The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-05-29
The Curse of the Boomer.

The Curse of the Boomer.
The curse of the boomer remained
long after he had either folded his
fleeces. sheared from credulous lambs
and stolen away, or after he, infected
with his own chimera and their Gre
dulity, sat with his victims, himself one
Of them, among the wreckage and
cursed with them their common folly.
Loaded with real estate which no one
wanted and which he could not make
productive, land levied on annually to
contribute toward the payment Of fixed
public charges that were unaffected in
volume by the collapse Of the balloon,
or holding mere equities in land mort
gagged during the boom to raise money
with which to get more of the SEEM
ingly auriferous dirt contained in city
lots, from being the most ardent ad-
vocate Of improvements and liberal ex-
penditures he becomes as strenuous an
economist, urging retrenchment and
reform in public expenses.
Unable to secure these, he changed his
tactics three years ago and, under the
guise of reducing taxation and ex-
:penses, began the movement that
ended in the reduction of the taxable
valuation of the three cities of the state
in which he had operated. He sue
ceeded in forming his combinations SO
well that the valuation of the state
fell from 1888, 157, 461 in 1894 to $47S,-
742,654 in 1885, a shrfnkage Of s74, 414,-
S07, or over One-SiXth. Meanwhile eco
nomic causes had reduced greatly the
value Of personal property in the state,
values of farm products and property
and Of merchandise; but in them the
busted boomer had no concern, and we
find that the personally of the state,
that was valued at $50, 354 900 in 1894,
had risen to $1O5, TIC in 1897
He organized his movement and mob
ilized his forces in the winter Of 1885,
He disguised his real purpose quite as
adroitly as the Spanish cabinet con-
ceals the strategic movements Of it's
fleets. He talked of hard times, tight
money markets, the laborless poor, the
need Of retrenchment and of reducing
taxation. Where he got in his work
is shown by the following table of the
valuation of realty in the three coun-
ties of the state where he had exper-
imented in the alchemic process Of turn
ing ordinary dirt into gold:
Hennepin SOL III ISL sss a7s e.
Ramsey 49,. 114476,2SS 50. 4O9, S41 80 0sS' Al
st. Louis 44,S25,666 aS.142.i02 $3.50 SCI
Totals $3.50 492 Os9 s222 264, 7s4 ss7 223 24g
The state...... 3,157. 461 47s,742,654 74414SO7
From this table it will be seen that
the realty valuation of these counties
in 1894 was So per cent of the whole,
and At per cent Of the whole in 1896,
but that the reduction in valuation OBJ
tanned by him was 80 per cent of the
entire reduction made in values. Evil
IDENTIFY he had lost none of his boom
day cunning. He had adroitly shifted
off onto the remaining So per cent of
the realty of the state 43 per cent of
his share of the state taxes. And still
a newspaper that has shared both his
mishaps and his purposes now has the
hardihood to insist that any increase
in valuations would Involve the paw
ment by this city Of a large part of
other peoples taxes
But where the busted boomer got in
his work remains to be discovered.
The following table shows the valua-
lions made by the assessors in 1896,
as changed by the county boards of
equalization and by the state board:
County State
Counties. Assessors. Board. Board.
Hennepin SIPS ,558 $101 712 ISL SOL 7i2 S51
Ramsey :. =. S1.9O1.251 50, 400, 841 50, 40s S4l
ST. Louis ....r SS,65S,10O Al ,O37,93s 3S'14si 02
Evidently he failed with the assess
ors of Hennepin county, succeeded with
those of the two others, but found his
main anchor in the state board that
graciously held with the county boards
of Hennepin and Ramsey and gener-
ously cut the valuation made by that
of st. Louis below that of the as
SCISSORS. How board the major part
of whose members are from other Dor
lions of the state could let the boomer
get away with nine-tenths Of the reduc-
ton is mystery solvable only on the
hypnotic hypothesis