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r Douglas county sentinel DOVGLASVILLE, DOUGLAS COUNTY. GAM Mar 3, 1917. No. 47 Miss Opal Duncan Eeter• tains the D. D. Club On last Monday afternoon Miss Opal Duncan delightfully entertained the 0. D. girls. It wasn’t supposed to be a pickle party, but that’s just what it turned out to be when several heavily laden travs of pickle: and wafei'3 were serv a. While fingers were busily ply ing the needle, minds were rap idly formating plans by which the D. D. girls could aid the ladies in getting up a library. As each departing guest waived a fa-well, the beautiful caranations in the hall seemed to nod. sway, whisper and sav: ‘‘The girls are as lovely and gay as we, but whv in the world shouldn’t they be?” - The next meeting will be at the home of Miss Irene Edwards next Saturday afternoon. Civic Club News. Douglasville Civic Club met at the home of Mis. J. J. Kirby for the regular monthly meeting Tuesday afternoon. One of the first among the Klub’s active plans for this year will be to raise monev and build a Pavilion in the cemetery. We are sure this will be an easy task, for every individual .is, or should re vitally interested. in improving and making beautiful the spot where their loved ones are laid to rest. Every ceme tery needs a shelter of some kind for the convenience of those who art" compelled to bury their loved ones in rainy or other bad weather. Another undertaking of im- portan e and certainly, a great one, is our Library. The chair man of the Library Committee was not present to report, but active plans are being perfected for establishing and maintaining a fine Library for the town. This is one of the Club's grand est undertakings and his the enthusiastic co-operation of every member, and of every loyal citizen in our little city. Splendid Lectures. The lectures at the Court House the past week by Dr. Wm. Lioyd Clark have been excellent. He is dea'ing some sledge ham- ‘mer blows to Catholicism and has proven himself an orator of unusual ability. While it has not been our privi ege to hear all his lectures, we have greatly enjoyed the ones we have heard and heartily endorse his statement relative to the corruption and po itieal-trand of the Roman church. He will deliver a special lec ture to men only on Friday night and will doubtless have a large crowd. Special Notice Mr. T. .1. Barrett, who was for a number of years a citizen of Douglasville, died at his home in Birmingham Tuesday night ' at the age of 51). Mr. Barrett was cashier of the Douglasville Banking Co. for 11 years and Superintendent of the Methodist S. S. here. His remains were brought to Douglasville on Southern train No. 40 Thursday and interred in Douglasville cemetery. The funeral services were con ducted attbe home in Birming ham. A number of friends ai d relatives accompanied the re mains here and a large concourse of his local friends were present. The bereaved family has the sympathy of a large circle of friends here. [ We want the co-operation of k all the patrons of the school in getting rid of the measles in our town. Some do not seem to un derstand the ruling of the School Board. It is that any pupil who lias measles must stay out of r&chool twenty-one days from the time he takes measles. Any pupil who has been exposed to measles and has not had the de- seasv must stay out sixteen days from the time he is exposed. Douglasville SchocJJitoard, I homas J. Barrett Bur- riedHere Thursday. Neal’s Academy (Last Week’s Letter.) The school at this place is pro gressing very nicely, although several pupils have been out for some time on account of sickness. Two of the pupils, Mr. Petty’s little boy and Mr. White’s little boy have bee.i very ill with Pneu monia, We are glad to report that they are both about well. The measles have sirueh us in full force. Clyde Morris baa been confined to his room for over a week with them. He is getting on very well at this writing. Also Clifford Hudson Hs if ^ulea, .and several- others have be.n exposed. The Sunday school at this place is holding up well, consid ering the ' ad weather. Mrs, Ethel D. Poole visited homefolks at Happy Valley re cently. Mrs. J. T. Jones of Whites- burg, is spending a few days with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. N. Moi ris. Esther Reynolds accidently got one of his feet mashed at the saw mill one day last week, when the carriage with a heavy log upon it rolled upon his foot. Ephriam Reynolds expects to install a shingle mill at his saw mill soon. The creek near this place and the Chattahoochee river are on a boom again, on account of the heavy rains. Subscriber. Who Tied the