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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 6, 1955)
0 TEN MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE Sunday, November 6, 1955 Stewart Issues Reply President of County to Letter f Fruit G rom rowers (Editor's note: In an effort to give full coverage to the dispute between Jackson coun ty orchardisti and the State Tax Commission over the tax ation of orchard trees, the Mail Tribune has published several letters from various principals in the controversy. rThe latest is a letter from Slate Tax Commissioner Sam Stew art, addressed to the president of the Fruit Growers League of Jackson County, in reply to a lengthy statement over his signature which was pub lished on Oct. 23. Pertinent excerpts from the letter follow.) Mr. Paul Culbertson, President Fruit Growers League of Jackson County Medford, Oregon Dear Mr. Culbertson: A newspaper article appearing in the Sunday, October 23, issue of the Medford Mail-Tribune con cerning the controversy in Jack son County has just come to my attention. That article, according to the Editor's note, was pre pared to some extent as a reply to my letter to Mr. William Smith, which apparently had been printed previously in the newspaper. In my opinion, no useful pur pose would be served by answer ing your allegations point by point. However, it should be pointed out that your article paints the Commission as entire ly black and yourselves as en tirely white. An example will suffice to demonstrate this: You state that, "The Tax Com mission offered the fruit growers 'a deal lowering' their assess ments very materially. The fruit growers told the Commission that they would not be a party to such a deal." The facts are that on May 31, this Commission issued an order to the Jackson County Board of Equalization which provided that the board "shall assess the value of orchard trees at the same percentage of true cash value as other real property and include same in the assessment of real property up on which such trees are locat ed." You will note that this order does not contain any provisions which could even remotely be construed as an order to use any particular values. The minutes of the Jackson County Board of Equalization on, July 12 state in relevant part as follows: "Board of Equalization re convened at 10:30 a.m. July 12, 1955 for the purpose of discussing before the Fruit Growers, and other interested parties the results of the Board's meeting with the State Tax Commission in Salem on Monday, July 11, 1955. "They reported that in addi tion to conferring with the full board all morning, they re turned at 1 p.m. and presented a counter proposal to deter mine assessed values of or chards rather than to accept figures suggested by the state appraisers which value was reported to be $300 and $225 per acre. "Mr. Keating stated the counter proposal carried the following suggestions: "All producing orchard trees carry an appraised value of: pears, $100 per acre; stone fruit, $75 per acre; apples, $50 per acre; grafted trees up to 7 years, no value; new plantings up to 12 years, no value; nuts, no value. "Mr. Keating stated this or chard tree value accepted by the Tax Commission was to be placed on the 1955-58 tax roll; but that this value did not re flect the true value. He said it will only be through the efforts of the assessor's office and orchard owners that a fair value can eventually ' be established. The Board recom mended that a committee be set up consisting of growers, real estate men, deputies from 0 the assessor's office, and any appraisers from the State Tax Commission whose assistance might be needed. "The State Tax Commission after due consideration, ac cepted the counter proposal as submitted by the" Jackson County Board of Tax Equali- zation. "Members of the Board stat ed that their reason for sug gesting a counter-proposal as a basis for arriving at an as sessed value on orchard trees was to give local orchardists a chance to confer with the assessor on their individual orchards and thereby arrive at a fair figure. They had been ordered to get them on the rolls this year and their plan would give the assessor the authority to correct discrep ancies and give him a chance to work out the problems of each orchardist with the indi vidul concerned. . "Mr. Keating emphasized it was the desire of the Board that the Jackson County people work out their own problems and not require the' State Tax Commission to come in and place an arbitrary assessment on orchard prop erty. Mr. Cook stated again that their counter proposal was designed to give the growers a chance to sit down with the assessor and work out a true cash value, and it was their