The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-05-13

Tardily, but interesting, comes to the
Glob e from the department of agrl-
culture that circular which gave the
present secretary the shivers, but
which he consented might be distribut-
ed when he ascertained that it reveal
ed that his predecessor in office was the
party guilty of it's conception and
authorization. We refer to the circular
on Local Taxation as Affecting
Farms" prepared under the direction
of the statistican of the department,
but suspected of having been inspired
by Thomas G. Shearman who stands
branded by the saviors of society as
a vandal of the single tax. 1t is an
examination by experts of some 100
farms in four counties in the state of
New York, two in the western and
two in the eastern part, with view to
ascertain the actual value of the land,
of the improvements and personal
property, together with their values
when assessed for taxation, to
learn whether there is foundation
for the complaint of farmers
that, relatively to city property of
the same classes, theirs is over-valued,
with a heavier burden of taxation as a
consequence. It is quite plain that
such an investigation is as fully
a proper field of work for this depart
ment as is, say, buying butter and
sending it to England.
Whatever system of taxation, what
ever methods of discovering and list
ing property prevails, were devised by
legislatures in which the farm element
predominated and, consequently, any
inequalities resulting from the laws,
are chargeable to that class. In all of
the states the tendency of this kind of
legislation bears the marks of the sus-
picion of the farm element that it
bears more than it's share of the bur-
den, in the constant movement to-
ward more and more stringent regula-
tons having for their purpose the dis
covery of invisible personality. And,
dS d QIS, SNSI w l1Sle, Tie DGllGT the
law is from the farmers theoretical
standpoint, the worse it is in practice;
and the more faithfully it is enforced
the more does the average farmer suf-
tendency toward more searching meth
DDS has been defeated and the farmers
have resorted to the state board of
equalization, which they control, to in
those on farms.
The experts found the value of the
farms visited in the four counties to be
81 PSI, S02. Deducting all improvements,
buildings, fences, drains and cultiva-
tion-the value was $2S42, 1872, while the
value of visible personal property they
found to be s9S7, 4S3. This made the
value of the land, apart from improve
ments, 1872 per cent of it's total yal1e
Seeking for some basis for comparison
with urban property the experts could
get nothing better than the assess
ments of Massachusetts, where i'm
the land. Boston realty, without its
improvements, was $751; per cent of its
whole value. Personal property, more
than half of which was of the invisible
class, was ZIG per cent of the whole
valuation. Excluding Boston, personal
property formed rs per cent of the
whole valuation Of the state This
shows two things, the higher realty
value of city land and the smaller pro-
portion Of city personally that bears tax
BURDENS. The same was found true in
Ohio, where the personal property was
but 26 per cent of the whole in the
four counties having large cities, while
it was so per cent in the rest Of the
state. The conclusion Of the experts
was that Il all land were taxed at its
unimproved value, farm land would
pay on about 40 per cent of its improv-
ed value and city property on about
5S per cent. A number of tables &C
company the report, in which the COM
parsons are tabulated in a manner
that enables one to see the results OF