Hands of the Tax Equalizers? My friend L. K. W. of big A, I The State Tax Commissioner, in his article last week asks the| who is a fine man, gets a hand- Just as We Predicted The Supreme Court of Georgia has decided the Anti Parallelling law unconstitutional, but for tunately the decision came after a 50-year lease of the W, & A. Railroad had been made. The North Georgia Mineral Railroad whose application for a charter was held in abeyance pending the action of the legis lature and was denied after the passage of the act, has renewed its applies ion for a charter- The Supreme Court’s decision was based on a writ of man damus to compel the Secretary of State to issue a charter to the North Georgia Mineral Road, which will parallell the W. & A. from Cartersville to Atlanta. Chairman Candler of the R. R. Commission, states that the decision will not affect the lease which has just been made, )^Boa Dally Thought. Life, with all Its fields of joy and woe, Is just our chance of the irflze of learning love—how love might be, hath been Indeed, and Is.—Browning. following question: ‘‘How can a man or set of men do anything with their hands tied?,, Let us examine the law and see how bad the tax assessors’ hands are tied. Go to St c. 5 page 126 of the Acts of 1913 and you will find the following provision: ‘‘The said hoard (meaning County Board of Tax Assessors) shall have authority to employ an agent o seek out all tinretured property in the county and bring it to the attention of ihe board, and for such services they may allow said agent a commissi; n of ten per cent of the amount of taxes arising to the county from such unreturned property so discovered and placed on the books by his efforts. The com mission allowed said agent shall be paid from the County Treas ury as a part of the expenses of said board. ” Why not send out the agent and let him see if he can find the lost land? Let us quote Sec, 8 of the Tax Equalization law and seo what power it gives the tax;.-assessors. Sec 8. Be it i'urti)i*llfnact< d bv the authority aforesaid, That the County Beard'or Tax Asses sors, may, by rule or regulation, provide the manner of assertain- ing the value for tax..ho i of nnv property, real or personel not appealing on the digest of the preceding year, and in cases where there has been a change of ownership, from any cause; it being the purpose and intent of this Act to confer upon said board full power and authority to ha; e placed upon the digest of the current year an assessment or valuation of all property of every character in the county that is subject to taxation; pro vided, that nothing contained in this A.ct shall apply to those per sons, firms or corporations who are required by existing laws to make their returns to the Comp troller General.” Ho j much more power do&3 the tax assessors need to find that lost land? Douglas county short 3,215 acres of land, Cobb short 3,035 acres of land and Carroll short 9,231 acres of land, and the as sessors powerless to find and tax it. Too bad. Here are three counties, not to mention many others that are fully as bad, that are short 15,481 acres of improved land—all vis- able property. All this shortage under three years of tax equlization does not speak well for the law. What has the State Tax Com missioner dene about the short age? I have heard nothing. They tell us the equalizers’ some salary just to help the Comptroller General look oyer the tax returns and ride around and make a few talks to the county assessors, while within a radius of fifty miles of his majesty’s office thousands of acres of improved farm lands are escaping taxation, to say nothing of the millions of dollars worth of personal property that has never been on the digest and never will he under the present law. Our • County Board of Tax equalizers arc good honest men who want to do the fair tiling, I believe, h it have not fully real ized the enormity of the task they have undertaken. My friend L, K. W. says: ‘‘I am persuaded to believe that these men (t ,e tax equalizers) are in no condition to help us in finding this lost land.” If they are not they should give up th job and let the grand jury do the assessing. There’s more to do than meet, look over the land that’s returned, raise it, draw pay and go home. He goes fimther and says: ‘‘They are handicaped by inade quate laws or the non inforce- Tient of laws,” and further, ‘ Thu taxes -i.ro given in in turn ways as are very confusing and almost impossible to tell how much land a man has if he has land in more than one lot.” L. K. W. illustrates what he mea ;s by the e hove by the fol lowing example: “Now, to show you what I mean, Jones owns land in 1 t.