Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1902-06-09

ers in Outagamie county, and similar dis
| coveries were made In many counties con-
corning the money of the neighborfng
counties. The mortgages SO discovered
will now be taxed at their face value, and
as result one of two things must hap
pen: Either the lender must content him-
self with al insignificant amount of In
terest, or the interest rates demanded of
the borrower must be largely increased.
That this must happen is patent to any
body who knows anything about the lend
ing and borrowing of money and the
assessment of taxes. With money 80 plen-
tiful as it is in Wisconsin to-day few
mortgages draw over per cent. A great
majority of them draw per cent :or less.
In. different counties the rate of taxation
will run from to 21h per cent, and in
some instances as high. as 8 per cent.
Mortgages, unlike real estate, will be
taxed for their full value and the result
will be that the net revenue 7ill be only
from 2 to per cent, and in some in
stances as low as ~ per cent, That the
professional lenders will not content them
selves with such low rate of interest is
.selfevident. The result must be in the
majority of cases an increase in the inter
est rate. s .
:, The injustice of the workings of the
present system is we'll shown by the stu
alton in Shawano and Outagamie counties
before referred to. The money loaned by
Outagamie county lenders on mortgages
is owned almost entirely by the farmers
of that county Gentlemen who are posted
say that in great majority of instances
money is loaned at per cent. or less.
Taxed as they will be at or ~ pei, cent,
the net interest will be at most Ok per
cent, and in some instances only IL per
cent. Already the action of the assessors
has changed the rate of interest in effect,
though it nominally. remains the same.
The professional lenders are now insisting
upon Commission" for obtaining the
loan. That commission" invariably
amounts to the sum of the taxes which
will have to be paid upon the loan. A
case is cited of Shawano county. farmer
who has small loan from an Outagamie
lender whose mortgage had long been over
due but upon which the interest had been
paid regularly, and it had been allowed to
run. 1t came due this year after the Sha-
wano county. assessors had reported to the
assessors of Outagamie county, and when
interest paying time came the farmer was
notified that he must either pay the loan
or pay a. commission for it's. renewal. A
little calculation, showed him that the
commission was the amount of the taxes
which the lender would have to pay.
Hard on the Farmers.
In this state, there are thousands upon
thousands of aged farmers who have toiled
for a lifetime to obtain money enough to
give them as,bare: living when put out at
interest, and these farmers will be hard hit
by the hunting out of mortgages for tax
alton. Many of them viii not know how
to get around the refusal of the borrower
to pay a higher rate of interest, and their
incomes will be cut in half. The profess
sional lender will not be hurt because he
will know how to work the commission"
dodge. On the other, hand, there are thou
sands upon thousands of young farmers
and working men who have purchase price
mortgages on their homes or farms and
they will have to pay the increased in
terest either directly or in the form of
commissions. The few who will escape
will be those whose mortgages are held
by people who either through ignorance
or by reason of conscientious scruples will
loan. In any event somebody must suffer
and it would all have been avoided by the
Frost Mortgage Bill, which the governor
vetoed.
AS will be seen by the provisions of the
bill, it enabled the borrower and the lend
er to agree who should pay the mortgage,
and inasmuch as it reduced the taxation
of mortgaged property by the amount of
Ill
been no excuse for an increased rate of
interest It is true that under that bill,
as under. any law that can be devised, the
man with money to lend. will have an ad-
vantage over the man who has no money
and must have it, but at the worst the
borrower would be no worse off than at
present, and if he were half way shrewd
he could be better off.
The bill would have Improved. the con-
ditions as they were before the tax COM
mission acting, as a board of equaliza-
ton, took the step it has taken, and to-
day it would relieve situation which. is
of vital Importance to the tens. of thou
sands of Wisconsin: people; who are either
in debt, or are looking to small fund
of savings for means of livelihood. The
bill passed both houses of the Legislature.
ny dill clI1OSG UNANIMOUS YORe, ana was
killed by this champion of the "rights of
the people" whose championship seems to
60 no further than is necessary to advance
his own political interests,
The operation of the bill is well set
forth in the following letter from Mr..
Frost, its author, to the editor of the
Milwaukee Sentinel:
Mr.. Frost's Letter.
GUERNSEY PLACE FARM,
r. J. FROST, MGR,
Almond, Wis, May 26, 1902.
DEAR SIR: In reply to yours of the 21st
Wisconsin, In common with most states
of the Union, has for years had law tax
ing all credits as property. Such has been
the lao. The practice, like. in other states,
has been to list not to exceed to S per
cent of them, leaving fully 1920. of them
exempt Now, If each credit holder escaped
in the same proportion, say 1920 of his
holding, the result would be fair as between
them: and would practically amount to ex-
emption Of credits from taxation. In prac-
tice however the law has not been admin
istered fairly as between individual credit