The item., 1900-01-27


Nacogdoches at $13,317, and in Shelby
county at $12,817 per mile. The Ne"
York. Texas & Mexican railway was
rendered in Fort Bend at $745l, but IN
the adjoining county of Jackson at
$11 ,097 per mile; the Pecos & Northern
Texas at $3270 in Castro, and $62fO per
mile in Farmer county; the Missouri,
Kansas & Texas at $7752 in Bastrop.
$4,000 In Johnson, $10,47S in Travis, and
s11,732 per mile in Hill county; the
Houston & Texas Central was listed in
Harris at S12,625, and in Travis county
at $16,555 per mile, though the rolling
stock, which is included in the assess
ments, is valued at $685. more in the
| former than in the latter; and the
Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe at $9S64 In
Bell. $11,940 In Lampasas, and $7O6O
per mile in Runnels county. When 1t
is remembered that, in the matter of
state taxation under the present con-
stitution, each citizen and each county
is directly and pecuniarily interested
in the assessment by every other citi-
zen and in every other county, the
| facts recited cannot be we'll ignored.
What a recompense is thus made to
the people of this state, whose muniti-
cent liberality to such enterprises has
not been equaled by that Of any OF the
American commemorative!
/ Out of her domain she has donated
to railway companies 34179,055 acres
of land, all of which has been surveyed
and returned to the general land office
for patent. More than that, she has
not only given to one company-the
| International e Great Northern-12,-
800 acres for every mile constructed,
but she has also exempted from taxa
tiOn-state, county and municipal-for
a period of twenty-five years, the land
so given and the capital stock, rights,
! franchise and road of the company.
| The railway land grants OF this state
not only exceed in area the land acre
age of any one of twenty-five states OF
the Union, among them being included
New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, but
also the combined land acreage oi
Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire
Rhode Island and Vermont. 1t also eX-
ceeds one-fifth of the entire land acre
age of our own state. Many of the
lands so granted were quite valuable
especially those located in the pine
timber region A complete schedule OF
the grants is hereto appended, to which
the attention of the legislature IS III
| vited.
| In the analysis of the statement as
to receipts it would be well to care
fully note the items of revenue realized
from corporations, other than railways.
When doing so, it should not be forgot
ten that the stock Of national banks was
then and now is a subject of taxation
the number of them in operation on
Decmebr Is, 1897, in Texas, being two
hundred and two, with paid-up capital
stock of $751; 500, with $4,744 ,492 so
as a surplus fund, and $2,611 1881 as
undivided profits, less expense, and two
| hundred and two on February 1S, 1895
with paid-up stock Of 1852, ,040, with
surplus fund of $4,788, ,53724 and 81,
| 739, 9,971.93 as undivided profits, less ex
penses. Besides railway and banking
corporations there were on January /
1898, fifteen hundred and eighty-eight
other associations-not including those
that were purely educational religious
and benevolent in character-chartered
under our own laws and doing business
in this state, with an authorized capi-
tai stock amounting to $176,9 400
much of which could have been sold al
par and was yielding handsome divi-
dends.
In addition there were on that day
six hundred and sixty foreign corpora
tions of like character empowered to dc
and doing business in the statewith an
authorized capital stock Of $1,176, $780,
52750. They, of course, were profit.
ably conducted, or they would have
been withdrawn from the state.
How are these valuable properties
represented on the tax rolls of 1898
In view of the fact that the individual
deposits in the national banks alone il
the state amounted to $38,426,7 1885 CT
December Is, 1897, and $39, 1892, ,O73.5O or
February IS, 1898, and $42, 1897 ,928.63 or
December 1, 1898, without considering
those in private institutions of like
character, it can not be reasonably sup
posed that there was in the entire state
on January 1, 1898, all told, only $14
| 125, ,734-being an actual decrease o.
$138,960 from that rendered in 1890.
other evidence were wanting to com
pletely overthrow the presumption tina
the rendition of money in 1898 was cor
rect, an appeal might be confidently
taken to the daily press during tha
year in whose columns were to be found
many advertisements by loan agencies
such as this: "a large amount of mon
ey on hand to take up and extend pay
ment of purchase money notes on farm
ing lands at the lowest rates of inter
est prevailing" to say nothing of mum
berless published offers from individ
uals to lend, upon safe security, limited
amounts of money ranging from on
thousand to fifty thousand dollars
Were more required to be said upon thi
particular subject, allusion might b.
made to the tax rolls of two of tn,
richest and most prosperous and popu
lous counties in the state-in one o
which not one dollar, beyond that own
ed by banks, bankers, brokers ant
stock jobbers, was listed for taxation
and in the other but three hundred dol
lars.
AS to the assessment Of merchandis
In 1898 to the extent of $31 ,666, $50, be
ing an increase only of $2,344, ,537 owe
that of 1890, nothing further needs b
said than that during that year the in
surance in this state upon such char
iacter of DroDertV covered more thai