The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-09-20

| Messrs. Anderson, Nachbar and Ola
vim Were Yesterday Appointed to
Find Out If 1t or Any Other Cor
poratiOn Is Escaping Taxation in
This state-Banks Will BE As
sessed Under the the 1898 Rule.
| Messrs. Anderson, Nachbar and Glavin,
| of the state board Of equalization, were
| placed on a committee to make an In
yestigation for the purpose of ascertain
| ing whether any corporation had been
| left off the rolls. The question was
brought up through an inquiry of Mr..
| GIavin about how much tax the Standard
| Oil company was paying.
| Yesterdays session was busy one.
The board considered the return made
| upon banks, and upon report made by
| the banking committee, recommending
| that the same rule in effect for the last
| two years be adopted. the returns were
allowed to stand as made. The rule in
| question provides for the taxation Of
| bank property on the following basis:
| From the sum of capital stock and sur
plus and undivided profits Of each bank.
| deduct the amount of legally authorized
| investments in real estate and take 30
per cent of the remainder as assessable
value of the shares of bank stock
While the basis for 1evying the assess
ment was adopted the same as last year
| the tax imposed upon banks will be con-
siderably less as the returns were some
| 5000, 900 less than last year. Mr.. Neigh
en- thought that the assessment should
| be raised so as to bring 1t up to the
| figures Of last year. He argued that
| there were no less banks than year
| ago and there had certainly been no de-
crease in their capital stock. On the
other hand the bank examiners report
chronicled a large increase.
| He followed his remarks up with mo-
| ton to increase the banks assessment
to so per cent, or 10 per cent more than
that reported by the banking committee
| Those who looked upon the proposed in
crease with disfavor contended that the
| advance would in reality fall upon the
| farmers. The latter class were not
| taxed on a basis of more than 20 or rs
| per cent, and therefore SO per cent was
not too low figure for the banks.
Messrs. Meighen, Glavin, Mayhem and
Loe spoke in favor of the change. Mr..
Glavin said the capital Of many banks
was kept at a low figure for the express
purpose of avoiding taxation and did not
represent the real value Of the institu-
| tons assets. 3
After spending over an hour consider
ing, the matter a vote revealed that
| MessrS. Meighen, Doe and Glavin were
the only ones.tfavofing the increase. Mr..
Meighen expressed surprise that so
many of the farmer members Of the
rf no pf
pank STOCK. Tl 2
During the afternoon the board went all
over the household goods list and COM
plete1y revised the figures set a few days
ago. The figures established showed a
wide variance between the per capita tax
on this class in the several counties. For
instance, Wabasha paid over $500 and
Freeborn 1915
1t was decided to revise the figures,
and Clerk Atkins presented list Of
counties that he believed should be
raised. The board went over the list and
adopted the changes recommended after
a protracted discussion.
Mr.. Meighen thought the board should
not take the highest return made and
bring all the surrounding counties up to
the high water mark. On the contrary,
he explained that in some counties there
were more people owning household
.
Quently happened that some assessors
could find more taxable property than
others. He gave it as his belief that the
returns should be left as they were. He
argued that the assessors who had lived
in the communities all their lives knew
more about the matter than the clerk Of
the board. '"", 90
mitted by the clerk should not
hc od cd
pared q basis of the 1895
census and many more people were now
assessed than before. The board, how
ever, seemed anxious to raise everything
as high as possible and the following
counties were given advances, viz; Ait
ken. so per cent; Carver, 90 per cent; Chip
pewa, SO 1-3 per cent; Cottonwood, rs per
cent; Dakota, % per cent; Dodge, 20 per
cent; Fillmore, so per cent; Free
born, 80 1-3 per cent; Goodhue, 80
per cent; Grant, so per cent; Houston rs
per cent; Lac qui Parle, Is per cent; Lin
coln SO 1-3 per cent; Marshall, 66 per cent;
Martin, 25 per cent; Meeker, &c per cent;
Norman, Sc per cent; Otter Tail, 66 per
cent; Pope, Sc per cent; Red Lake, 25 per
cent; Redwood, 80 per cent; Renville, 10
per cent; Steele, SO, per cent; Todd, rs per
cent; Waseca, so per cent; Wilkin, rs per
cent: Wright, Is per cent
The board took up diamonds, gold and
silver late yesterday afternoon and left
the figures as returned.
A trip to Saltwater and the state
prison Is the programme that will be OBJ
served today. To comply with the stat
ute, the board will meet as usual at the
state house this morning and Immediately
adjourn, and take special car over the
new Saltwater electric line to Saltwater.
The state prison will be visited and all
departments of the institution inspected,
including the binding Irvine plant, which
is of special interest to the rural mem
bers of the board.
You May See Admiral Dewey