Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-27
IN THE OLD DOMINION
FIGURES FROM
STATE AUDITORS REPORT.
Comparison Of Real Estate Holdings
Of White and Colored
Citizens.
Special Correspondence of The Star.

hhdMOND, va, january o. IoVt.
The annual report of State Auditor Marye
has been issued for the year ending Sep
TENDER 80, 1905. The report presents a
great deal Of information that shows the
resources the tax rate the receipts from
all sources, the expenditures and what each
county and city pays in the way Of GRIM
inal expenses. The property holdings of
the whites and blacks are separated, and
when comparisons are made the possessions
of the latter are small.
To begin with. the negroes own less than
one twenty-fifth of the real estate Of the
state, the actual figures being: Whites. 3D.
696, 191 acres; colored, 1885, 426, while the
value OF the holdings Is relatively smaller
than the acreage, the report showing that
the whites have to pay on a valuation OF
1851 $685. 72S and the blacks on $l1,2IS,343.
The foregoing applies strictly to real
estate and includes all properties owned by
whites and blacks in the counties well
as in the cities.
When it comes to personal property
which includes everything taxable that is
not listed as real property, the negroes
make a relatively better showing than they
do in the matter of real estate. The whites
own $131 ia, 416, while the blacks are held
to account for $5,9s8.0
In the matter of incomes the negroes
make possibly the worst showing in any OF
the comparisons to be found in the entire
report. The law is that all incomes in ex-
cess of $500 year shall pay to the state
per cent gross. This includes rents. Inherit
ances, slaries and moneys of every de-
scriptien in excess of 5000 received in any
one year. 1t is a notorious fact that thou
sands Of whites each year dodge" this item
on their tax lists. SO that the total paid
by the whites for this one item Is sos. :
TOE 70, while the negroes report only 500. 70
for the entire state, the bulk Of which
comes from this city. For the whites, the
city of Richmond pays more than all the
other cities combined, leading Norfolk by
turned there. The total from Richmond
is $39,427.60.
Crime in the State.
The study of the item of criminal ex-
penses is most interesting. The figures from
the report show that Norfolk county ex-
ponds about three times much as any
other county in the state in defraying the
expenses of the criminal element in that
section. The next county in the matter
of criminal expenses is Henrico, which sur
rounds the capital of the state and which
spent little more than $1,000 for the same
time and for the same purposes as did Nor
folk county. Highland county, one of the
mountain counties, Is the most orderly
county in the state, when the reckoning
is done on a financial basis That county
managed to get through the fiscal year for
$500.
During the year ended September 30 the
state paid only s1.910.26 for military aid to
the civil authorizes OF this amount, how
ever. all but $oJt was paid out by order OF
the governor for preventing the summary
execution Of men who had beel arrested
and were charged with assaults. This is
the smallest sum paid for several years for
aiding the civil authorities.
After paying all obligations-including
schools, pensions to the amount Of $500, 200,
interest on the public debt mot yet due).
all salaries, for immense sums for i'm
provements to the state capitol building, In
creased appropriations forthe educational
institutions and many other purposes. the
state had cash balance on hand October I,
1906 of more than $500. This year the
revenues of the state will be much larger
than at any time in her history and there
will be no drain on the treasury like that
Of last year, when many emergency calls
were needed.
The state corporation commission Is
wrestling with the problem Of enforcing the
two-cent passenger rate in the state, and
from what can be learned the matter Will
be undecided for a long time to come. The
commission summoned all the roads to
answer and file objections to the observance
of the regulation for a two-cent fiat rate.
and in the course of a week only one road
has been heard, and that not conclusively.
The commission will probably consider the
two rate questions simultaneoulsy-that of
freights and that of passengers-so that
the enforcement of the one will not conflict
with the other, and the more popular and
imperative shall have precedence over the
other.