The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, October 14, 1915, Page 10

i | 1 3 & THE NONPAR THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE LEAGUE The above is a picture of the home the first Nonpartxsan League car started Mr. Wood is a Northwesterner by birth, havmg been born in North Dakota in 1901. where he has farmed ever since. ——— e T SO OVED BINCE. e Inside Vzews of North Dakota Affairs By Franklin H. Powers Bismarck, Oct. 20:—1t would be difficult to find a better exemplifi- cation of the smoothness and sure- ness with which invisible government works, than the action of the state board of equalization in the assess- ment of the railroads for 1915. It is a notorious fact that the railroads of the state are grossly under-assess- ed. Farm lands last year were asss essed at 20 per’ cent of their actual value and railroads at 15 per cent; live stock was assessed at.80 per cent of its actual value; city realty at 30 per cent and bank stock at 25 per cent. The state of ‘Washington with one thousand, seven hundred miles of trackage collected & tax of approxi- mately two million dollars from the Northern Pacific, while North Dako- ta, with a trackage of fifteen hund- red miles collected a tax a trifle over $500,000. The total = tax paid per mile of the Northern Pacific main line in North Dakota was $598.00; in Idaho $1,217.00; Washington $1,£19.00 and in Montana $819.00. The Facts of the Case. It would be useless to multiply the . proof as it is common knowledge that the railroads in this state are assessed at a much lower percentage of their actual value than farm-land. The 'state tax commission, both last year and this year, furnished elabo- rate proof of the under-valuation of railroads. . In addition, it secured this "year the services of Dr. E. D. Du- rand of the department of economics of the University of Minnesota, and director of the 1910 United States Census, and one of the recognized economists and railroad valuation ex- rerts of the country, who also fur- nished elaborate proofs of the under- valuation of the railroads of North Dakota. The state board of equali- zation deliberately threw these com- pilations into the waste paper bas- ket, and proceeded to assess rail- roads as they have bezen assessed since " statehood—on ‘the figures furnished _stock, etc. - - “on the public setyice corporations: of: by “the railroads themselves. Boo ing the anuaiiqn_. , Owing to the extravagance of -the present - business ' administration it - was necessary to increase the assess- -ed valuation_ of the state by sixty- five million dollars, ‘or the tax burden by about three million dollars. . The state board spread a few 'millions of ~~this mcrease over the already over- assessed city “realty, farm lands, bank “A few millions more fell ate, but the great bulk of it TISAN LEADER PAGE ELEVEN of F. B. Wood, near Deermg in Ward County, North Dakota. upon the task of organ izing the farmers of North Dakota. Minn., 52 years ago. Olmstead County, It was from this place that He homesteaded in mately twelve and one-half million dollars, or an increase from $45,500,- 000 to $58,000,000; and on acre prop- erty, exclusive of structures and im« provements an increase of $47,260,- 000. AT its usual August session the board concluded its labors and the state auditor certified out to the railroads their assessments. The railroads at once set in motion the wheels of ‘the invisible government looking ‘toward a reduction. On September the second the Grea.t Northern railroad company protest- ed against its assessment and osked for a rehéaring. State Auditor Carl 0. Jorgenson saw the. other members of the board and announced that they were to get together and cons sider this application. The state tax commission asked to meet the raijl- roads, if they should be allowed a rehearing, to discuss with them the proposition of the lowering of their assessments. Railroads @Gain. - The board met and instead of con- sidering the rehearing, without there being a single representative of the railroads present or the tax commis- sion, lowered the assessed valuation of the Great Northern, the Soo, and the Milwaukee, reducing the total in- crease of railroads from twelve and one-half millions to eleven and one- quarter million dollars. This reduc- tion was not all the railroads want- ed, but it was all the invisible govs ernment. could force from them in the face of the approaching election. John Steen, State treasurer, was the only member of the hoard who: pro- tested and voted against this lower- ing of the~ railroads. For fear that the story might get out that the railroads had received benefit - at the hands of 'the state board ina star chamber session, state audltor Carl 0. Jorgenson, spread broadcast over the state the newss paper story that the state board of equalization: - had * finally completed the assessment of railroads. He fear- ing that the 'story might get cut as to the methods of the board and forestalled it by saying that some wag at Bismarck bad started the story. that there had been a rehear- ing of railroad assessments, and the consequent lowering of railroad: as- sessments at such ' rehearing ‘and