Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1902-02-04
A PROTEST.

The farmers of the town Of Cleveland
have held meeting TO protest against
the unfair taxation TO which they are
subjected, as they claim, and they have
sent the following protest to the State
Tax Commission, every signer of which
is a farmer or freebooter of the town
of Cleveland. The columns of the
PILOT ere always open for fair discus
sion Of all such matters as is of interest
TO al taxpayers of the county:
To The Honorable Tar Commission, of the
State Of Wisconsin
GENTLEMEN
The undersigned citizens of the Town
Cleveland, in Marathon County, re-
specially represent:
That each one OF said signers is
farmer and taxpayer in said town; that
each one of them has made farm ON
lands originally covered with timber
and has largely improved his land by
his labor and the labor of his family,
which has added to the value of said
land; that by the building of good roads,
bridges and good schools each one has
tletNCh " tnC NdllC ia al bnC
ing wild lands ia said town of Cleve-
laud, which are now worth much more
and sell for much higher price than
they would sell for if it were not for
the improvements made by the under
signed.
Your petitioners further represent,
that there is village not incorporated)
in said town on the lines of the Chicago
~ Northwestern Railway, known as
STAFFORD, which village is what is com
monty termed a sawmill village; that
the r. Conpor Company, cor
poration, is the only large bust
ness concern in said village that
said corporation employs many men,
from two hundred to three hundred at
different times during the year, and
that through their working men said
corporation completely dominates the
business of the town of Cleveland,
electing officers of its own choosing
which are in the service and on the
pay OF said corporations; that said cor
poration by reason of its power in
dominating the affairs of said town, has
succeeded in raising the taxes of the
farmers and property holders in said
town as we'll as the small property
holders of the VILLAGE of Stratford to an
has succeeded in evading its own taxes,
having assessors to place a valuation on
the property of said corporation out
of proportion in comparison of all other
property of said town, so much so that
said property of said corporation Is
assessed at about from one-eighth to
one-tenth of its fair market value.
As instances of the evasion of tax and
the corrupt assessment of said corpora
ton the petitioners state these facts
That for the year 1901 the entire val
uation of the said corporation of all its
personal property was in round num-
bers Thirty Eight Thousand Dollars
(S38, 000).
That said corporation had at that
time and was saving during the year
and had been for several years last past,
nearly twenty-five to thirty million feet
of saw logs sawed into timber at their
said sawmill at Stratford which prop
erty is worth at least one hundred and
seventy five thousand dollars (S175, 000)
or more that it has store i'll said viii
lage where stock of at least fifteen
thousand dollars (Sl5,000) is constantly
kept on hand that it has large num-
Der of horses, carts, sleighs, wagons
and logging outfits that it owns and
operates a private railroad thirteen
miles in length upon which it pays no
taxes at all, unless said railroad of
thirteen miles in length with its rolling
stock, is included in the personal pro-
perty assessment of thirty eight thou
sand dollars 1888, 000); that said rail-
road is used not only in transporting
their own logs and logs which they pur-
chase along the line of said road to its
sawmill at Stratford, but that it also
transports lumber from another mill
over its railroad to the village of STRAIT
ford and delivers it in cars to the Chi
cago q Northwestern Railway, charging
for such transportation.
This corporation has sawmill cap
able of saving about sixty thousand
feet of lumber in eleven hours, which
mill is running day and night nearly
continuously during the year, and also
a planning mill aud a stave factory on a
lot on land of about fifty-tive acres,
which entire lot with all these mills is
assessed at seven thousand $4,000 dol