©Iff lailtf JlraBpfrtar
PUBLISHED BV
STEWART & SELBY, Proprietors
TERMS.
Dolly Prospector.
By carrier, per month .5„i-2£
By mail, per annum . $10.00
The Weekly Miner.
By carrier, per month . *
By mail, per annum .J.00
The Daily Prospector and Week
ly Miner, by carrier, to one ad
dress, per month .$ 1.28
The Daily Prospector and Weekly
Miner, by mail, to one address
onlv, per year .$12.50
Business Office and Editorial Rooms,
TEL. 152
Advertising Rates on Application.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1»1B
WATCH THE TAX MONEY GO.
Last night, at the city Council,
the City Attorney presented bills ag
gregating $543, or 2 per cent on
over $25,000, for payment on the
present law suits in which the City
is engaged in suing property owners
to force them to pay more taxes.
This is but a starter, as the case
will cost close in the neighborhood of
$1000 or $1500 before it is through
with. One thousand dollars repre
with. One thousand dollars repre
sents a two per cent investment on
$50,000, more than the city will col
lect in a hundred years off the par
ties they are suing, with a certainty
of the cases being thrown out of
court on appeal.
In these actions the City Attorney
alone is the gainer. A non-resident
property holder, not paying one cent
of taxes, or having any interests what
soever in our city, it is to his inter
est to keep things moving, for the
more suits the more money. Now,
we ask you people of Valdez who
have made up your minds as to the
merits of these cases, whether it pays
'he city to engage in senseless litiga
tion for the sole purpose of fatten
ing certain ’officials’ pockets? Is this
just to the schools and the civic bod
ies who need money so badly? Is it
just to the taxpayers? Is it just to
the parties who are being sued, who
have already paid $500 tax money
to do business on the wharf, besides
several hundred dollars on their
shore properties? Is it just to the
bank, who has paid five times the
taxes they would be required to pay
in outside cities?
We want to look at this matter
from a business standpoint, without
enmity or without prejudice. Why
should a bunch of non-taxpayers have
control of the moneys paid into the
city and waste it extravagantly on
something which only increases the
hard feeling in the city and does no
one good but the attorney?
The editor of the Star makes the
statement that the city can spend
money on two or three lawsuits and
still have as much as usual because
they collected more from people who
had been dodging taxes. We will not
dispute his words because it would
be like arguing with the wind. But
we ask you to get the figures your
self, not from him or from us, but
from the city’s books. Then you will
see how the money is going. Take
the tax receipts last year and the tax
receipts this year and see how they
compare. See how much money is
spent for improvements. Deduct the
school money, and then ask yourself
what the city is getting out of this
or what anyone is getting but the par
ties who have their hands in the pub
lic crib up to the elbow.
We are not discussing the merits
of the cases. We are asking you as
citizens and taxpayers if you believe
you are getting an even break for
The money you have paid in. Re
member, the greater part of this
tax money has come from the parties
being sued now to force them to pay
more taxes. NONE of it has come
from the agitators who are profiting
by these suits.
In the bank case they desire a tri
ple tax paid. They want the deposi
tor to pay on the money he has in
the bank, the bank to pay on the
money it has on deposit, and then
pay again on its capital stock. Is this
fair?
In the George O. Treat case, Mr.
--THE
EMPRESS
TO-NIGHT
2 Shows—at 8 and 9:20,sharp
~ PROGRAM
BRONCO BILLY AND THU
GREASER,
WHEN THE WEST WAS
YOUNG,
A 2-part Drama fall of Thrills
GEORGE ADE COMEDY,
THE BUSH LEAGUE LOVER
Hazel Dawn and Famous
Players In “One of Our Girls”
on Thursday.
Admission 25c and 10c.
Treat has erected a fine business
block at a heavy expense. Other cit
ies would have gladly rebated the
taxes for five or ten years to get the
unsightly lots covered with produc
tive property. Mr. Treat was prompt
ly assessed to the limit, on the plea
that the property would return a
certain per centum on the invest
ment. On the other hand, property
whose productiveness was utterly de
stroyed by the great fire, was held at
the same high figure. Why this in
consistency? If one man's taxes is
raised because it produces more rev
enue, why should not the other fel
low's be lowered because it produced
j nothing?
j The real reason for this increase in
I taxation was because Mr. Treat built
| near the approach to the Valdez
j Dock.
i In the Dock case the company is
■taxed ten cents per ton on all freight
landed on the wharf, is taxed again
for its wharf and improvements, and
is again taxed for its shore buildings
; and approach. In case the city at
torney's plans were lawful the com
pany would be compelled to pay one
> thousand more dollars taxes at a 2
iper cent valuation on $50,000. Do
jyou consider this is right on a busi
iness like this? The tonnage last year
• was approximately 6,000 tons. $500
jwas paid to the city for this privilege,
i We have put the proposition to
I you exactly as it looks to us and to
I every outsider. You may be preju
diced and willing to spend ALL the
itax money to gain your point; but
what about the other fellow’s rights?
