The Saint Paul globe., 1896-11-20


to prices did not touch the subject of
factory inspection at all, and the same
thing may be said Of his Investigation
of taxation,
President Wright and Mr.. Wadlin
asked Mr.. Powers what he meant by
actual yalue"iof land. Mr.. Powers re-
piled that it was that value which the
property would sell for under an ordi-
nary sale-not a forced sale, but an or
dlnaIy sale, under favorable conditions,
and yet not under boom" conditions.
HOW TO ascertain that actual value was
a d1fficult problem. If ascertained by
means of the real estate sales recorded.
provided the amount stated in the deed
expressed the actual consideration,
they would doubtless show something
above the actual value in normal times.
and IL there were a large number Of
mortgage foreclosures, they would rep
resent forced 1sales, giving us some
thing below that average contemplated
by the laW-makers in fixing the assess
ment system. He took these two lines
OF investigation, the one expressing the
actual real estate sales by warranty
deeds, and thegother by mortgage fore
closures.
Mr.. Morse, of Michigan, then spoke:
:! should like to ask the commissioner from
minnesota question. I understood him to
say tnat larger percentage OF property was
iot. oA luS DOOkS IN the country Cndn III tnS
cities, and that remark would lead to the
natural inference that some property is left
off in the cities l would like to inquire
whether he has taken note of the amount
of property left Off
Mr.. Powers-We tabulate that which we
hnd In every county. We cannot ascertain
IN every, county or in every city the amount
that is left off the books. We can only ap-
proxlmate 1t IN this way: If we find mort
gage foreclosure a sale by transfer under
Warrantee deed, and we do not find that par
n foxr 1<rlY
up two questions: First, is this a sale of a
piece of land that is in any way properly ex-
enpt by law? There are sales Of land, such
as church property, that exempt from
taxation, and then there are a larger amount
OF sales of land from the United Staes gov
ernment, which, until the government makes
sales will be tabulated by themselves. Then
there Will be left only those pieces of land
that ought to have been on the tax list, but
were not owing either to an error Of the
assessor or to fraud Of some kind. We shall
tabulate all of those. One set of tabulatfons
will show the pieces of land that have been
sold during the time under consideration by
warrantee deed from the government Of the
United States, and which, of course. had not
been on the tax list because exempt, the
sales of church property, the sale of school
lands, and all such lands that are exempt by
law, and under the other tabulations comes
the other class of property that ought to be
on the tax list, but Is not
Mr.. .Morse-Of course l do not know very
WOli IIC IdA laws OI MIHuSSOld, Eut, dS uA4-
derstand it, in all of the Western states the
government surveys the land into townships
OF th1rty-siX sections, each section being one
mile square and nd4containing $40 acres. That
makes, in round numbers, about $4,000 acres
in township. Now | am sure, SO far as
Michigan is concerned, that if an assessor
left off very many pieces of property in a
township, he would get into trouble right
away with the people who were assessed, and,
furthermore, l believe he would be hauled
up short for violating the tax roll. The point
| wish to bring out is whether Commissioner
Powers is certain whether the omissions to
which he has referred occurred through the
wilful negligence of the assessors or whether
they were the result of accident. 1t certain
ly seems to me that if there are many omis-
sfOns they are not the result of accident.
Minnesota that have. % 600 acress less on the
rolls than were returned twenty years ago.
That may give you some idea of the extent
of the omissions.