Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1879-05-15

I at least $500 per, thousand: feet cheape,
than II could be furnished from. Min.
neapolis, although; Morris. islzinr direct
railroad eommunicationtswith that ,cit4.
The cost Of driving the logs2from here to
Minneapolis would be. saved by the Lit,
tie, Falls millers, and the junction al
Morris with The! main line OF The st!
Paul 8 Pacific railroad is,'ssyenty,,ayye y,aity,
miles nearer to Little Fails than it is ia
Minneapolis. at Lumbe from that at ccittyy
could not be kept in market for a day
when brought in competition with Little
Falls lumber, anywhere between, Little
Falls and the eMissouririver. "a Of course
it could not be reasonably expected to
compete with Minneapolis in the mark
cts naturally tributary to that city, but
Little Falls possesses advantages which
make it the natural point Of supply for a
large portion Of Western Minnesota "a and
Of Central and Southern Dakota. III These
advantages are So obvious that it is, safe
to assume that no we'll informed person
will deny that Little, Falls can furnish
cheaper lumber throughout q rich agri-
| cultural belt west Of here nearly as large
as the State of Massachusetts than can be
furnish he'd from any other point, as soon
as 1.-The Little Falls s. Dakota road is
built, And as railroad building pro-
crosses: in Dakota, new markets for Little
Falls lumber will be opened until the entire
territory thus supplied will equal or exceed in
entent the States Of New Hampshire, Masssa-
chusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island CON-
bined. Little Falls has natural advantages
that place competition. out of. the question in
the matter of manufacturing lumber for use
in this vast extent Of territory, for millers
here could save, as stated above, at least two
dollars on every thousand feet by the lighter
expense of driving the logs and by being
nearer to and in more direct communication
with the points where their lumber would be
| sold. And in addition to their advantages in
this respect, they could manufacture -four for
| the Eastern or European market fully as
pro6tably as the Minneapolis millers can. It
is hardly worth the trouble to go over this
ground, however, for nearly everybody admits
that the road wsuld be decidedly good
thing for Little Fails. Now, about the al
legged unequal taxation. In a few years Little
Falls would have nearly the same relative val
ue to the balance Of the county as Minneapo-
lis has to the balanceof Hennepin county.
Of course Minneapolis will always largely
exceed Little Falls in valuation, and so will
the balance Of Hennepin county largely ex-
ceed the balance of Morrison county. The
assessed valuation of Minneapolis last yenr
was nearly 2l million dollars, and the bal
ance Of Henp epin county was assessed at only
o little more than one-third of that sum. In
Ramsey county St. Paul was assessed at near
ly % million dollars, and the balance of the
county at only about onle-twelfth of that sum.
St. Paul and Minneapolis together are as
sessed at nearly one-ffth of the entire valua-
ton of the State, and the cities, towns and in
corporated villages in the State are assessed
at moro than one third Of. the entire valuation,
| and pay more than one-third of the taxes.
The assessed valuation of the State for 1878
| was $229,79 ,o42.':: In the village of Anoka,
| in Anoka county, several saw mills and one or
two small Touring mills were built few years
| ago, and last year the assessed valuation of
that village was $753, 1862, which was $33,223
more than the entire real estate valuation of
Morrison county, and was little more than
the valuation of the balance of Anoka county,
| although the real estate in that county, out
| side the village, had advanced in value to the
| amount, perhaps, of $200, 900 as the direct re-
suit OF these improvements. If the proposed
road is built, and proves to be as beneficial to
Little Falls as nearly everybody admits, it villa
not be many years until this place will pay
more than half of the county taxes, possibly
three-fourths. Real estate in every part of
the counties where such improvements have
been made: has thereby been greatly enhanced
in value; but the amazingly large proportion
Of city and village valuation is due to the
heavy expense required to make improve
ments Of this character. i Such improvements
at Little. Falls would increase the value of real
estate throughout the county, and would cause
the sale IF railroad and other lands to actual
settlers. There is a fxed price placed on
nearly all Of this class of lands ); and the moro
rapidly real estate advances in, value the
sooner will these lands command the price
that has been fixed, and the taxable real es-
tate win thus be greatly increased. The prin-
cipal reason that taxes are now so high in
this county is that there is SO much unoccu-
pied and untaxable land, and no large mills
or ether costly mprovements to share the bur-
den of taxation. In Morrison county the rate
oftaxatiou for the year 1873 is "a. mills,
with no outstanding bonds to pay interest on
and no costly public improvements in prog.
ress. In Ramsey county the rate is 13
mills; In Anoka county, where a fine $40, 900
court house was recently built, the rate is on
ly 10 mills; in Hennepin county, where poll
10y almost extravagant has been pursued in
reference reference to public improvements. the rate is
only 20 mills; in Winona county 13 mills in
Olmstead county Is mills;5 in fNicollet county
IL mills in Blue Earth th county II mills: In
all Of these counties the people. manifest a
cornmendable degree of public enterprise, and
are ESPECIALLY we'll provided for in the matter
of railroads and other improvements. And in
the entire State there are not more thaa two
Or three instances IS where there is high rate
Of taxation in county that has. been liberal
in aiding and making: public improvements.
There are few organized counties that have,
no railroads or other important improvements,
and here is their rate of taxation. Rock coun-
ty 80 mills; Renville, 81 Mills Murray, u
mills; Todd, 2e mills; Isanti, % mills; Lin.
coin, % mills; Lac qui Parle, 20 mills, and
two or three other counties where the rate Of
I taxation is neither very. high nor very low,
Then there ore, number of counties, like Nor
! rison, through which q railroad passes, and
which have about the same standing as Nor
rison in regard TO- aiding and making public
i Improvements, and their rate Of taxation is as
follows: jackson county, 81 mills ), Pine, "a
mills; Grant, 2Btmills Lyon, 80 mills 3 Ait
kin, 2e mills Wadena,, 81 iuills:;;' Becker, Is
/ mills; Polk, rs mills: Grow Wing, IS mills :