stoutly denying that there had ‘ever| ‘been an application for rehearing or that any such rehearing had ever tak- en place.. The dailies of the. state iof general circulation absolutely re- fused to publish. anything =~ which ould carry the facts to: the. pub!m iction“of ‘this''s ory, % 0 view of the fact that ceveral irreconcilable statements have. been published in the newspapers of the state as to the increased valuation of assessable property as left by the State Board of Equalization, I thought, perhaps, the readers of the Leader would be interested in a con- cise as well as an analytical state- ment of the work of the State board. While the clerical work has not been completed for all of the items, the work has progressed so far that round numbers can -be arrived at, which, for statistical purposes, are quite as accurate as the detailed figures. The Totals for the State. The total assessed valuation of all property as equalized by the State Board for 1915 is approximately $378- 000,000, an increase over the final valuation for 1914 of $65,000,000, or more than 20 per cent. The final figures are available on acre property. In 1914 the State Board left real property at $165,- 328,330. In 1915 the final figures were $212,588,655, an increase of $47,- 260,325 or 28.58 per cent. The acre- age in 1914 was 38,443,537 acres and in 1915 39,089,099, an increase of 645,662 or 1.679 per cent. The av- erage value per acre in 1914 was $4.29 and in 1915 $5.44, an increase of 26,81 per cent. The 26.81 per cent represents the actual increased valu- ation of acre property, that 1s, farm lands for 1915. . State Auditor Jorgenson’s official statement shows that the raiiroads were increased from $45,702,9:4 in 1914 to $56,960,772 in 1915. This in- crease totals $11,257,818 or 24.63 per cent. The ratio of increase of 24.63 per cent is misleading since it in- cludes the increase of mileage of 1915. ovier 1914. The mileage in 1914 was 6,184.64 miles and in 19156 §,280.91. This increase of 96.71 miles reduces the actual increase of railroad prop- erty from 24.63 per cent to 22.73. As compared with railroad proper- ty, .real estate was subjected to a raise of 18 per cent. In other words taking the railroad assessment as the standard, railroads ' were increased 100 per cent, while farm lands were increased 118 per cent. :The Increase. 'Assummg ‘that the tolal assessed valuation for 1915 is $378,000,00¢ (in 1914 it: was in round numbers $313;-| 000,000) we get an increase of: $65,- 000,000, Of this increase, farm prop- erty; includmg - personal - property, furnished more than $47,260,000. All other = property, : including personal property, railroads, structures on the farm. lands and: cxty lots, and - city- {realty itself, furnished of the $65,- 000,000, increase; buf $17,74Q,OOQ. Last than acre property, totaled, in the round numbers, $148,000,000. Tie in- crease to which this property has been subjected is $17,740,000 or @ Fit- tle less than 12 per cent. Here is the whole matter in a nut shell! The state of North Bgko- ta desired to increase its rewemwues. It decided that a 20 per cent inszease over the 1914 assessment would fur- |nish the required amount of revenue and this 20 per cent ig distributed by placing an added burden of 26.8 per cent upon acre property, that is farm lands, and a trifle less than 12 per cent more burden upon all ether property. Apply this to a stipulated amount of revenue. For the sake of argu- ment, we will suppose the average tax to be 40 mills. Apply this to the $65,000,000 increase and you get $2,600,000 as representing the addi- tional tax burden. Upon whom will this added burden fall? 7271 per cent falls upon acre property. In other words, farm lands exclusive of structures and =all other farm prop- erty will bear 72,71 per cent of this increased tax burden or $1,870,000. The remaining 17 per cent will fall on all other classes of property. Acre Property. In 1914 acre property bore ap- proximately 50 per cent of the total tax burden of the state. In 1915, acre property will bear 60 per cent lof the total tax burden. Under the new arrangement there can be little question, but that the farmer of the state will ‘pay fully seventy per cent of all the tax bur- den. The total taxes for all pur- poses, state and local, last year were more than thirteen million dollars, If we add to that another three mil- lion dollars, which is bound to result from this horizontal raise on the part of the board; the total tax burden of the state for all purposes,” state and local, outside of special improve- ment assessments, will be sixteen mil- lion dollars. Seventy per cent or $11,200,000 of ‘that will be paid by, the farmer. In view of the fact that the farmer is paying the freight it is high time that he take some practical step towards the control of the state board of equalization. ‘At a Tecent bankers’ gat‘-eung in’ Georgla it came out that the average . maximum interest collected by a doz-- en banks in that state was 30 per cent and in: some, case’as ‘high as 120 per cent was bemg paid by 'the farm- ers. - in' before cpmmg to North ‘Bakota. Géorg:a would be ‘a mighty good - state for immigrants to practice up