value and to require railroad companies to do so is an unjust discrimination. It must be conceded that this argument comes with great power for it has considerable basis as the truth. The remedy, however, it is urged by the State, is to require the individual tax payer to come up to the standard of duty fixed by the law, and not to justify the wrong by pointing out that others are violating the law.

OUR TAX LAWS.

We have recently made some progress in amending our tax laws but a study of them will demonstrate very conclusively 'they are inadequate to present times and conditions. The machinery and method of the collection of taxes today in Georgia are over a hundred years old. The returns are practically voluntary and amount to but little more than merely passing around the hat for contributions. There should be established in Georgia a State board of equalizers and in each county a board of assessors, to the end that taxes are equitably imposed and collected. Georgia's taxable values amount to 705 millions, as returned by the tax payers, yet it will scarcely be doubted if all the property of the State was returned at its market value the volume of property would be doubled. If every property owner in Georgia measured up to the duty required of him by law in making his return for taxation, the Treasury would be relieved of its embarrassment and Georgia would meet her appropriations promptly.

The administration of government depends solely on taxation. The average man looks upon taxes as a burden for which he receives nothing in return and therefore feels at liberty to resort to any and every means to avoid this burden. As a matter of fact he gets more by way of dividends for his contribution to the support of government than to any, even his most favored financial ventures. He must look to the government to protect him in the enjoyment of life, liberty and property, and but for the taxes annually contributed by means of which the government is sustained, anarchy and chaos would reign. It is essential to the stability of government and the public safety, peace and tranquility that the power to tax be preserved and machinery should be provided to the end that each piece of property shall contribute to the support of the government designed for its protection proportionately to its value. There are thousands of men in Georgia who return their property as the law requires-at its value— and there are thousands who do not return it at half its value, and thousands, no doubt, who do not return it at all, and under such state of facts the result is the burdens of the dishonest man are borne by the honest. This ought not to be, and as stated, may be remedied very largely by the creation of county assessors and a State board of equalizers.

CENTRAL OF GEORGIA RAILWAY COMPANY VS. WM. A. WRIGHT, COMPTROLLERGENERAL, ET AL.

The issue involved in this litigation of long standing was the taxation of fifteen thousand shares of stock of the Western Railway of Alabama, upon which the State insisted the Central of Georgia Railway Company was liable for taxation. The Western Railway of Alabama is an Alabama corporation and the stock therein, consisting of thirty thousand shares was issued to the Georgia Railroad & Banking Company and to the old Central Railroad & Banking Company, of Georgia, each owning fifteen thousand shares. The present Central of Georgia Railway Company acquired its interest in this stock under a mortgage foreclosure sale against the old Central Railroad & Banking Company. The contention of the Central of Georgia Railway Company has been in the courts that it did not own other than an equitable interest in this stock and that the situs of the stock was in New York, where it had been hypothecated by its predecessor in title. This litigation has been going on for about seven years. This case and the case of the Georgia Railroad & Banking Company have been tried a dozen times or more, beginning first in the United States District Court for the Northern Circuit of Georgia. The case was first lost in this court. It was then appealed to the Circuit Court of Appeals at New Orleans and there the State lost again. It was certioraried to the Supreme Court of the United

States. The court granted the certiorari and on argument sustained the contention of the State of Georgia and remanded the case to the United States District Court with instructions that the case be dismissed. The litigation was then begun in the Superior Court of Fulton County where the State won its contention. It was then carried to the Supreme Court of Georgia and the judgment of the lower court was affirmed. The Railroad Companies then carried the case to the Supreme Court of the United States and that court reversed the Supreme Court of Georgia, holding that the tax laws of Georgia were defective in that they did not afford due process of law. The last Legislature passed a remedial statute and the litigation again proceeded under this last Act.

At this juncture the Georgia Railroad & Banking Company paid in settlement of the case against it the sum of Three Hundred and Thirty-Five Thousand Dollars and dropped out of the litigation.

The Central of Georgia Railway Company raised a number of questions not involved in the Georgia Railroad litigation, viz., that it was not the owner of this stock, but that it was owned by the Central Trust Company of New York; that it had only an equitable interest in this stock, and that its situs for taxation was in New York. Judge Newman of the United States Circuit Court overruled, after answer and argument by the State, this contention of the Railroad Company and the Company filed a writ of error to the Supreme Court of the United States. This made a very different case from that

of the Georgia Railroad & Banking Company and involved grave and delicate questions. The case has now been satisfactorily adjusted by the Central of Georgia Railway Company paying the sum of Two Hundred and Twenty-five Thousand Dollars. Of this amount the State gets Forty-two Thousand Eighty-six and 82/100 Dollars; the County of Chatham gets Sixty-two Thousand Seven Hundred Seventy-two and 80/100 Dollars; the City of Savannah gets One Hundred and Twenty Thousand, One Hundred and Forty and 34/100 Dollars. This money is divided between these three jurisdictions in proportion to the amount of taxes due to each, and the difference in the amounts being caused by the difference in the tax rates in the several jurisdictions. To illustrate, the tax rate for the State is Five Dollars on the Thousand; in Chatham County the tax rate is Seven and a half on the Thousand; and in the City of Savannah Fourteen and a half on the Thousand. I regard the settlement as a very good one inded and so far as I am advised meets with the cordial approval of the several jurisdictions interested.

STATE OF GEORGIA VS. TENNESSEE COPPER COMPANY, ET AL.

A full history of this important case has been set forth in previous reports. I regard this as the most important litigation in which the State has been interested since my incumbency of this office. The purpose of this suit was to restrain