How large a town would Seattle
jbe today if her city had built a wharf
land insisted upon all the business of
ithe city being done over that wharf?
How* large will Valdez be in ten
years from now if capital is harrass
ed and blackmailed by non-residents,
who are the only ones who make out
of it?
I City tax receipts were larger this
{year because of a 2 per cent levy on
{boosted valuations. Not because of
{any extra money pried from “corpo
irations,” but because ALL property
lvalues were unnecessarily inflated.
{They were boosted for the sole reason
{that these non-taxpayers wanted to
jhandle more of the taxpayers money.
{Now that they have got it they are
| playing ducks and drakes with it.
' Why not take this $1000 spent in
| suits that the city is sure to lose, on
i more and better Are apparatus. This
i would have purchased a good chemi
,cal engine, which is one of the things
{Chief Finical has been wanting. It
i would have permitted the installation
'of a Gamewell system, or electric
'firebells, without forcing the depart
ment to go to the necessity of giving
a dance for the money. The city
has a highly efficient man at the city
hall in charge of the fire apparatus;
why not give him an assistant, or pay
him more money?
It would have purchased a fine ad
dition to the library; or given us bet
ter sidewalks. The city has built no
new sidewalks to speak of since A1
White was in office.
To sum up the situation why not
spend the taxpayers’ money on the
taxpayers’ instead of on non-resident
attorneys?
Wild) OATS.
A reader asks whether wild oats
plowed down this fall will grow.
They will—if not this fall, next year
or some time in the future. It’s a
crop that neither land nor man can
sow without surety of a harvest.
Sometimes they only damage the
fields. Often they blacken and blast
and wither the life. There is no joy
in the sowing and no profit in the
harvesting. They spring green over
|the worthier crops of the field and
they sap the better ambitions of life.
Wild oats grow—be very sure of that.
The man who sows them may always
be depended upon to do the reaping.
It is not turned over to your neigh
bor nor your neighbor’s son, but re
served for him who sows them: and
the harvest is bountiful.
Wild oats sowed in early life may
often times be ripened in later years
but the harvest Is inevitable.
! ---
I E.D. Heiter of the Alaska Mines
j Corporation is the kind of man a com
Imunity should welcome with open
!arms. At the present time he is em
ploying twenty men in the mine and
is buying ALL his supplies in Val
dez. Would that there were a thou
sand like him.
$150 for the Senator, $150 for the
Seward attorney, or $300 in all.
This is for attorneys’ fees alone. An
other two. hundred was spent for oth
er Incidentals. What use is it to col
lect taxes if they are to be paid over
to non-resident attorneys?
Some fourteen inches of beautiful
snow decorated our dooryards this
morning, and it begins to look as if
we’ll need a rotary snow-plow be
fore the day is over.
And now if the Mayor wishes to
give Valdes one of the merriest
Christinas presents it has ever had,
won't your Honor please take the
Editor and the Senator with you?
MRS. MALONEY’S GOAT.
The anxious endeavors of the edi
tor of the Municipal organ to prove
that his friends are all right in their
attitude on municipal questions re
minds us somewhat of Mrs. Malon
ey’s goat (with apologies, of course,
to the goat):
Mrs. Maloney had a goat which was
at once the joy and plague of her
life. She always had an excuse for
the animal and no matter how ab
surd it sounded the better she was
satisfied with it.
One morning Mrs. Murphy passed
down the street and observed Mrs.
Maloney’s goat standing up against
the fence, looking desperately ill.
Straightway she bolted for her old
friend’s house to tell her the news.
“Mrs. Maloney, do yez know yure
goat is sick.”
“Me goat sick, not on your loife,”
answered Mrs. Maloney.
“But,” says Mrs. Murphy, “As Oi
passed yer fince I seen him lanin’ up
aginst the post, lookin’ fayrful sick.”
“Oho!” says Mrs. Moloney, “’Tis
not sick he is; he dim upon the table
and ate the’ mistletoe, and he’s just
lookin’ sintimental!”
They are not sick of their attitude,
they are Just “sintimental.”
THE OTHER FELLOW.
