Evening star., 1898-03-18
Hearing Before the House COMMITTEES
This Morning.
REPRESENTATIVE ODELLY
River Front Property and Railway
Corporations Could Pay.
Law MAY NOT BE ADEQUATE

The subcommittee of the House District
committee on assessments today continued
Its investigation into the methods of taxa
tion in the District of Columbia. Men,
bers OF the committee present were Repre-
sentatives Odell of New York, chairman,
and White of Illinois. Mr.. Theodore w.
Ncyes. president. and George H. Harries,
secretary Of the board of trade, were pres
ent. Mr.. Noyes submitted a statement on
the subject of taxation in the District on
behalf OF the board of trade, which will
be found elsewhere In The Star.
Mr.. Noyes said further that the District
had larger per capita Indebtedness than
any Of the large cities of the United States,
with few exceptions. The District also
Lad, he said, a large nonresident element
and larger non-taxpayfng population
than other cities. The presence of this ele-
ment In the city reduces the apparent per
capita tax of the city without reducing it
In fact by cash contributions There was
also lack of manufacturing and other
industrial institutions which yield so large
q share Of the revenues of other cities, the
taxation Of which he had quoted.
Too Low nm Assessment.
Mr.. Odell sal ! he thought too low an as
sessment was placed upon property of cor
porations In the District Of Columbia.
That, he thought, was the weak point in
the method of assessment in the District.
He had, he said, learned that the capital
Of national banks here is not assessed at
all. He understood, of course, that govern
ment bonds would be exempt from taxa
tion, but in other cities with which he was
acquainted bank capital Is assessed against
the individual stockholder, but the bank
is liable for each of these assessments In
this matter, he said, he thought there
should be reformation.
Possibly" said Mr.. Odell, "the law as it
exists today is not adequate to meet these
requirements. / asked the assessor when
he was before the committee If he knew
any reason why bank capital could not be
taxed. as l have indicated, and, in reply
he gave me decision which my own ex-
perience in banking leads me to believe
must be an erroneous one. He went back
to war times, and 1 do not think the de-
cision would hold today
Mr.. Odell said his idea was that a tax on
the investment Of corporations would tend
to lower the rate of taxation on other prop
erty in the District.
Mr.. Noyes said that he appeared before
the committee in the capacity of president
of the board Of trade to submit the general
considerations which he had presented, and
not to argue for or against any particular
class OF taxpayers. He contended that
whatever is to be done in the way Of cor
recting inequalities of taxation in the DIS
tr1ct should be accomplished by lowering
rates that are too high rather than by
raising the general standard of assessment,
or by increasing comparatively low vaIua-
tons to the point reached by the assess
ments which are now excessive.
Mr.. Odell said he agreed with Mr.. Noyes
In his belief that the great mass of prop
erty in the District is assessed perhaps as
high. If not higher, than most Of the cities
throughout the United States, but he still
thought that there were a great many cor
porations. and perhaps private business
concerns that escaped their just proportion
Of taxation. He said If these concerns were
properly assessed 1t would certainly be ben
eftcial to the great mass of taxpayers in
this city.
The River Front.
Mr.. Odell also said that he was astonish-
ed, upon questioning the assessors when
they were before the committee, to find
that the river front neither paid any tax
alton nor rental to the city. He said he
considered the river front property should
be in the possession of the District. He
was also surprised to find, he said, that
neither the Columbia nor the Metropolitan
railroad companies paid any taxes on it's
trackage. He said that the law required
them to do so, but he found that the
assessors did not SO understand it. He
said he did not question the integrity OF
the assessors in this matter, but merely
stated the fact. He said If this tax were
imposed on the railroad companies 1T would
mean something like $lG,OOO to the District,
and to that extent, he said, these two COM
paIies were benefited.