St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-04-12
HEARD IN MINNEAPOLIS.

deeply interested yesterday III the It,
port of the senate investigating COIN
mittee, although they tried to conceal
their interest and treat the report as a
bombastic effort to manufacture political
capital. In discussing the report for
publication, few Of them would say any
thing except in a general way. Their
generalities were, in the main, denial
of the main points Of the report. OF
all Mlnneapolitans interested III pine
lands, T. B. Walker is probably most
heavily interested. Mr.. Walker was
asked his views of the report. He said:
II cannot give review of this report
in an off-hand interview. | will say
this much: One of the main features
of the report is that the state auditor
has sold to certain lumbermen timber
off state or school lands at less than lis
real value. So far as this relates to me,
l will say that l have had very little
to do with the public sales. The
state auditor sells off those pieces
or portions of timber that he thinks
should he eat. If he has sold the
timber for less than it IS worth,
it is very peculiar circumstance. do
not reeOIlect that l or any of the firms
with which | ain connected have pur-
chased dollars worth of pine in itasca
county. l am largely interested in cut
ting logs Off my own lands and selling
them to mill men here. Ii l should
contract with men at the usual rates
and pay the stumpage as reported
in the public sales. l would have
little left for my trouble and
expenditures after selling the logs. IL
TO IN
Der On the school lands after the lum-
bermtn have cut the timber on the sur
rounding lands. Otherwise the fires
from the lands that have been denuded
would destroy the timber on the school
lands. When the public sales are held
the lumberman, who happens to be cut
ting timber on the land adJoln-
ing the school lands usually
buys the school land timber.
Such lumbermen will usually pay more
for the school land timber than any one
else. So far as L know the state has re-
ceiyed better prices for the timber on
school lands than the railroads have fer
the timber on their lands. Individuals
auditor has sold timber that was not
sufficiently damaged TO be sold do not
know.
There has been one patch Of timber
cut where | was interested in CaSS
county, and three or four pieces iii Bel
trami county, amounting to but an in
significant fraction Of the timber cut
from the surrounding lands. will state
that this timber was cut, and every log
hauled and put on separate landings,
marked with a separate mark, sealed !
by the surveyor general, and passed for
at Its full market value.
''Now, in the next place, as to the
amount of taxes levied and assessed in
ltasca county. have no more, directly
or Indirectly, to do with fixing valua-
the chairman of the investigating COM
mittee. l have never held deed for
one hour to prevent its going on record
and being placed on the tax list. SO far
as | KNOW, every acre of my land is
taxed
Il believe that the lands in Itasca |
county that are entered are as inyaria- !
bly, taxed as any other new county in !
the state. The price named as the as |
Sessed valuation OF the land, So per thou !
sand, would mean, according to the rule |
used by all the assessors over this state, |
real valuation of 50 per thousand. |
Now, | will say that | certainly would |
not paw 80 per acre for all the lands in |
Ilasca county. have quite a good many |
thousands OF acres left that | would be |
pleased to sell to any one at s. per acre. |
IF the state of Minnesota should sue |
coed in fixing upon the lumbermen |
tax so large that they cannot afford to |
carry and hold their timber, they Will |
bave to Gull it and market the logs |
either in or out of Minnesota, and l am
very sure that the timber is disappear
ing rapidly enough at the present rate |
of cutting"
T'ilIsbury Says the Report rs Wrong. |
Ex-Gov. j. S. Pillsbury had this to
say:
$50 far as the report is concerned. | |
have not as yet had the time to give it a |
thorough perusal. although from a cur
sorry glance l can see that large mum
Der OF mistakes have been made. This |
is eSpeclally so with reference to the |
procuring OF swamp lands. So far as
the Stumpage sales of the university are |
concerned, think they have been we'll |
managed, and so far as | am aware, |
good prices have been obtained. Re-
garding the charges Of fraud ana the
sale of school lands, L do not know any
thing about them, as l have no knoWl-
edge of frauds having been perpetrated."
BacIkUs Haas Il Pointer.
E. W. Backus, of E. w. Backus, gave
the lumberman's side, as follows:
"Quite large amount of land each
year goes back to the state on account
of unpaid taxes. because the lumber
men and pine land owners who pur-
chased the land find, after the
timber is cut, the taxes are too
heavy. The committee neglected to |
give a statement of that feature of the |
case. Pine owners have for long time
thought that they had to pay very heavy
taxes, and the taxes are constantly in
creasing on account of the organization
of new counties. And the officers of
the new counties, or Of the older ones,
are almost entirely unknown to the
lumber companies and firms. L do not
know single one of the officers. and l
DO not believe that any other lumber
dealer knows them better than |.
"a very interesting fact for the COM
mittee is that the state has been receiv-
ing for years an equal tax for ipnumer-
able tracts of worthless land In the pine
region. Next TO forty with 100000 feet
On IL there Is often forty without $1,000
feet on il. | can describe to you forty
after forty owned together, with large
tracts of timber, and taxed as the
best forests Of this tract, in spite
of the fact that they have less ihan
300 worth of timber. w. ID. Washburn
paid taxes twenty-five years on forty
in the midst Of some pine land ne
owned, and then discovered that it was
forty acres of lake. The senate COM
mitIee can send a man up into the TIM
Der region aud so direct him that he
will find forties which may be assessed
too low. but if the investigator should
examine all the land in six townships
he would find that on the whole thu