-iNos. 47-48-57-58, He owns 400 acres. It is shown on the digest that he has land 'in four lots and the amount is 400 acres, Out does not show how much ot each lot he owns.” My friend don’t say how much land Jones owns, but he says he returned 400 acres from 4 lots The presumption is that Jones owns more land in 4 lots than he returned for taxation. Now, if tlie 4 lots contain 810 acres (which the county map will show) and the digest shows that no one else has returned any part of Nos. 47-48-57-58, send for Jones, and if he can’t tell you who owns the balance, p'ace it on the digest as unreturned property, and if no one appears and pays the taxes let the tax collector issue a fifa against the land and sell it for its laexs. If it is Jones’ land and this method don’t bring Jones around, I am a Dutchman. Th tax assessors have unlim ited power to find and tax 'and if they follow the law. They can take the map of the county and compare it with the digest and if they find one single acre in any lot that has not boen re turned they have a right to as Lois Mills hands are tied ana that they canj sess it am] place it on the digest do nothing towards placing this unreturned property on the di gest. Much worse than the old law. How do vou suppose the honest farmers feel who have made honest returns of their property and have had the pleasure of having it raised every year by the tax equalizers, when they ore told that the hands of the equalizers are tied and that they are powerless to find and place the 3,215 acres on the digest. as unreturned prop rty. We want an honest, fair and efficient system of tax equal ization lhat will so equalize the burden that a man will feel when he pays his tax that r.e Inis per formed a duty hcoyv stheStete. Well, L. K. W., tell the boys to try arid get in all the land this time before they go to rais ing it, so that we will have more sympathisers. Now, if Jones don’t return all Mesdames Mary Camp of Cedartow.i, and Florenco Ches- tain of Powder Springs, visited their sister, Mrs. C. A. Keoun, the past week. Supt. J. F. Long spent Wed nesday in Atlanta on business. Larry, the young son of Mr. and Mrs. C. A. Keoun, happened to a very painful accident last week by having his leg broker* just above the knee. Mr. and Mis. W. O. Craton of Dallas, have accepted a po sition in. tha mill. President M. E. Ceer has been on the sick list for several days. Mrs. J. S Ware has been real sick the past weel . Dr. J. T. Gibson preached two very able sermons at the East D uglasville Church Sunday and Sunday night. His sermon Sun day nignt was one of the best we have ever heard on the sub ject. (David and Goliih) The life of David as a shepherd lad is inspiring and becomes doubly so when so beautifully brought out as Dr. Gibson did Sunday night. This would certainly be a grand old world if every man would live so he would not object io u strong serch light being turned on his auto number at night. Geer’s Concert Band furnished the music for the “Deeslrict Schule” atid spelling bee Mon day night. We hope to Le able to announce the date of the concert to be given by the “fe&tui soon. Lois C. Local Boy is U. S. Ma- vine Sharpshooter By hitting the bulls-eye with unerring skill from the standing, kneeling, or sitting position, William M. Lang of Douglasville, has qualified as a sharpshooter in the United States Marine Co ps. winning the medal of u. sharpshooter and an increase of pay, according to an oftic'ai bul letin from Washington. This keen eyed young man Is with the U. 3. Marines who ate busily engaged in re-goring order in the little Republic of Haiti. While peace has been established throughout the greater part of the island, an occasional blush with bandits and other lively happenings provide plenty of ex citement and adventure for the local boy. William, who is a brother of Carl Lang and grandson of J. F, Lang of Douglasville, enlisted the United States Marine Corps at its Atlanta recruiting station on Oct. 13. 1916. Cooper We are sorry to report the death of Mr. Nestlehut on last. Monday morning at five o’clock. He was sick only an hour. The teachers Institute was; held at this place last Friday, but on account of rain there was not a very large attendance. Miss Mamie Hill is visiting relatives in Atlanta. Mrs. Dodgen of Nicker jack, spent the weel; end with her sister, Mrs. M. A. ,T. Landers, at this place. Several from here attended! the singing at Union Grove Sun day evening. There will be a singing at Cooper next Sunday evening. his personal property, tell them | Every body invited to come ancS they will have to let Jones go. i bring their books. W. I. D. *