The Colfax chronicle., 1891-11-28


How Tyler County, Tex, Paid for its
Courthouse.
James Charlton, of Houston, Tex,
writing to the Standard, says: The
third party convention which met re-
Gently at Dallas adopted a platform
which would indicate that there were q
number of single tax men there. After
going over the usual ground, showing
how unjustly the farmers have been
treated in the matter of taxation. and
how heavy burdens have been placed on
the poor and taken from the shoulders
of the rich, and after advocating in
strong language the Australian system
of balloting, it comes down to the land
question as it affects the state Of Texas
The plank which will especially inter-
est single tax men is as follows:
We demand and pledge ourselves to
support law requiring that wild or
uncultivated lands belonging to private
individuals or corporations. in large or
small bodies. be rendered for taxation
ut the same valuation per acre as inn
proved lands of the same county and
district
Your article In The Standard of the
18th, entitled Delightful Simplicity"
recalls case in an adjoining county of
this state, which thoroughly refutes A.
b. KS second proposition and sustains
the single tax position. Here are the
facts as related to me:
Some people of Tyler county were
desirous OF having new courthouse
and jail. but the plan to raise the money
for that purpose brought about q storm
of opposition from all the taxpayers of
Tyler county, except, possibly, the inn
mediate landowners at the county seat
Tyler county's principal product Is pine
Understanding and merchandising
being secondary and more or less de-
pendent on the milling industry. The
farmers, merchants and mill men away
from the county seat kicked against
any increase of taxation, claiming that
they were already overburdcned. and
the courthouse scheme was about to
fall through, when a single taxer, Mr..
David Russell, came to its rescue, and
asserted that the idea could be carried
out and the benefits secured to the resi-
dents of Tyler county without any in
crease of taxes to them. OF course
that kind of an assertion, coming from
a person of Mr. Russell's standing,
went from individual to individual un-
til it got to the county commissioners,
sitting as board of equalization. who
sent for him and asked him to explain
his plan, which he did.
Tyler county's natural wealth., said
he. is in pine lands, which are princi-
pally owned in large tracts by non-rcsi-
dents, and which are valued on the tax
lists at sl20 per acre. It was well
known, he said. that the millmen were
paying these same landowners 81 90 per
thousand feet for stumpsge, while after
the land had been cleared of the tim
Der it was more valuable than before
the work had been done. The average
yield of pine timber per acre. Mr.. Rus
sell said, was eight thousand feet, which
made taxable value lased on the
stumpage price of $40 an acre, as
against the assessed value of 81. 90, not
to speak of the value the land had after
the tInber had been cleared from it
He therefore argued that no injustice
would DC done to the owners of this
pine land If their rating on the tax
books was increased to SIS IN acre, and
he demonstrated that were the rating
made at even half that amount (s7. SOY,
sufficient taxes would be raised to pay
the interest on the cost of the court
house and provide sinking fund for
the bonds when they would be due.
To make long story short the COM
missioners fell in with Mr.. Russell's
view. and they raise the valuation of
these pine lands to seven dollars per
acre. Now the result. according to A.
B. K, would be that the owners should
raise the price of stumpage to mill men,
but quite the reverse is true. The peo-
pie OF Tyler county have got the court
house, but the price of stumpage has
fallen to one dollar per thousand. so
that. instead of making the producers
of lumber charge more for their prod
uct, the effect of increasing the valua-
ton of those timber lands has been to
give them a better margin of profit,
unless they are like the much-hunted-
for-and-never-found protected manu-
facturer, who is in the business for the
sole purpose of increasing the wages Of
his American lnborers.