The Princeton union., 1893-04-20

was organized a resident Of the city of MINI
neapolis, who was largely interested IN 4
lumber company in said county, was ap.6
pointed as one Of the commissioners thereof
This was the same man who bought the
timber claim just referred to, and who was
a member Of the lumber company who fur-
nished supplies for the United States sur
veyor. While acting as county commits sioner*
the city Of Minneapolis with his family,
and he appears to have been made county
commissioner simply to assist the lumber
to deprive the state of it's taxes. Tt is
claimed by witnesses who appeared before
this committee that while parties resident
ring, We're assessed upon their property at
a high valuation, the great lumbermen, who
were the fayorites of the combination, got
assessed for much less than the real value
thereof--in some cases for less than one
tenth of fair valuation. The assessment
been conducted in a shameful manner. The
present assessor has been in the employ Of
another of those lumber companies, and we
have reason to believe is still SO employed
Could Have Added Millions.
While the law of the state requires the as
SCISSOR to personally visit and examine the
land to be assessed, his own evidence shows
visited but thirteen. This witness admitted
to your comittee that where he had made
personal inspection Of. the land he S had
high figure si as Compared @ with tie dSse former N
assessment, in one case raising a tract Of
land 1pad from $12o to $1,soo, and he admitted
of the county and had made a similar in
crease it would have added millions to the
taxable. real estate of the county 1t is
ty assessor did not visit all the towns in
the county was that he was prevented,
s. s. the he aetegg eegss Of fGm Se oSer eons
ty officials: He .,a admitted, to use his
e5aet aonG GToTd5 rhat oaa man IN Wno
that he had not visited Your committee
is. forced to the conclusion that millions
Of dollars, worth Of property have escaped
the naturalization OF such as has been
assessed will amount to a vast sum. It is
county Of Itasca and the state itself has
never received one-tenth its Just propor-
tion Of taxes On real estate in Itasca cOun-
ty:, and it appears by the statement of one
Improvement company's land, now, owned
by private parties and therefore subject to
Your committee are OF. the opinion that one
man cannot assess a. county of the size OF
1tasca county, but it would require three
to properly do the work required by law.
It also appears that there are in the said
county of Itasca two private railroads or
logs. These are well built, wide gauge
roads. They pay no tax to the state upon
their gross ,oes1 and X
aggregate a length of about thirty miles
and represent IL large amount OF n money y
invested thereinnot rein less than SiSSof aSo|e ~
TRANSPORTATION ti;a n Of logs for their owners,
The assessor referred to testified before
your committee that acting under the in
structions Of the county auditor he entirely s ;'
omitted to Gme IN aree
quantities of pine land. While he raised the
assessment upon other lands, he had not:
county auditor. made similar exa4lna, an 't3ao
ton or increase in the assessment OF the
lands in said township. .o4u
land Gu1 worth eD'';fre from M $500 to ,2oo have
ed evaencn yaSeSe SefdPe yo9f of
pine land is assessed for not over one -tenth
Of it's value, thereby defrauding the state st ate
and the county of nine-tenths OF tneir 'a.
mony taken, your committee find thai, the
output of logs has been of late years from
24O,0o 10000 feet upward in itasca county,
to 265, ,OO0, 900 feet, which at $6 per thou
sand-said to be a fair average value
would make an annual production d OF ABOUT tI
the Rainy lake country alone and is s shipped dI ped
into Canada-this year about 10000, 600
feet have So gone out from n our a state tate,
| will receive any revenue. Immediate steps
| should be taken to put stop to these
practices. The various lumber companies
plants, numerous horses: cattle: wagons na
etc. valued at about $4OO,0OO, 100000 re;
manning, in this. county permanently, and and
$27 900, no assessment whatever is made.
Gross UndervaluatiOns -.
| The evidence taken before your committee
| goes to show that in assessing land no
cfSr hos hoo
! that are valueless and lands that are valu-
| able, both being assessed at the same rate.
Thus certain lands in section H. town 5S,
range "a, from which all the h.t timber has
| been cut, were assessed at $50 per forty
| acres, while land one mile east Of it be-
to lumber containing
was assessed at precisely the same rate.
This differentiation seems to run all over
the county ns1a and is
A former assessor, a late auditor of the
county OF Itasca, who had also been in
the the employ Of lumber companies testified
logs. except that he had assessed the logs
Of the Grand Rapids Lumber company two
or orr,nnrss three years; that said company was
Ducey company, now the Shevlin-C Carpen-
| ter company, and that the Grand Rapids
iai9 Lumber company turned the logs over to
taxes were three times as high. The logs
DelnS manuIacIufed III Hennepin county
| were taxable there under the present law
While these gigantic frauds have been
practiced upon the revenues Of the state,
the bona fide settlers Of the county OF
Itasca have been compelled to bear unjust
and needles burdens for the purpose OF
supporting the government and protecting
the property Of the lumber firms. While
the total assessment Of the county for the
present year is but a little over 81, OOO, 900
| we believe the cash value Of the timber
alone standing in the county, which is sub
lect to assessment. amounts to $4,000. 900
The annual cut of logs amounts to abou1
2G5, ,OOOO0O. feet, worth S15OO.OOO. - !
1t must be remembered that these reyela
| tons refer to but small part Of the ares
tnat could be examined by proper system
OF 1nvestlSatlon. and that these facts as tt
the frauds upon the revenue refer alto
| gether to one county. go -
- The Remedy.
| The committee feels that it would he ,
crime on the part of the state when tht
| knowledge Of these robberies is hrongh
home to the legislatures to stand still ani
do nothing to punish the plunderers Of th,
people and prevent similar atrocities in tn,
future. Such course would simply en-
/ courage every adventurer in the state +,
fore recommends that some body, commits
sion or committee be created, With ampi
power to carry on the work after the clos
OF the session, as the committee PROMISES +,