"Well, Captain, that was what the Full Rendition Bill was passed for, but it's been considered a dead letter, so far."
"It won't be a dead letter if I take the job, Governor. It will be the livest letter in the statute book, for a while."
Campbell smiled grimly. In imagination he already heard the howl that would go up, and the imprecations that would descend upon appointer as well as appointee. After all, perhaps a Ranger Captain in a job like that was not a perfect selection. Then presently he turned to Captain Bill.
"Well, Captain, you've got your appointment," he said.
The State Revenue Agent lost no time in beginning his work. Already many of the annual assessments for 1907 had been made, and if any re-assessments were to be taken there was no time to lose. In 1906 the assessed values of Texas properties had aggregated $1,210,000,000. State Agent McDonald resolved that they should properly be more than double this amount, and he undertook at once the first step in that direction. He did this knowing full well what would result. He knew that a man's purse is his tenderest point, and that to lay a finger on his taxes is to touch a spot already sore. He knew that what he was about to do meant to antagonize practically every corporation in the State, and every rich county as a whole. Also, perhaps, a majority of the press. Papers that had lauded him to the skies for his achievements would be first to belittle him, now, and to cry him down. What he was undertaking was distinctly a minority crusade; a struggle for the pioneer; a fight for the under dog.
Yet I think his chief consideration was the enforcement of the law. That would be likely to be so; the law's enforcement had been his habit so long. If the other things weighed at all, they probably only added zest to his resolve.
He began by issuing a general letter to assessors throughout the State. In part the letter ran:
"Dear Sir:
"As State Revenue Agent with well defined duties imposed upon me, I feel called upon to communicate with Tax Assessors relative to the rendition and assessment of real and personal property for Taxation....
"An inspection of the tax rolls of your county for 1906 and some years prior thereto, discloses the fact that real and personal property is assessed at only a certain percentage of its value instead of "at its value" as required by the Constitution and laws of the State. I will take occasion during the year to visit such counties as may be practicable and examine into the mode of rendition and assessment ... and I hope to have your assistance."
The letter then called attention to, and quoted from, the law, setting forth the duties which good officers and citizens would perform in full, and the penalties for being, and doing, otherwise. Near the end of this letter he said:
"This duty is imposed upon you by the law, and I suppose I am not presumptuous in asking you to follow it strictly so that there will be no embarrassment when I call for the purpose of making an investigation," etc., etc.