THE WEEKLY PILOT
Published every Friday morning
by the Pilot Printing Company.
STACY BREWER, Manager
Entered at the Postoffice at Vass,
N. C., as second-class mail matter
FRIDAY, MAY 27, 1921
THE
REVALUATIONS
At the next meeting of the
board of commissioners steps
should be taken to recall the ap
peal to the state board for re
valuations of property in the
county. At a recent meeting of
the state board several appeals
came from the counties to recall
their former request for revalu
ation, and it is in order for
Moore county to do the same
thing. It is doubtful now if the
state will consider the revalua
tions at all, for the more the sub
ject is studied the more it ap
pears that it is an emotional
mistake.
Serious deliberation on the
part of the people of Moore in
clines to the belief that the real
estate of the county would not
be fairly valued if given a hori-^
zontal reduction of twenty-five
per cent, for if it is not fairly
valued the errors in valuation
are in individual cases and not in
all cases. Beyond a doubt some
lands are assessed too high and
some are too low, but to cut
everything twenty-five per cent
will still leave all the inequali
ties, and will get nowhere.
The newspapers of the county
are for a reconsideration of the
appeal to the state board. There
is no doubt that a majority of
the thinking people are against
any change in the assessments,
although the sentiment i s
strongly in favor of a careful in
quiry into any unfair assessment
with the remedy that already
exists under the law of readjust
ment in those cases where the
assessments are not proportion
ate with others of the same class
of property in the same neigh
borhood.
It is certain that a great deal
of land in the county is worth
more now than when the assess
ment was made over a year ago.
Lands in this township around
Knollwood that sold for not over
$150 an acre when the last as
sessment was made have sold
for several times that much
since. It is doubtful if the land
in McNeills township could be
bought for half a million dollars
today above what it could have
been bought for when th e as
sessment of last year was fixed
on it. To cut those values twen-
ty-five per cent would be ridicul
ous. In other parts of the coun
ty values have increased at less
er ratio, and there is not a great
deal that has suffered much.
Some has shrunk materially, but
that small proportion can be ad
justed under the power given the
commissioners. To cut all the
land in the county to afford re
lief to that which is assessed too
high does not give it relief, for
under a horizontal reduction it
would still have to pay its exces
sive proportion when other lands
not too high now are cut twenty-
five per cent also.
The thing for the commission
ers to do is to withdraw the re
quest to cut Moore county values
and then adjust those that really
need adjustment, but even those
should be investigated carefully
before action is taken. When it
is found that any property is too
high as compared with the rest
of the property in the communi
ty the remedy is available and it
should be extended. There is
never any excuse for unfairness
in anything.
The Pilot believes the recent
assessment was the most correct
and equable ever made in the
state and the county. It was
followd by a tax levy that fairly
laid the assessment on all of us.
If we reduce the valuations we
have to increase the levy pro
portionately, and the man who
is assessed too high now will still
be paying too big a proportion
of the taxes. No justice will
come out of that proceeding.
But along with that injustice
will come still the other mis
taken proceedure, that of tear
ing down a good taxation sys
tem that we have started to
build up.
The Pilot has heard much pro
test against the reduction in
valuations, and very little de
fense of the proposition. That
some men have bought lands at
high prices and will have a hard
uphill struggle to pay out at the
prices paid is true, but lands
have not been assessed as a rule
at the high figures that have
been paid. The board of as
sessors have kept down below
the boom prices because they
doubted whether those figures
w^ere to be taken as actual
values. A great many men
would not give a second thought
to an offer to buy their property
at its honest value nor would
sell for the price at which their
property is valued. Some would
sell for less. Such should have
a readjustment. But the plan
of a horizontal reduction of
twenty-five per cent on every
thing is wholly illogical. It will
leave the irregularities just as
they are and will give relief to
nobody. The man who should
have a readjustment will still be
where he is, and we will have a
general tax muddle worse than
anything the country has ever
known, besides a probable short
age of revenue for the current
needs.
HOKE
COUNTY
The problem of a better road
out to the eastward from Vass
is one that will have to be taken
up before long with the power
to settle it and settle it definite
ly. In that territory is a devel
oping neighborhood, and a bit of
fertile land that is attractive to
settlers and which must have a
road scheme that will serve
them and the region reached be
yond them.
But a drawback about road
building down Little River is
that a strip of Hoke county two
or three miles wide is cut off
from the main part of the coun
ty by Camp Bragg, and several
thousand acres are thus maroon
ed and with little hope of much
help from the old county.
That isolated region ought to
be disposed of in some way,
some of it at least being added
to Moore county, so that a defi
nite knowledge of who'is to do
what is to be done might be had
so something could be under
taken.
Down the river is a great pos
sibility for settlers, and they are
gradually coming in. But they
will not come as fast as they
want to until they know better
where that Cherokee strip is to
be located, whether in a neglect
ful Hoke county or a helpful
Moore county. Until we know
who is to be the responsible au
thority over the roads we cannot
do very much in the direction of
planning for a permanent im
proved system, for nobody
knows who is to build and main
tain the roads after the Moore
county line is crossed. But the
road down through Lobelia is an
important one, and one that
should be extended on down to
join the Fayetteville road that it
may be a through road out to
some place further away than
Morrison’s bridge, which so far
as the people up this way are
concerned is the end of creation.
The other road problems that
center about Vass have a possi
bility of solution that is not so
hard to see. The other roads
are in the hands of forces that
have authority and that lead to
some action. But the road out
to the east is as important as
any other in this section, and it
has no putative father or mother
0: influential friend, and it can
see no trail blazed as to where
it is to go after it gets down to
ward the camp neighborhood.
Not only the road, but the
other interests of this narrow
strip of Hoke county are involv
ed in getting the bit of country
assigned to something that will
have power to improve roads,
make schools, and do all the
other things that community
government brings about. That
strip of land is tributary to Vass
and it should be connected in its
interests with the same influ
ences that are at work here in
the heart of the Vass communi
ty. It cannot be benefitted
much any longer by being at
tached to Hoke county which is
seriously cut away from the
Little River section that contact
is almost impossible, and any
common relations are out of the
question.
WHY NOT TELL US
Hardly a week passes but we bump
into some Vass citizen who asks:
“Why didn’t you have something in
the paper about So-and-So; I thought
every body knew about it.” And that’s
where they make a mistake. The
thing you hear may be a long time
getting to the editor. You may think
it is common talk when, in fact, not
more than a half-dozen know about it.
So don’t think the editor is a mind-
reader, or that he has a way of finding
out news without people telling it to
him. March right up or call up and
tell him that which you have heard
and which you believe would interest
others when they see it in the paper.
It takes but a few seconds, and it will
help wonderfully to make the very
kind of paper you want printed in
your home town. Don’t wait until
the paper has come out to tell him the
things that are news to you. Prac
tice that modern slogan: “Do It
Now.”
They say elephants were once to be
found in Texas. But that must have
been before the country went dry.
R. WEBER
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