Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1879-02-27
Another Kansas Letter-The Next
Plague after Grasshoppers is Taxes


/ wish to let your readers know
how the people have to pay taxes in
our western country-that is, on I'm
Gle Sans land the land given to
American citizens as free homes. Our
law makers, in framing the homestead
law, forgot that States cost money /;
that each State must have its capitol,
each county its courthouse and each
district its school house, besides the
lock ups and jails and State prisons
and poor heascc many of which will
be needed to hold the people who OBJ
tain 16O acres of land from Uncle
Sam; that is, those that spend their
money in saloons for liquors and leave
their wives and children poor but do
not pay q cent OF taxes. Taxes are
outrsgeously high and yet two.thirds
Of the people pay no taxes. A man
may own two sections of land and yet
pay no taxes. Your readers may ask,
how is that? / will try to answer
Taxes are paid by those who hold
warranty deeds for their land or who
own personal property. Dick, we will
call him, comes out here and takes
100 acres OF land and it costs him $17
to obtain homestead papers. He can
live on the land selected seven years
without paying taxes. Then he can
take 100 acres as a timber claim. He
does not need to live on this but can
have it eight years and does not need
to pay taxes on it. Then Dick buys
one section of railroad land. He has
to make the first payment on it but
the rest he need not pay until the
eleventh year. Now he has to live
six years on his first claim or home.
stead when along comes Tom who
wants land. Dick sells him his claim
for IS to $l2 per acre. Tom will
have to homestead it again and can
live on it seven years longer, but does,
not need to pay taxes. Dick moves
on to his railroad land and lives there
SIX years. Then comes Hans and
wants land. Dick sells him a half
section Of railroad land, getting a very
big price, and has as yet paid no taxes
on it. Then comes another man, at
the end of five years more and Dick
sells him the other halt of his railroad
land and his timber claim, for big
prices. He at last has $4,000 in his
pocket besides what he raised off the
land and has not paid one cent of tax.
es in the run of eleven years!
The timber claim law is child's play.
Timber claims are taken for purposes
Of speculation. When Mr.. J. s. Kauf-
man came here last May he asked the
people, Why have you no more tim
Der? They answered that it would
not grow from the seed. He went,
however, to stream, the Smoky Hill
and obtained some Gotten wood seed,
which he planted, and now he has
cotton wood trees from one to four
feet high. Parties hold timber claims
without paying taxes on them and
they are often sold by claimants who
have never paid taxes.
Thus it is that only those who have
bought their lands and have paid good
round prices for warranty deeds are
obliged to pay taxes. Two-thirds of
the land holders pay no taxes. Why,
friend Pollock, could not the Govern
ment make the law so that the holders
whether of homesteads, timber claims
or railroad lands shall pay taxes ac-
cording to the value OF their lands
If the land is not worth taxation it is
not worth having. And here is an
other fact: the railroads own millions
of acres of the best lands and sell for
good prices and never pay taxes on an
acre Of it! FREDERICK KUHN.
Wilson, Kansas, Feb %, 1872