The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1876-02-17
Medary, D. 7. 10 thinking about es
tablisllinR q cheeS6 factory.
R0YI0S or NO BON US

ready to communicate information in
relation to railroads. a subject Of vast |
Importance to the people Of this county
as the proposition of aid is likely to
coma hef0re sthem with reference to the
construction Of the Southern Mime
sofa, and, perhaps, other roads, permit
q farmer to ask . few plain questions,
which, you. or the Auditor through
YOtlr paper. can answer. And, before I
nskino these questions, permit me to |
aav that this matter has two sides to it;
reasons fo= and against the issuing Of
bonds by the county to secure it's lOca-
ton through or near the Village of
WorthingtOn. Against it. the most
important reason is the imposition of
taxes to pay the interest now. and the
bonds ut some future day. We all feel,
and especially those who have been I'M
able to pay their taxes for the past three
years, that il our taxes are largely in
creased it will prove u burden beyond
our ability to- bear. And further, that
to aid q company in the construction OF
q railroad which they enter into to put
money in. their own pockets, and in
which. those who contribute in this way
have no control or interest. is not de-
sirable. ::
Now let us look at the other side, and
ask ourselves the question:: If we were
living in this county. having no railroad,
how much would it reduce the value of
GU: wheat, and how much advance the
cost of our lumber, fuel, farm machinery
and household supplies? This may not
Ike 4 fair comparison, rs we have the
benefits Of one road now, but if we have
Il competing road, how much will the
,>r:oo ~ <,,,, ,vy1,onf on1 otho,. form r,r0
ducts be advanced, and how much will
our supplies be reduced by reason of
this competition? Our ability to pay
taxes depends on the price we can Oh
tain for our products, and the ae,c mar
kets a competing route would open up
to us. not only for our wheat, but for
our coarser neutrality-suspicious., hay,
ETC., which we cannot now send away
to advantage. During the construction
of the road 4 large amount OF money
must he paid out among and to us, and
the very fact Of opening new road will
bring III new settlers to occupy the rail
road land, thus doubling our tax list
and so reducing our taxes. One Objec-
ti0n made by s0me-and these are con-
fined to Your village-is that the extern
sion of a railroad west of us would at
once cut off the large trade and hotel
1tlsiness that now is making Worthing-
ton rich. This, to some extent, would
he so, but not until the road is COM
pleted. How much better would the
condition of these parties be if the road
passes few miles north of US, as it will
il not secured here? Will not all of
this trade leave us and we realize none
of the benefits?
But to the questions I started to ask:
What will be-if the largest sum be
v0ted-the increase to our present tax,
say on one who now pays $40? This
will give us al approximate idea of
what it will cost us. And, OH the sup
position that most of the railroad lands
would be taken up, how much would
that reduce the tax? Perhaps if we can
get these figures. it will not so much
brighten us. In the meantime let us
act Understandings and with caution.
Let us consider, also, the right-of-way.
II the company should desire to cross
our land, are we willing to grant it?
These questions can, of course, be
answered only approximately. The
amount Of taxable proportion the tax
list is about $500, 900 of real and $685.
600 Of personal property, in all about
$558, 900. Ten per cent. of this would
lie So, 500. But the company are will
ing to accept the proposition of the
committee to give bonus Of $4,000.
At 7 per cent. the interest on this
would be $1,000. The whole tax of tie
county at present is about $4,000.
Add to this the interest, and the tax
will be increased to $18,S00. So mucl,
for the whole amount of tax. But
what we want to get at is the general
tax. This we ascertain from the Coun-
ty Auditors books is nearly $1,000.
Add to this the $4,000 interest, and we
have the general tax raised to about
$l2,100.. Dividing this by the amount
of taxable property on the tax list, we
find that the rate will be raised from 16
mills and a fraction to % mills and a
fraction; We are now in a fair way to
answer our correspondents question
approximately. At present the tax
payer who pays is mills on $500 worth
Of property. pays 5000. With the c
mills added, he would pay $40 more.
or about $3.50.
Ofcourse, this figuring is upon the
supposition that the valuation and all
the circumstances remain just as they
are now. But by the time the first
years interest on these bonds is paid,
all the conditions will have changed
There will Ike an increase of from SO tc
100 per cent. I'M the personal property
and from 25 to 50 per cent. in the rea
property ON the tax list. We learn that
there are about IL, coo acres of land, or
which patents have issued, to go upon
the next duplicate, above that of last
year. Then there will, no doubt, be 8
large amount of railroad land sold.
We cannot do better than to bea1
in mind continually the fact which w
have before given in these columns
viz: that the way to permanently reducs
our taxes is to increase them for tn,
present. No sum in arithmetic can b,
palmer than this, that if we double thu
amount Of taxable property on the ia,
~, list, we reduce the rate; that if w
double the number of tax payers, w
$ reduce the amount paid by each indi
s,vilual payer From the day it is set
tied that we are to have the Southern
I Minnesota ROAD, the influx Of settler
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