in which pow-er franchises, street car fran-chises and an auxiliary power con-tract are Involved.

At a meeting called this after-noon in the offices of Dr. It. V.Hoyt, Provident building, presi-dent of the league, a large commlttee of citizens will discuss Hiecouncil's action.

It Is probable that the mrtterwill come up In definite for v !>e-fore the league, when it is to meetnext Tuesday night in tne count.lchambers.

"We have none of us receivedexpert advice regarding the tech-nical Bide of the proposition,therefore we do not care to ex-press an opinion," said James A.Lytle, one of the leaaers of thecommittee, this noon.

I "But there ia no doubt th*tmembers of the league are arous-ed, and want action taken. Weare meeting today for the purposeof determining what action totake. It is a aelf-appolnted in-vestigating committee, and wewill most certainly make a re-port to the improvement leagueon the result of our investiga-tions."

linFissafeBORDEAUX, France, Nov. 16.

—The liner Rochambeau, afireat sea a few days ago, arrivedsafety today. Captain Juhamexpressed himself as undecidedover the cause of the blate.

LABORUNIONS

ALERTLabor unions of Tacoma will

protest the city council's acilo'ilast week of handing over fran-chises and vuluale contracts tothe T. K. & P. Co.

At a meeting tomorrow nightof the Central Laor Council thecity council's action will comj up.Secretary Hea Last today de :'.ir-ed that the unions are exceeding-ly interested in the franchisebusiness, and that probably won 11adopt resolutions condemni>i£ thecouncil.

Last today attempted to obtaincopies at the city hall of the aux-iliary power contract and thefranchises, but was given ehuivedirections at each office, an I fail-ed to obtain any documents thatmight throw light on the scho.no.

1 FLASHES!DETROlT—Prctically all of

the northern states covered withtwo inches of snow today.

NEW YORK—Cunard linerSaxonla docked from EngVuidwith 123 Irishmen aboard, butno Englishmen, all being disal-lowed passage. A large shipmentof English gold was aboard.

CALUMET, Mich. — SteamerAlfred P. Wright, laden withwheat for Duluth, burned to thewater today.

AMSTERDAM—NearIy 40 Ger-mans were killed and woundedtoday In an allied air raid o.'

ILlchtervelde near Ypres.POHTLAND—Marconi wlraless

station at Astoria .learly d9»*.ro/-ed by lightning during terrificstorm which raged all last night.

PETROGRAD — Vigorouslypressing their advantage, Rus-sians on Riga front swept (ier-mans back three or four milesnorth of Kanger.

VIENNA—That Goritz has suf-fered heavily from bombardment.Is officially admitted today. Fiftysoldiers wounded, 58 civilianskilled so far. Three hundredbuildings, churches and convent*badly damaged.

ENLIST MILLIONWOMEN IN U. S.

WASHINGTON, D. C, Nov. 16.—The promise to enlist a mil'ionwomen in the campaign for na-tional preparedness was made atthe first annual meeting of tiiewomen's section of the Na.yleague here yesterday. A per-manent organisation was effect-ed.

POINTSTO BAD

JOKER!BY A. V. FAW<i:TT

.Mayor of Tacoma.Again the Stone-Webster 1 owerj

trust is seeking a strangle-holdOn Tacoma.

And as usual the subsidi -.«\lpress is busy with half truths aii'l

I niisstatements trying to trick tlioipeople for the company's benefit. I

When the subject of restoring jthe cancelled franchise to Stone-1Webster was broaclied I waa toldit was a neighborly deal by which)they would furnish current at a;satisfactory price to the city incase of break down.

1 was fuvoruhle to that, but Iwas amazed when the propositionwas brought into the council andCommissioner Mills said he andAtkins had been working wiih thecompany on it six months, to findthat there was nothing neignbor-ly about it.

II wan a cleverly concocttxl(leul to gi'xb a franchiseworth |n-i'liiil>l> limli a mil-lion to lln- <<iiii|>'iiii, an<lthen hog-tie the municipalityfor IS yearn for Stone-Web-ster benefit.This noise about "protecting

the city power plant" is dust toj blind the people so they will not jsee the dark gent in the woodpile, iThe Tacoma plant ran about threeyeßrs with one break of 40 min-utes and we had but one trahs-inlgsion line then. We have two,now.

There is hardly onechance in ft;thousand of our plant's breaking, |and to guard this slim chance thefour councilmen would nlve Stont- IWebßter a franchise worth half!a million, grant other valuableconcessions besides, and then Imake an agreement that wuiuld'put this city at the mercy of tli.i!corporation and enable ii to!gouge $150,000 a year from thecity.

