Albuquerque weekly citizen. (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1891-19??, 1905-09-09
soMr IMpoRTANT STATISTICS.

.t.I
The Washington star recently published an article
che material for which taken from census bureau
bulletin showing that the value Of railroad property IN
the United states IL sii2its'aooo, supplemented by
Pullman cars s5i0Ooooo. private lines. s1Aoooooo
making the sum total tii8 s62ooo And ye st was but
soycntynve years ago Monday that the first load Of
passengers was ever carried over railroad the Am
erlcan continent
In the distribution OF value Pennsylvania comes first
with g. t206Os 900 New York follows with tS9s2220oo
followed by Illinois with tS05O51010. The smallest rs
Alaska with a valuation Ut 100000 New Mexico faii
roads have valuation Of ss6io0Noo, while those Of arr
sona have combined value OF only S6s35booo Besides
Alaska the District of Columbia. Delaware Nevada
Rhode Island South Dakota and Vermont are the only
political divisions Of ,he country where the value Of the
railroads fa below that OF Aris0na These hEures rep
resent the of the roads what they could DC
sold for and the value placed upon them by me sew
era and territories Tor the purposes q taxation
This value a not gvcn. but IN ts stead Is liable
giving the percentage which value bears 90 The ct
merca value The highest percentage D. found To- Con
noc,cut where the valuation Is iiA per cent Of the
commercial value. The lowest Il Womlng where the
roads arc taxed ON valuation which Is but rs per cent
Of their commercial worth At.ona comes next With me
per coniago tax value only 07 of the selling value
While New Mexico follows third, the per centaso beins
90
Unfortunately In New Mexico and Arizona d Is not
railroads alone the value Of which bears so nsgnu
proportion 20 the real value bu al other Kinds of
properly are IN che same caieeorg. Arzonaa iaNanie
propory h returned at Sf0O00Ou0 and That OF New Mex
ice a $4,000 O00s Of varying slightly from year
10 year sometimes above and sometimes below the ng
ures given Yet Arizona has mine which is said io
have yielded n year as much aa her entire aAam'
property put at; while the real OF commercial value
OF New MeAlc1 railroads alone more than doubles me
assessed value Of an her property minoa stock hrms
factories town hodings stocks. bonds merchandist'
moneys and everything taxable combined.
Under such system Of taxation. no wonder me
growth OF the territories b. c'oce.
aao city dcl accumulate the school iund remains mao
equate and Investors frightened away by the seem
lngy large rate of taxation. Nor win these evils be- erad
lcatod until me difference between tax valuation OF prop
orty and lts commercial yalgo brought within the
bonds OF much greater unity.
Arizona s taking steps in that direction. ilo BOARD
OF equalization for that territory having recently rnsao
the assessments upon patented mines from goo per cent
In Yayapal county 10 1900 per cent in Cochse county
Under this Increase OF value for taxation Che patentea
mines OF Arizona assessed az 81 100000 instead
Of s400o0on toe ngurc a which they stood urti few
DAYS ago but New Mexico yet. has taken no step M
this desirable direction The listed value OF property
should approximate Cos commercial and hen the rate OF
taxation should be lowered 10 yield only th revenue ao
soluteiy needed.