The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-04-20
THEY WILL SEE.
State Assessors Won't Take
Word Of Standard.
To Examine the KansasHOldings
Themselves.
DON'T KNOW THE VALUE
Members VIII Check Up the Re-
turns Made.
Report of Investment Of SI4,-
100000 Starts Things.
DON'T KNOW THE VALUE

w nat the STANDARD. Oll company says
about it>doesn't see INTO go with the
about it doesn't seem to go with the
ing OH the value of the Standards pro-
perty in this state. Before the board
makes up its mind what to assess the
property of the Prairie Oil and Gas
company Cthe Standard) it win make
a trip to Wilson. Montgomery, and
other counties where the Standard has
large holdings, and see whether 81, 49,
7S5, as returned by the Standard, is a
fair valuation of the property of that
company in the state.
It looks to the members of the board
as though two million dollars is
mighty small figure for the Standard
holdings in the state. The claim has
been made by some of the agents of
the Standard that the company has in
vested S14, 000, 900 in its development of
the Kansas field, and if this is the case.
there is a slight discrepancy in the
Standards figures.
Auditor Seth Wells of Neosho coun-
ty, is the only member of the board Of
assessors who knows anything about
the oil and gas country, and he says
he is not thoroughly posted on the de-
tails. Consequently the board has no
very definite idea about the accuracy
of the Standard OILS estimate on the
value of its property. They don't
know whether a steel tank farm is
Standard, or whether it is worth
million
Wilson county, where the Neodesha
refinery is located, gets credit for ST.
1864. It has been claimed that the
refinery alone is worth that much;
the Standard has a vast amount of
property in Wilson county in addition
to the refinery.
The Standard says its crude oil is
worth % cents barrel, and it claims
to have about 5000, 600 barrels in
storage. If the Standard keeps on re-
ducing the price of crude oil, it will
doubtless get it down to % cents a
barrel within a short time.
Gas Line, Too.
While the board is looking over the
Standard Oil property it win also take
an inspection of the property of the
has by some been accused of beifes
rather closely identified with the
Standard; an accusation which it
strenuously denies
The Kansas Natural Gas company
has reported to the state board that
it's property is worth only $157, 9S0.93.
This, it claims was the state of at
fairs on March /, at, Which time the
estimate is supposed to have been
made. OF course the property of this
CDlCEIu Is HOW Id D10lS Oh LAl6 IL
crease, for it is laying its big 16-inch
pipe for the gas mains to the Kansas
City and Topeka markets. This large
sized pipe costs money, and the next
report of the company will doubtless
show a big increase. But there is
also a suspicion that possibly the COM
pany has not over estimated any of
its holdings in the present report.
According to the report, the company
now has about $50 miles Of pipe line for
gas in the state of Kansas. This in
cludes big, middle sized and small pipe.
OF course q good share of the pipe Is of
small size and is in use merely for
laterals in the cities of Independence
and other gas towns.
The company reports ownership of 13}
gas wells and p oil wells. OF its gas
wells III are in Montgomery county, the
rest in Neosho county. 1t has quite
number of tanks for oil, and considera-
BILE oil in storage. But of course its
chief business of selling oil.
The value of the property of the COM
panv is reported as follows: