FOREST TAXATION IN THE UNITED STATES 549 
In the meantime, the State should offer assistance to the local 
assessors in the preparation of assessment maps, the collection of 
sales data, and in other essential activities. The services of State- 
employed experts in the valuation of certain types of property which 
involve unusual or complex features, such as ore reserves, factories 
and machinery, merchantable timber, and the like, should be fur- 
nished. To make such assistance effective, a degree of State super- 
vision and control is required. The State tax commission, or similar 
body, should have the right to remove a local assessor who refuses to 
cooperate with the State authorities and to appoint another in his 
place to serve until the next election. The legislature should provide 
that no one may be eligible for election to the office of assessor who 
has not passed a civil-service examination in the technic of valuation. 
If there were no resident of a certain assessment district who had so 
qualified himself for election to the office of assessor, the State tax 
commission should have authority to appoint some qualified resident 
of the State to hold the vacant office until a local resident could 
qualify as a candidate. 
IMPROVED TAX-COLLECTION PROCEDURE 
Next in importance to the assessment of all property at full value 
is the revision of the tax-collection procedure so as to curb tax delin- 
quency. ‘The effects of tax delinquency on forest property have been 
discussed in part 5, where it was shown that in certain regions tax de- 
linquency has assumed alarming proportions and has caused the 
imposition of an exaggerated tax burden on much of the forest 
property that continues to pay taxes. Although illegally excessive 
assessment has probably brought about much of the delinquency, by 
causing confiscatory taxes to be imposed, delinquency in its turn has 
been an encouragement to illegal assessment. ‘This is especially true 
in the cut-over regions of the Lake States, where the increasing volume 
of tax-delinquent lands has led to assessments far beyond the legal 
standard on those properties paying taxes. Although delinquency 
presents a problem, not only to forests but to ail classes of taxable 
property, its widespread effects on the forests and forest lands of the 
United States warrant its investigation and the consideration of 
practical means of improving tax-collection procedure. Improvement 
may be expected only from measures that have regard to the interests 
of all taxpayers and of the taxing governments. If the adoption of 
such measures leads to improved collection of taxes, the owners of 
forest properties will be among the chief gainers. 
In the interest of economy, justice, and a higher respect for gvovern- 
ment on the part of the citizens, as well as for the purpose of making 
possible the orderly conduct of. government through prompt receipt 
of revenue, the procedure for the collection of taxes should be made 
as simple, regular, and undeviating as possible. It is unfair to those 
taxpayers who pay promptly and without coercion to be compelled to 
pay for the delinquency of others. It is unfair to those who are 
negligent to be encouraged in their negligence or to those in adverse 
circumstances to be falsely reassured by lenient practice. ‘Taxes are 
burdensome to most people. They would be less burdensome if it 
were universally recognized that they were being collected at the 
lowest possible cost and that no one was receiving favored treatment, 
Se 
