East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1908-08-25

, company has sold over oOO,OOO acres
of its lands and has realized near $4,-
100000 over So an acre. The lands
sold during the year ending June 30,
1907 brought an average Of $37.96 an
acre. II the balance Of the land is
sold at prices equal to its present as
sessed valuation the company will
realize $25, 100000. The deduction of
81, ,OOO,OOO for taxes, cruising, office
and other expenses, would leave $780,
OOO, 900, or $1,000 per mile for the
400 miles Of road for which the grant
was made.
Wagon Road Grants.
"There are no figures available
showing how much the wagon road
companies have received from the
state for the sale Of their lands, or
the number of acres remaining un-
sold.
"The Dalles military road grant
extends from The Dalles southeast
through Wasco, Sherman, Wheeler,
Grant and Malheur counties.
"The Willamette valley and Cas-
cade mountain military road grant
extends from Albany east through
Linn, Crook, Harney and Malheur
counties.
1.-THE oregon central military road
grant extends west from Roseburg
through the heart of Douglas and
Coos counties
THE Coos Bay Wagon road gram
extends west from Roseburg through
the heart of Douglas and Coos coun-
ties.
"The Corvallis and Yaquina Bay
wakon road grant extends west from
Corvallis through Benton and Lin
coin counties,
"The construction of these roads
was about the biggest graft ever
worked in this or any other country.
Circuitous routes were followed with
view of securing the most desirable
lands. 1t is about 800 miles on a di-
rect line from Eugene TO Jordan val
ley, but by the way OF the oregon
Central military road 1t is 420 miles.
Many of these roads for hundreds of
miles were nothing but a wagon track
through grazing or wild hay lands of
eastern Oregon, and the only cost at
tached to their construction was the
survey Of the route for the purpose
of filing maps in order to secure pat
ents to the granted lands, and many
miles followed roads constructed by
settlers; yet the company claimed
and secured patents for a distance
of three miles on either side of the
road.
MANY acres of the mountainous
and worthless lands acquired under
these grants were worked into forests
reserves and became available as base
or forest resere scrip, and in that way
sold for So and Sc an acre.
Graduated Land Tax.
"The way to break up these large
holdings is by taxation. The consti-
tuition should be amended so as to
permit the levying of graduated land
tax on unimproved values, as they
do in New Zealand, In New Zealand
every land owner, large and small,
pays an ordinary land tax of about
four mills upon unimproved values,
but holdings, the value Of which
amount to s25, 900, are taxed an addi-
tional one-quarter of mill and this
is gradually increased until 1t reaches
12 mllls-the rate on estates valued
at s1,O00,OOO and over
Nonresident owners pay an addi-
tional tax of so per cent of the
amount of the graduated tax. In
other words, the large land owner
pays four or five times as much per
acre as the small land owner does.
An acre OF Wild land is assessed just
the same as an adjoining acre of
highly improved dand. The result
is that 1t becomes improbable to
hold these large tracts of land, and
they are put upon the market and
sold in small tracts.