The proposition is to furn-ish current to the city in <i-o

of reakdown at :t-l cent akilowatt, if tlie break is re-paired in 2 1-2 hours, if ittaken more than 2 1-2 hoursto fix the I.i.iii.. then thecity must |wy the company$2.50 v kiliAviittfor the en-tire month. With 10,000 j"kilowatts needed this means925.000 the firM month.This Is the joker in the scheme.I do not say it would happen,

but it presents a fine chance undtremendous incentive for corpora-tion tampering with city powerplant employes to see that sonm-thing does go wrong with tlu cityplant. And the people shouldrecoguize that Stone-Webster nredetermine to control and domin-ate the power situation in theNorthwest, and the Tacoma mu-nicipal plant Is In their way.

The sinister motive is ahoy/ain this joker when It is reatit.-vithat it is Improbable that anyserious break 20 miles from towncould be fixed in 2 1-2 hours. Ifthe company can furnish the cityjuice for 2 1-2 hours for 3-4 MMa kilowatt why should it ask$2.50 a kilowatt If the city takeathe juice for two hours and thir-ty-one infinites? Any legitimateproposition would incline 'o re-duce the price witli the increaseof the business.

The whole deal is simply an en-tering wedge of Stone-Webster tpget a grip on the Tacoma pantThe company by control of th,«jlegislature last winter prevei.tei|-any- expansion of the city porrferbusiness. It is preparing n+wto marshal an army pf lobSyUtgand attorneys at Washington thiswinter to control congress anilget concessions that will enableit to grab all power sites. Whenthis Is accomplished the city willbe hedged in. Then it willknowhow to use this agreement to putthe city plant out of commissionand finally grab it if possible.

Titroma rejected the nd-vice and refused to be trk-k---ed and deceived by the mil»-

-•tldlsed organa when they P

BELIEVE THESE OR NOT—

KAPOWUN, Nov. 16.—Bud Hatchette, a ranc I.er near here, has succeeded in utilizing the in-telligence of his pet piK. Roscoe. Hoscoe brings in tlio MWIUHr, helps round up the cattle and fol-

lows Hatchotle to the TUOBI BMlfl station when UM Irnin Qtim in.

LONDON, Nov. 16.—A Red Cross physician at Nisb, Serbia, writes that Nelit (iroulct, a widowof a Serbian infantryman and mother of nine children, lias received periiiiMxion fronr the SerbianBtaff to shoot with her own hands all German spies caught within Serbian lines. Thus will shetakt- lier revenge.

CKNTRALIA, Nov. 16. —Blondo, a trained vaudeville monkey, got away from the baggage carof a Union I'acific train here and finding himself in the rear of a saloon, proceeded to empty a bot-tle, as he does water on the stage. iHut this one contained whisky!) Then be proceeded to paintCeutralia red. . . .

Imili the |M>\ver plant. Tlu-vshould not be bunkoed out ofKs advuntuKeti now by Hi \u25a0

sunn- K"»K Hint tried to pre-vent its runs!ruction.The proposition agreed to by

Mil);. Atkins, Woode and DrakeIs » fraud on the people ani notan honest move to protect the;!.

It Is putting tills city at the ineroy

of a soulless corporation thft weknow by dear experience willstop at nothing to destroy ilccity's light and power business.

It is time for the people to t-rtbusy if they do not want to l>erobbed.

HEAX WON'T MSCUSB ITt,"uis Bean, manager for the

T. K. & P. Co., wu invited yes-terday to prepare a statement i;iv-ingv lils side of the power mattor,for publication today, but th'smorning lie declined to have any-thing further to say.—Editor.

RATTLiTAGAINST

BANDITS&HN JOSE, Cal.. Nov. 16.—Two unidentified men, who early

today held up the bar of the Swiss-American hotel here, robbing fourpersons and the till, were over-taken by a sheriff's posse atMountainview.

In the ensuing battle. In whichmany shots were exchanged, onebandit was killed and anotherwounded.

None of the officials was In-jured.

'"The bandits entrenched them-selves in machinery on the flatcarof a freight train, on which they

escaped from San Jose.

Talk o' the TimesW li.ii an auto looks like com-

ing, and what It smells like going,are two different things.

Hobson Is swinging nroundthe circle for peace, prepared-in--*, and prohibition. Youcan't hobble Hobson's hob-bles.

It mußt nearly have choked cer-tain Tacoma editors to write thoseeditorials "congratulating" thecity on making "a wise contract"with the T. R. ft p. Co., etc. Theydidn't believe a word of it, andthe fortunate part of it is theirremarks aren't fooling anvUody..

CONGRESSTOINVESTIGATE

P.O. SITE BUYWASHINGTON, D. C, Nov. 16.

—Congress, at its coming session,Is going to look Into the purchaseby the government of an under-water sub-postoffice site In Seat-tle for $169,5U0, which it boughton the recommendation of CongrrßKLimn Will Humphrey.

When the matter of appropria-tion comes up, and it is expectedthis will be early In the session,the natter of the "duck pond"purchase will be given a thoroughairing. It was declared today bya member of the house.

