The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, October 19, 1916, Page 7

3 “If at Flrst You Don’t Get It Al Motto of Looters of the LONG time ago & lot of puates “framed 1 up-a big.. state land steal through a work-" “ing agmment with the :politi- cians who controlled the state govern- ment and ‘the legislature.’ It had been . % = worked before and has been worked since | elsewhere.. It was. simply a proposlhon of getting together and raising ‘a small amount_ of ‘ capital to . be invested in barren, unproductive and almost worth- lesslandmthenorthempartofthe state, and then “influencing” the state, on one pretel:t or another, to trade some of its rich™ agricultural land in- the -southern part of the state for this barren © waste, It worked fine. The state traded itsw rich and valuable agricultural land, _belonging to the'public schools, for the rocky desert up north. The promoters . made & fortume and divvied up with the - " politicians. ' Nobody but the sbate was stuck. . But here is where fate stepped in to save the state the millions it had appar- ently lost by this deal. ‘ore was discovered .in northern Minnesota. The . barren waste panned off on the t&xpay— ers in lieu of the rich agricultural land became-ene of the richest. treasures. in the United States. Thus it is that today a large part-of the state’s public lands ure located on the iron ranges and conta.m ore bodies of untold wealth. ‘PRIVILEGE HATES TO SEE o STATE OWN ANYTHING © . " But having ‘come ‘vut 'of this. crooked deal with flying colors through a “lucky chance, the sbate mot yet out of the woods. The pi now cast. covetons eyes on the state-owned mineral lands. Here was a' chance for loot and it was - * geized, agambecause the politicians were willing. Altrgeareaofthestatemm—-. eral land was Jeased to mine operators ~—the steel ' trust and ‘others—for a royalty of 25 cents a ton. That is; the - lessees under the contract with the state - could ' take ‘out all ' the iron ore they wanted and pay the state for xt ‘at. the rsteuthEcentsaton. e Invxewofti?erealvalueofm)n ‘ore “in the ground, as figured by taking the value of the ‘ore at the furnaces and’ deductmgeosts of mining,fi-ansportatmn X A panorama of the new steel trust plant near Duluth. FONR Exploxters of anesota played a Joke on them- selves when they traded off hillsides full of iron for rich ‘agricultural land. But the mistake is ‘being remedied. The steel trust is getting the ‘ore at one-quarter of lts worth, 'so that the ’state w111 ‘not have too much wealth on lts e i hands future on these state-owned deposits, not . taking into account the millions of dol-": lars worth cf ore already taken from the state lands at 25 cents,a ton, when it is worth at least 50 cents and perhaps $1 a ton. A few facts only are necessary to show how the state is being * gouged on -its mineral lands belonging to "the- school : -funds.- WHAT STATE IS LOSING IN PUBLIC -LAND LEASES. ; Jndge Gary, president of the steel trust, which owns or leases most of Min- nesota’s mm-bea.nng properties; - some years ago in an authoritative ‘statement placed the value of the ore in'the ground owned by the trust at $1.a ton. He said the trust owned one and one-fifth billion tonsoforenbtyetmmed andthat:txs 'Politiclans stlll oppdse the effort to get. for, the state of Minnesota a fair portion of the wealth ‘that has been turned over to private interests . to exploltf It has been impossible so far to get a proper tonnage tax law on the st;atute books worth one and’ one—fifth billion dOnBrS. this statement was'made. One of the biggest mining deals ever made was between, the ‘Great Northern - interests;-which' control ‘a large area of property in northeastern. iron-bearing prope " Minnesota, ‘and ‘the steel trust. ‘The “Hill interests entered & with' thesteeltmstwhereby ‘the ‘trust - ovmed mmersl'dep;s;fis was stopped, and “was to 5 cents: a ton at th : g ; . hl of the legislature, the leasmg o atate ‘groundm the i ;ron ranges on'w ehtaxes Iron ore is worth more now than when into a contract ¥ eat Northern proper- . X -tyonal‘kyfltybssis