What a jolly, convenient old chap
is the other fellow. What a tremen
dous burden he has to shoulder from
the selfish people of the world. Is
there a law that is unpopular, it is
intended for the other fellow. Do
you do your duty to your city? No,—
but look at the (other fellow! We
have no children, yet we vote for the
other fellow’s children to do so and
so; we are not able to do certain
things, but shoulder them off on the
other fellow. We do not care to vote
but why should the other fellow vote
when we won’t? We do not care for
municipal improvement, so block the
other fellow who does. We pay no
taxes but we insist upon the. other
fellow paying his and then tell him
how to spend the money.
We have no set rules of health, or
morals, or religion; but we can al
ways tell the other fellow just how
to conduct his affairs.
My, what a handy, handy man is
the other fellow!
After all true happiness is not what
we can do for ourselves, but for
others.
Honest, Twinklets, can't you think
of a worse bogey man than the Gug
genheims to throw at us?
To paraphrase a popular song,
“Every little motion (to appeal those
suits) has a meaning of its own.”
With all this beautiful snow we ex
pect it is going to be pretty hard
sledding for some of our local agi
tators before the month is over.
It is reported that the Mayor will
spend his Christmas outside, leaving
his friends with the "sandpapered
pants” to the vicissitudes of an Arc
tic winter.
“Ring out the old, ring in the new; I
ring out the false, ring in the true." i
We expect to ring out tidings of great |
joy to our people before snow falls |
in the new year.
That $300 expended on non-resi
dent attorneys would have made a
brighter Christmas in many a “poor
man’s cabin.” Did you ever think of
that, Capricornus?
Saturday was named after Saturn,
a very disagreeable god of the south
land. He was so, unpleasant that
people make his day a holiday to
malf.e it more pleasant. The last day
of the week Is Saturnday, or Satur
day.
The results of the European war
to date are a change in the name of
the capital of Russia, and of the spell
ing of Servia; two million men killed,
and enough steel sunk in the sea and
otherwise wasted to make us all a
Ford.—Anacortes Citizen.
“To live a life of service and devo
tion to his family, to his country,
and to his fellowmen; to see good in
others; and abbve all be truthful and
honest in all dealings where doing
otherwise ' would oft give temporary
gain and pleasure, makes a man.”—
John W. Boock.
Is it any wonder that the Senator
is so insistent that the city keep up
its legal battles, when great big
juicy slices come his way at regular
Intervals? For a man who lives out
side the city limits, he certainly gets
his share of the tax money of the
men he is pounding on the back to
pay more.
The city attorney’s new ordinance
of his own vintage, making it impos
sible to appeal from the decisions of
the board of equalization, is too comi
cal to be serious. If we don't watch
out our attorney will be making laws
for the Territory yet, and running
them through as city ordinances.
Never mind about us, Capricornus,
we make our living one way, and you
attempt to make one another. Of the
two our way 1b the more excusable.
The worst feature of last night's
one-ring circus was that the attorney
was paid in cash, while the rest of
us poor dubs are compelled to take
city warrants at a discount.
When Charles Ganty, an attorney
of proven ability, was incontinently
dismissed from the employ of the city
as their attorney, he was Informed
that the city had decided that they
could get along without an attorney.
We did not believe it could be done
at the time, but are now willing to
apologize for our lack of faith, as they
have.
Turkeys Arrive.
The Liberty Theatre is displaying
some of the finest turkeys ever in
Valdez. They will be given away to
the patrons of the Theatre. Save
your coupons.
LOCAL BREVITIES.
More Christmas, New Year and
Holiday cards at the Emporium, tf
FOR SALE—Very cheap, one 9 h.
p. stationary gas engine, used only 6
months. Apply to Love-Whitley
Co. k-16
Bargains at the Emporium; open
from 9 a. m. to 9 p. m. *
WANTED.—A woman for general
housework for all or part of the day.
Apply to Box 85. tf
LOST—A liberal reward will be
paid for the return of canvas bag
containing money, lost on Saturday
afternoon, December 11, by returning
same to Prospector office. tf
New Show Tonight.
Complete change of program at
The Liberty Theatre tonight. A pro
gram of good films north seeing.
Notice to Masons.
Valdez Lodge No. 168. Free and
Accepted Masons, will meet in the
hall at 4 o’clock Wednesday after
noon, and at 8 o’clock the following
evening. Work in the third degree.
ED WOOD, Sec.
Empress Program.
Broncho Billy and the Greaser, a
fine horse drama.
When the West was Young, a two
part drama full of thrills.
George Ade Comedy, The Bush
League Lover.
Hazel Dawn and Famous Players
in "One of Our Girls” on Thursday.
New Show Tonight.
Complete change of program at
The Liberty Theatre tonight. A pro
gram of good films worth seeing.
Dougherty & Ferguson
GENERAL
Merchandise
The best groceries received
on every boat.