feeling that they would far rather have the orchardist put a value on than to turn the job over to the Tax Commis sion. Mr. Bohnert and Mr. Cook both pointed out that if the local officials, with the cooperation of the orchardists or without it did not place a reasonable value on orchard trees the State Tax Commis sion would use their own fig ures which might or might not reflect true value. Mr. Cook state the Board felt they had honestly worked out a plan to help the orchardists. "Orchardists finally stated through agreement with Mr. Reter that they would not co operate with any plan until the Attorney General's opin ion is determined to be legal." (See Vol. 39, Pages 669, 670 and 671.) What conclusions can be val idly drawn from the foregoing? (1) The Commission suggested to the board that compliance could be had with its order by accepting the values achieved by Commission appraisal person nel; (2) That the board felt that compliance with the Commis sion's order could be substantial- As We Live Exaggeration Doesn't Bring Desired Results By Elizabeth B. Hurlock, Ph.D A person who exaggerates, us ually does so to attract attention and win the favor of others. He is not inten tionally lying to them, all he is doing is "e m broider- ing" the truth so it will be more effective. Like every thing else, ex aggerating is apt to develop i -I Dr. Hsrlock into a habit. In time, the person will not know he is exaggerat ing, and like any other habit, once it reaches habit-level from constant use it is carried out without conscious attention. The exaggerations are likely to get stronger and stronger. At first, there is merely a slight dis tortion of the truth. Once the person realizes this is effective, he makes , the exaggeration a trifle stronger until what he says is actually out of all proportion to the real story. How, you may ask, can a per son know if he is exaggerating or not? The answer is by being more critical about everything he says. If he stops to think what he is planning to say or has just said and then checks it against the truth, he will quickly dis cover whether it is distorted or not. Worth Time and Effort This is well worth the time and effort of anyone who sus pects he is subject to exaggerat ing. Exaggerations may have greater attention value and may serve to win more favorable im pressions, but there is always the possibility they will be rec ognized for what they are dis tortions of the truth. Most people are not kindly disposed toward those who ex aggerate the truth. Without real izing that it is often an uninten- By ELIZABETH HURLOCK, PH.D. tional fault, they thing the per son has little regard for truth. In this way, exaggeration defeats its own purpose and loses the good impression the person, was so anxious to create. LETTERS FROM READERS Stuffiness: "What do people mean when they refer to some one as 'stuffy' and what causes a person to be 'stuffy'?" Curious. (A) "Stuffiness," when applied to people, means much the same as "self-righteousness." A stuffy person is usually so impressed with himself, or tries to make others believe he is, that he an noys them by his critical attitude of superiority. Strange as it may seem, "stuffiness" is usually a defensive reaction, used by peo ple who feel insecure. Interest in business: "My wife has absolutely no interest in busi ness. Whenever I try to talk over with her something that happens in the office, she tells me I should leave my business in the office. I feel that wives should share their husbands' business problems just as husbands should share their wives' home prob lems." A Husband. (A) I agree with you, but many wives do not see it this way. They want their husbands to ad vise and help them when prob lems arise in the home but they, in turn, turn a -deaf ear when the nusband wants to talk about his business problems. If your wife is not interested in your busi ness, she will not be of much help to you in that way. You will do well to find a co-worker who can be your confidante. Absorption in Children: "Don't you think a wife makes a great mistake when she becomes more absorbed in her children than in her husband?" Critical. (A) A woman who becomes so absorbed in her children that she scarcely knows her husband exists has a good chance of losing him. Such a wife is very foolish. (COPYRIGHT 1955, GENERAL FEATURES CORP.) on Wore Hot VM pa11 BUY THE NEW AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC NUCLEAR PRIZE Ameri can scientist Polykarp Kusch (above) of Columbia Univer sity, N. Y., shared the 1955 Nobel Prize for nuclear re search with anerther Ameri can scientist, Willis Lamb of Stanford University. Marion Man Fatally Injured in Accident Salem (U.R) Peter Paris Threlkel ,61, of Marion was fa tally injured Friday night when his car plunged from Cloverdale into a creek near Marion, south of Salem. He died in an ambulance en route to Santiam Memorial hos pital at Stayton. G E Water Heater Wash a Load of Clothes EVERY HOUR -AM Day Long- ONLY $5.00 A MONTH NOTHING DOWN HOME APPLIANCE 115 EAST MAIN Authorized Dealer BENEfiAl ELECTRIC Water Heaters Phone 2-5336 or 2-5897 M. C LININGER & SONS ly achieved by using different values; (3) That the Commission agreed that the board was free to use those values IF they thought the , values were more correct than this Commission's values; (4) That the orchardists re fused to cooperate with the board. It follows that no deal was offered by this Commission, and no refusal to accept a deal was made by the orchardists to this Commission. Why do you not mention in your article that at the Jackson County Board of Equalization meeting of July 17, two days after the meeting above men tioned, Mr. Reter of your group suggested, "that the board at tempt to bargain with the State Tax Commission." (See Vol. 39, Page 673, of Minutes of Jackson County Board of Equalization) You represent that we, as a Commission, made an offer of a deal which you and your or ganization refused to counten ance, yet here, in the minutes of the Board of Equalization, was advice by a spokesman of your organization to the board to try again to bargain with this Commission. You have attempted to create in the minds of the public of Jackson County sympathy for your position. This Commission is proud of the fact that it has not been willing to suborn truth for falsity in order to insure that our position in this matter prevails, either with the courts or with the public of Jackson County. Very truly yours, Samuel B. Stewart Commissioner. cc: Medford Mail-Tribune Rt-TURN TO DUTY Princess Margaret makes her first appearance since her decision not to wed Group Capt. Peter Townsend as she enters St Paul's Cathedral in Lon don to attend a rededication service. She is accompanied by Robert Mathews, dean of St. Paul's. The service was held on the 50th anniversary of the death of Dr. Thomas John Barnardo, who founded a group of homes for British foundlings. Long Distance Phone Equipment Installed Portland (U.R) Pacific Tel ephone and Telegraph Company announced a new development in long distance switching equip ment, costing $2,000,000 "went into operation here Saturday. The electronic equipment, cap able of handling 12,000 calls an hour, is part of a program in tended ultimately to permit cus tomers to dial any point in the United States or Canada. PICTURE TUBES REJUVENATED Is your picture tube dull and weak? Most picture tubes can be restored to original brightness at only a fraction of the cost of replacement. For further information CALL Electronic Service 18 N. GRAPE PH. 3-1971 VEGETABLE, MEAT LOAF New York U.R) Give added flavor and food value to meat loaf by adding vegetables. The average-sized meat loaf calls for IV2 pounds of ground lean beef. To this amount, add M-cup each of finely chopped celery, green pepper, onion ,and fresh tomato, 23 cup of fine dry bread crumbs, 2 teaspoons of salt, 1 teaspoon of dry mustard, Vi tea spoon of ground black pepper, and 2 lightly beaten eggs. Shape in a greased 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. Bake in a preheated moder ate oven (350 degrees) 1 hour, or until done. Yield 10 servings. Read and Use Classified Ads. . . 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Its beautiful, graceful lines and its regal bearing on the highway are simply too significant to misunderstand. Surely no one could ride in a new Cadillac and not agree, that it is the Stand ard of the World. Its new fabrics and " leathers are luxurious almost beyond belief . . and its new interior appointments have been crafted with a jeweler's skill. And we doubt if anyone could drive a new Cadillac and not understand that it is the finest-performing motor car of all time. Its great new engine is a revelation in power and performance ... its new Hydra-Matic Drive is incredibly smooth and responsive . . . and the car rides and handles and moves with unbelievable ease. Truly, the evidence on the side of Cadillac has never been more abundant or more 'apparent than it is today. Why not pay us a visit soon and see for yourself? , WVll be delighted to introduce you to Cadillac's great new styling . . . and to arrange a demonstration at the wheel . . . and to acquaint you with Cadillac's two new models, . the Sedan de Ville and the Eldorado Seville. '. . You!H agree, we're certain, that Cadillac for 1956 is beyond the realm of argumentl SKINNER'S GARAGE 143 South Riverside e Medford Phone 2-6264
