National Republican., 1884-04-02
A Startling Showing.

week ago The NATIONAL REPUBLICAN,
published an account Of tho growth OF the
city of Washington in population from the
year $500 to tho present time, and made some
calculations as to the probable future growth
for tho remainder of tho century. In at
tempting to show something of tho growth
in wealth during tho same period the diff
Guilty is encountered at tho outset that there
is no trustworthy information rs to valuation
before the ycar 1890 A comparison Of valu-
ations since that date is interesting in itself,
and it further shows some peculiaritics in the
present assessment which arc worth con-
sidoring aud may reward investigation.
In 1920 tho taxable real property in the
city of Washington was assessed at 49, lO5, 1875;
in 1880, at $123635O; in 164O, S9,O2sGOO; in
1850, $13,Gs2, ,730; in 1860, $50, 1926; in
1870 $G6,SlS,Ss6. AS this valuation was put
upon their property as basis of taxation by
assessors elected by the property owners
themselves, and accepted by them without
complaint, it may safely bo assumed that 1t
was not too high. At tho samo rate OF
increase the valuation for Washington city
proper in 1880 should have been about
$1OG,OOO,OOO, instead of $76,OS5, ,9iO tho
amount actually returned. Every ono
we'll acquainted with the history of tho city
knows full we'll that no decade prior to 1870
witnessed such improvement as tho one i'm
mediately after that date. The same state
ment may also be made as to the remainder
of the district And yet wo find that whilo
in 1870 the provident people of Georgetown
taxed themselves upon valuation Of S6,2l3,
467, and while the valuation in tho county
in 1870 was $6,9G5,1O1, it had
been reduced in 1880 to $685. 1903.
1t is, therefore, quito evident that by some
means errors Of very large dimensions had
been made in these dopartm ents, the aggre-
gate of which for Washington city alone
amounted to about $30,OO0,0OO. So apparent
was this that Assessor Dodge felt constrained
to call the attention of tho commissioners to
congress and to ask uthority to have new
assessment made. In their report for 1870
they say: Numerous errors and Irregularities
have been found to exist in the recent
assessments of real property in
the District of Columbia which
| the com missioners have no authority
to correct" The assessor, in his report for
the same year, says; Real estate values have
not yet ecomo sufficiently stable to justify
a new assessment the coming year, but
au thority should bo obtained to correct some
glaring errors in the assessments Of 1S7SI'79.
Owing to some incompetent men having
been sent out to assess property, many mis-
takes have been made in locating build
ings and in assessing values, in some
cases one side of street being assessed at
one-third or one.half less than tho other,
when tho values on both sides are the same"
These recommendations, renewed in 1880
and 1881 without result, were again urged
upon the attention of congress in 1SS2 with
still greater emphasis, the assessor saying
"Upon u careful estimate l think that upon
o new assessment the northwest section will
average 81; southwest (or South Washington) f,
10 cents; northeast 10 cents southeast (or
Capitol hill and Navy Yard section), . cents
gring an increase of tacable property in the city
atone of $35, ,5s7, ,sGs"
Representations like these could not be
ignored, and congress accordingly ordered q
new assessment to be made, requiring each
assessor to give bonds in the sum Of $1,000
and making it penal olenso to assess any
piece of property for less than its actual value
punishable in each case by fine of 5000 or
less, to be collected on the assessors bond.
At the time the assessor made his last ap'
peal for new assessment the valuation o
taxable property in Washington city proper
was $50, ,293; add estimated increase a.
above $50, ,5o7, ,S6S and tho result should bt
$11G,i7G lGl. Instead of which the total val
uation of taxable property in Washington
city under the now assessment June 80 1883
is only $sO,05l, ,05d, making shortage o
$36, ,425, lO7. So large difference as thi
would be likely to attract attention even il
New York city, and it certainly requires OK
PLANTATION.