The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

January 17, 1930 WILMETTE fitted under the old system of levying real estate assessments will leave no stones unturned· to discredit the present scientific reassessment and use all their power to have it thrown out permanently. Do they want a taxpayer to be able to go to the Board of Assessors' office and be shown just how his valuation was determined, and how much his neighbor pays, and how much John Jones pays? If you will look back into the records you will see that the present reassessment officials were prevented by every conceivable trick in law from starting their revaluations for over six months from the time the reassessment was ordered by the State Tax commission. And since they started their - work, the politicians have been busy day and night thinking up ways of hindering them-for if the reassessment succeeds and becomes our permanent system of real ~state valuation, it will be one of the first death blows dealt to the crooked politicians who benefitted under the old method. The reassessment is one of the finest things that ever happened in Cook county. But we, inspired by stirring appeals made by real estate subdividers and others who will benefit, have voted to do our share in hindering the work. The charges made in the meeting of graft, padded payrolls, extravagance and willful misuse of taxpayers' money by some politicians are undoubtedly true and the facts must be faced, unpleasant as they are. But in attempting to get at these evils, we certainly should not play into the hands of the very men who maintain the "spoils" LIFE 37 ty owes a debt of gratitude to Harry S. Cutmore who has the !JlOSt 'thank- · less job in the county and who is '~car rying through" against almost unsurmountable obstacles. I wish to thank him on behalf of a few friends of mine and for myself and also to apolo- · gize to him for the treatment he received at the Howard school meeting last Monday night. Very truly yours, HUGHSTON M. McBAIN. 705 Roger avenue, Kenilworth, Ill. ··t Public Forum .. ., January 14, 1930. Editor, WILM~'l"l't Ln·t: As a taxpayer in New Trier township [ ·would like to make a few comments upon the questions which were discussed at the tax meeting held at the Howard school, Wilmette, J anuary 13, 1930. A motion was made and carried at this meeting that a committee be appointed to investigate and protest against the re-assessment which is now being made of Cook county real estate. Let us study this action and see what it will mean to our own taxpayers: 1. Jn all probability, if the committee is at all aggressive, it will delay the work of the reassessment officials, every day of which delay will cost the taxpayers money in interest on tax anticipation warrants. 2. It is not at all necessary, for as Mr. Cutmore explained in detail everjr taxpayer is invited to visit the Board of Assessors if he believes his assessment is not fair. If he is correct in his assumption, the valuation placed upon his property will be rectified. And this is not the promise of a politician, but of Mr. Cutmorc, who is a business man and conducts his office upon a business-like basis with no votes to seek and no favors · to bestow. I, personally, have appeared at his office on a piece of property in Rogers Park for which I act as agent, and I was afforded every courtesy. A mistake was found on the record card and the correction promptly made witl1 no "red tape" attached· to it. If, by any chance, a man should not be satisfied with his treatment atthe Board of Assessors' office, he still has the Board of Review to appeal to, and in the event he still wishes further consideration, he may go to the County court. We are all thus afforded three opportunitie· s to have individual hearings, but we toss them aside and appoint a "committee" to investigate the reassessment and thus delay the whole orderly procedure. What caused the reassessment? A most violent and chaotic condition of affairs with real estate assessments ranging from 5% to 105% of full, fair, cash value. And it was this very condition which gave our county politicians the opportunity to practice graft in buying votes, "fixing" taxes, and reaping a harvest outside their official salaries running well into the millions of dotlars. The politicians who bene- system of politics and again hand over to them that tremendously .p owerful weapon of the ability to "fix taxes." I cannot understand how any honest man can object if his real estate is assessed on an equal basis as his neighbors, and as similar property in all Cook county. Taxes are all too high, we know, but let us start with equality of assessment and then go to the root of the trouble and investigate the tax rates, the tax spending bodies and find out just where all the money goes. Every honest taxpayer in Cook coun- Evanston Sho/J Open Tuesday. Thursday and Saturday Evenings ~SQ .a11J '60 BLUE OVERCOATS i11 This· Great Sale SAVE 25 to40% Fitted Overnight Cues Traveling Bags Suit Cases Thil Sale il Great Dot alone lor the drudc price cull but because the range o!choice ia eo o:ceptional. These ·so and f60 Blue Wardrobe Trunb Slightl:v shopworn Coats are a striking example. Plenty of IIDirt Oxford PJI. too. vfntl This ln&OIIlpara!Jie MwWIIII' EST 1888 OUCAGO SUIT SALE Stein-Bloch, Charter House and Other Fine Suitl 165, C){eH' TJRif[f0 '75, '85 Smis ·N()!IJ1 ~nJinfor G!Urnilur~ Now give your living room the loveliness of this n~ design in Trico Radtator Furniture. Conceal the awkward radiator. Srop radiator smudge. The money you save on cleaning and redecorating more than repays its cost. Send your name and address for the new booklet of designs-with estimates. All in this season'a atjles-every one takeo &om our own hand-.picked selectiona. YHE{t.)HUI HENRY ~ C. LYT.TON It SONS Modern Home Utilities Co. OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS STATE Dlftl JACKSON-CHICAGO ORRINGTON a"d CHURCH-EVANSTON 1740 Sherman Ave., Evanston Greenleaf 0707-0708. Wilmette s.&4. Name .................... Address ..... ·...···..·······