Assistant Secretary Newton ofthe treasury today explained addi-tional objections which had beenfound in the Bite bought by thegovernment from one of Hum-phrey's Seattle friends, after thecongresman had given his ap-

It In said the vtorlrt'ti sup-ply of coal will ta»t SOOyears. That lx-ms ours.

Let's give the T. R. A P. Co.all the <;ity aiiios to be used ontlie Pacific aye. Jitney line Beanis promising.

A Dallas l>. D. mij-v "Aman ran love more than onewoman but only one at atime." What you meant was"should not," wasn't it, doc-tor?

The heat face beautifier is apleasant smile.

proval of the deal.It 1b too hinull, 30 feet below

street grads and entirely too farfrom the railway stations, he said.

,The statement adds that theImmediate purchase of the sitewas recommended by Congress-man Humphrey, who, in Seattle afew days ago, declared, "I neverhad anything to do with the pur-chase of the site."

RULERFACESCRISIS

UKRMN, Wot. u\ -<;,,-kanil IYen. h force* liny i. Imsluml al Salonika, the uolnt<*f (lelxirkation for the illi< I11-lin|is .11 rollti. tO Nellli.l,H.<or«liiiK tv Vlmm mimesttxlay.

The Fro n.li tried t.i oc«u|ifn <in-?>k jt iiiitton loner,Itilt WAN forillily pn-ieiil.-.1.

lj>i<-i- the French authorl-(i«H h,|M)liikl/(mI, shy Itig I lie if-fnli «»-. ii "mistake."

MAY I'NVROWN KINOPARIS, Nov. 16.- Ortteee has

refused demands which the ulllaaliiHUt are essential to their viiely,diplomats today admitted.

Moreover, the allies are pre-pnrcd to force com pi lance, whilethe central power* will help kingConstantlne resist.

mi*.in ni:\i> i'M:i:rIf ne. i.. .n \u0084 the allies' fleet*

will be tent to Ureece to In «'i-onon-interfcrenue with Balkanliliuin, and, It is hinted, Greece'sklux may l>e uncrowned if thatBlei> in taken.

The allies' fleet In likely tomeet strong resistance from Au»-tro-Uorman undemea boatsknown to be heading for the vi-cinity of Greece.

WILL BRINU I'HKHNriu:The allied diplomats insist

tliat inasmuch as Venlielos r >\in-tenanced and invltnd tbn landingof allied troops at Salonika,Greece has not the right tothreaten thut the allies, if forcejto flee to Greece for safety afterthe Halkan reverses, b« Internal.

In the nieuntlme the allies willbring presume to bear on theking to force him to alter his at-titude. He Ib being strongly re-minded of his ties to the ententepowers and It Is the hope of tneallies' capitals that he will notdare to defy their warning*.

BOY JUDGE WON'T"SQUEAL;" PINED

URNVER. Nov. 16—Judge BenLlndsey, of Denver's juvenilecourt, refused to disclose Infor-mation given him confidentiallythrough the confession of NenlWright, a 12-year-old boy. Yes-terday he was fined $600 byJudge Perry in the district conrt.Llndgoy refused to gl»e the in-formation in the trial of Mrj.Herta Wright for murder.

f What's DoingToday

Sacred concert; Church of theHoly Communion; direction Mrs.H. R. Maybin; evening.

St. Leo's bazaar; St. Leo'shall; evening.

"Huskln' Bee;" Commercialclub; 7:30 p. in.

National Council of WomenVoters, headquarters, 2 p. m.

Ladles' Musical club concert;Commercial club; 2:30 p. in.

Cake and candy sale; benefitVocational home; 945 Broad way.

"Twin Beds," Tacoma theitur,evening.

TomorrowLecture; "World Bibles;" O. P.

S. chapel; by Prof. Georgia Re-neau; 8 p. in.

Annual inspection of troop B,by Adjt. Gen. Maurice Thompson;for two days, begins; armory;evening.

St. Leo's bazaar; afternoon andevening; St. Leo's ball.

The Merchants WhoAdvertiseNo one can afford to advert im in tliesa day* unlem they can hack asIn tholr offerings the kind of goods that tatinfy

The merchants who advertise are the ..new who give the has* iilbm\u2666\u2666\u2666\u2666•*Turn to the Times' Happy Wednesday Page 1m (bfa Una

* \u2666 * \u2666 \u2666 #Leather (toods, Glove*. Hata, Jewelry an* a Aomtm «ther good Heatswillrepay you for yonr trouble.\u2666\u2666\u2666\u2666\u2666\u2666It pays to read advertising cnrefnUy—\u2666\u2666\u2666\u2666\u2666•The Department Stores at* aUv* with mi wttmktg* aaate todar\u2666 \u2666 \u2666 \u2666 + •Read their Ads, too.