Fresh vegetables, fruits, and
nuts.
The Best Place in Valdez to
Stop at is the
Arctic Hotel
Wans, Light Rooaa—The Houe of Coafort
RATES REASONABLE
BATH ROOM Special Ratea By the Month
PHONE 133 MRS. SYRING, Prop.
_ Gus. Perry
’Seattle
—. ^M/p/afe Service.'
IN THE HEART OF THE CllY *
1 l55Booms with baHi-50Samplelbonta
viv.
Launch § |[
CAW. TIM MARCUM
Sails (or Port Wells, Portage
Bay, Granite Mine, Saturday
at 9:00 a. m„ trom the Val
des Dock Company's Dock.
For Ellamar, Landloek Bay,
and Fldalgo, every Wednes
day, 9:00 a. m„ from Val
des Dock Company’s Dock.
For Rates, Apply os Boat.
■ S. Blum & Co.
Men’s rolled edge Storm
Rubbers. Price $1.25
Men’s Toe Rubbers.
Price - - $1.00
Cloth top Storm.
Price - - $1.50
Half-storm Rubbers,
Price - $1.00
Boys’ rolled edge Storm
Rubbers, Price - 90c
Misses Protectors and
Defenders. Price 75c
Ladies’ Storm Rubbers,
a full variety of heels
and toes. Price - 90c
Cloth covered Storm,
medium heel.
Price - - $1.25
Toe Rubbers. Price 75c
Misses’ rolled edge
Storm. Price - 75c
Child’s Storm Rubbers.
Price . 60c
MEN’S FOUR-BUCKLE
ARCTICS,
Price . $3.50
MOTORMAN’S GAITERS, j
Price .$2.50
BOYS’ TEN-INCH SHOE
PACS, with heel,
Prices .$2.50 $2.75, $3.25
LADIES’ 3-BUCKLE ARC
TICS,
Price $3.00
MISSES’ TWO-BUCKLE
ARCTICS,
Price . $2.00
CHILDREN’S THREE
BUCKLE ARCTICS,
Price $2.00 |
HARDWARE
Snowshovels at $1.00; Sidewalk Scrapers 75c
Yukon Sleds at $8.00; Snowshoes at $6.50
Boy*s Sleds $1.50 up; Baby Cutters $6.50 to $7.
S. Blum & Co.
DR. H. COCKERILLE
Graduate National University,
Washington, D, C.
DENTIST
Fourteen Years in Valdez.
PHOJNE tlO
Office Rooms, in Whaling Building
DR. GERMAN
phone .. THE DENTIST
Office rooms oyer Owl Drug Store. Of
fice hours 9 a. m. to,6 p. m., 7 to 9
p. m. Sunday by appointment.
All Work Guaranteed.
E. C. DALTON, M. D.
PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON
Phone 42
Alaska Avenue Valdez, Alaska
DONOHOE & DIMOND
ATTORNEYS-AT-LAW
■
Office Oppoalte Court Houne
Phone S4 VALDEZ. ALASKA
JOHN LYONS E. E. RITCHIE
LYONS & RITCHIE
ATTORNEYS-AT-LAW
Office* in Whnlln* Oull.lln*
Phone 101 VALDEZ. ALASKA
Copper River
Draying Co
Freighting and Passengers
to all parts of the Interior.
GENERAL TRUCKING
McKinley Street, Valdez
BD. WOOD, Proprietor
, , ' . * a- * , > * •
VALDEZ LODGE
SO 108
Kim and Accepted Mawai
Regular Communications first WM
nesday in each month in McKinley
Hall. Visitors always welcome.
A. E. GRIGSBY. W. M
ED. WOOD. Secretary.
Valdez Miners Union No. 188
Western Federation of Miners
ROBERT SHAFFER. President.
Granite Mine
CHAS. McCALLUM, Secretary,
Valdez, Alaska.
When In Seward Stop at the
COLEMAN HOUSE ;
GEORGE SEXTON. or
SlRICTLY FIRST CLASS
Fourth Ave, Seward, Alaska '
Red Cross Hospital
KeystooOud Hobart Sts.
OPEN TO ALL PHYSICIANS.
Private Rooms for Patients.
Phone 144 MRS. C. H WILCOX. MaOans
A. M. DIERINGER
Valdez Transfer
Company
Office on Alaska Avenue, mi
Ceorge C. Treat BuiliKng >
Telephone No. 60
—
General Trucking and Freighting,
to all Interior Points.
:
LIVERY and FEED STABUK.
STORAGE,
Teaming of All Kinds
Positively No Coal Delivered Urn.
lees rad for in. Advene* _
N*. • ' ■ ' . I' a’ ■ " •'■*^**'