whlchfiguredatl are patd amounts to 1,478,090,978 tons, and its true value, according to the _state tax commlsswn, is $543,678,682, or an average of/37 cents a ton. This is the true, value of the deposits in the ground, the tax commission finds. : In its report the tax commission finds, however, that the prevailing rate for roy- alties ‘is from 50 to 80 oents a ton in the mining districts. Therefore, comparing all authonhes iron ore is found to ‘be worth ‘in the ground $1, a ton, according to the steel trust itself; 85 cents a ton, according to the famous Great Northern lease;- 387 cents ‘a ton for taxation purposes, ‘and 50 to 80 cents a ton, according to the prevallmg rate of royalties. Yet the state ‘is selling its school land deposlts at 25 cents a fon, STATE'S OWN FIGURES SHOW ROYALTY CHARGE TOO LOW But ' the state itself admits that it is being stung' on these leases. . Holders of - leased state-owned ore deposits must pa; taxes on them the same as if they owned the ore outnght and regardless of the royalty they pay the state for _mining, the ore. As mentioned before there are. 143,891,603 ‘tons of High grade ore al- ready discovered in the ground on land " farmed out by the state under the 25- cent royalty agreement. Remember, the . state is now bound by royalty contracts * to sell all ‘this ore at 25 cents a ton.. The - tax commission fixed f.he tme value of “fore it finds' the taxation value, £ 1n Mlnnesota 1, Grab, Grab Agam People s Wealth this ore in the ground on state-owned land in 1914 at $44,429,821. The state commission must find ‘the ‘true value be- The taxation value is half the true value. But the ore the tax commission found was worth $44,429,821, or about 81 cents a ton, the state will sell under, ifs 26- cent royalty agreements for $33,972,000, a loss on its royalty contracts, accord- ing to the state tax commission’s own figuring, of nearly’ $10,000,000. + The tax commission, however, is a de- fender of the present method of taxing - ore and opposes the tonnage tax, which, scientifically and adequatély framed, ‘would bring the state government over ° twice as much revenue from the mining industry—chiefly the steel trust—as s now obtained. The commission defends the steel trust position on the matter and is credited with being friendly with that corporation.~ Its valuation of iron ore for taxation purposes has been shown in former articles in the Leader to be much too low. The figures quoted above on the Great Northern ore lease, the estim- ates of the. sfeel trust itself, the prevail- ing value of ore leases as reported by the tax commission itself, all. go to prove that the tax commission’s valuations of iron_ore for taxation purposes favor the steel trust. ‘But the tax commission it- self, on its own low valuation of iron ore on state-owned lands, shows the state is being stung on the 25-cent royalty agree- ments on ore yet in the ground to the tune of $10,000,000. How extensive the known iron ore de- ‘posits are ‘on state - owned lands under lease are is shown by the following fig- ures: On state sc}iool lands, 83 leases, 106, . 545,610 tons of ore in sight, which will bnng the state $26,636,377 on' the pre- / sent royalty agreements and which are valued for taxation (half the tax com= mission’s esfimate of the real value) at $18,089,196: ; On state-owned swamp lands, socalled, nine leases, 31,908,046 tons in sight, which will bring 'the state $7, 977,011 under, present rdyalty agreements' and ~which are valued For taxation (half the tax commission’s estimate of the -real value) at $3,834,248, On state umversxty lands, three leages, 5,438,047 tons in sight, which will bring the state $1,359,512 under the present royalty agreements and which are val- {ued for taxation (half the tax commis- ‘sion’s estimate of the real value) at - $506,377. e i . F razier at Tappen Lynn .} -Frazier, the farmers’ candxdaee for governor, will speak at 'l"nppu:, Kidder county, Friday afternoon, October 20, at 2 p. m.: Mr.Frgnsr’saddra will be ngen i comnection with the opens: e A AT A AT B RS Farmers' Union hall st ] ~