Remarkable Procedure

The board of review. cOHStstiDg of the assetwor and supervisors üf tne soveu wards in the city, made a record for themsolves last weck. ïhey had a 111tle power and t.hoy seeoa to have set about to use it. At least that at-ems to have been the cuse witli a uiajnrity of thern. Tlieir new departnre was to place upoti the tax polla au taxable pivperty the subscription llsts of some, nöt all, of the newspapers in the city. Por example lHE R.EG1STEK assen" ment was d ou bied becauso the membura of the board of review knew tbat its gubecription list was oue of the laryest in the counti. A few but not ill of the other ]pf rs in the city vvere ti oated to a dose of the same nature tliouh somewlmt smaller in size. There are two features of the quostion of taxing a subtcription list that prove it not ouly uutair butdeeidedly unreasonable as well. Iu the ftrst place it was claimcil by the board that inasmueh as a Bubacrlp 'Áoa list was a thing thateould be buught and sold it was, therefore, a taxable property. There might be a little somethiug i" this argument if the board had been fair in taxing all such socalled I property. If a uewspaper should be taxed because its editor may be able to solí the subseription list St is equally tho duty oí the boord to tax the prac" licu of the score or more suecessfu! lawyers iu this city, any one of whom could much more readilj secure a cash considcration for his practice than any newspaper man in the city could for his I ubseriptlon list. Likewlsa thu same is true of the neat'ly thrity physicians ia this city. It is not only true that the prai uce uf such people has a money eaíuc, táej are actually bought and siild quiic as fwqoewtty asare subscriptiou iitts. Wemilil go eveu further and cite tho casj uf ourcity clerk. Besides a salary trota the city of $1000( and seven or cight hundred dollars ia fees, he carries oq a directory publishing business with a certain number of regjjjar subaoribers and patrous for wbich he could without doubt readily realize fuliy a thousand dollars. But neiïher lic nor vny of our lawyers or doctors are taxed a cent for what has, in the aggregate, a valué of probubly a hundred thousand dollars. In view of t iiese facts anybody will readily see the grosfl injustice in singrling out a few of the newspaper men and taxing their subscription liste. TLiere is still another side to this question which shows that suoh action by the board of review was absurd to a tlegrce. Any subscription list that is of calue must necessiirily have a largo nuiubei' of Bubsorlbocs who are paid in advaaoti. VVith ïhk Register it is safe to iay that fully twothirds of our Bubsorlbew are 80 paid up. Should we theruforocoase publishing the paper today 'i-xd =etUe with our subssribers, collectirn; frotn those who are íq arreara ana i-biunuiag 10 muse who llave paid in advance, we WOuld he obli;ed to pay out more raoney toscttle with those paid iu advanee than we could nolloct froin fchose who are Ín ai'Cars. I ii otiior words we aro in debt to our Bubscription list and thjri wise board of review hfti tü.xod us upon a dobt. Never buforo hüs a board of review attompted such an absurd thing Should the matter be narried into tlie oourts it would soon be shown that tlio aotlon of the board of review was entireiy without any warrant of lav. .