Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1911-08-10
RAILROAD COMMISSIONER Die.
cussEs VALUATION or RAIL.
ROAD PRoPERrIEs.
IOWA BEHIND NEloHBoRs
IN ASSESSMENT MATTERS
No Revision Of General Schedules Dur.
ing Past Twenty Ysars- Rates in
Iowa Higher Than in Adjacent States
Little Money Spent in Maintenance
Of Branch Lines.
pecial to Times-Republican.

Special to Times-Republican.
Des Moines. Aug. 1O.-Railroad Com
missioner Clifford Thorne has replied
sharply to criticism in a Des Moines
paper, which has protested against any
move to have made a physical valua-
ton of Iowa railroads. The paper. pre-
bly, in an article by William H.
Fleming. former secretary to Governor
Shaw. advances the familiar argument
that Iowa railroad values should not be
made to correspond with actual values
for taxation purposes because some
other classes of property are under
valued. Mr.. Thomas replies as follows:
Your statement that l favor a re-
valuation Of Iowa railroads is hardly
correct. We have never had even one
valuation worthy Of tho name. l am
most emphatically in favor Of this
commission making a physical valua-
ton of Iowa railroads. favor this,
first, because we are today totally at
sea as to what is the real value of our
railroads and the cost of reproduction
is one of the most, il not the most, i'm
portant factor to be taken into consid-
Grafton: and second, because the result
of similar work in other states has
have not had revision Of our general
schedule for over twenty years. The
present revenues of Iowa railroads may
be too high OF too low by 2 million dol
lars or SO every year. What do we
know about it? What have we to base
Iowa rates upon at the present time?
The supreme court of the United States
tells us the basis shall be the value Of
the property. The executive council
tells us Iowa railroads are worth $685.
100000; the national government told
us that their commercial value was
1914 200, 900 seven years ago; the COM
panies themselves estimated two years
ago that their properties actually cost
1920, 100000. There is almost hopeless
confusion The valuation fixed by the
executive council was purely incidental
so far as was concerned. Several
days prior to that had offered a reso-
luton before our board calling for a
physical valuation of Iowa railroads.
What has been the action and exper-
ject? 6
Work in Other States.
I'm Wisconsin when that commission
was reorganized and commenced It's
really active work. about the first thing
it did was to make physical valua-
ton of their railroads. Senator La Fol-
lotte is responsible for the statement
that it has meant saving to the citi-
zens Of Wisconsin of more than two
and a half million dollars annually.
The Minnesota commission may or
may not have gone too far. That re-
mains for the supreme court to say.
In the state Of Washington the COM
made a valuation. AS to the re-
suits I do not ask you to accept my
statement. I will quote from the report
Of the commission itself for 1910:
'"The value fixed by the commission
being greatly in excess Of the amount
at which the roads were formerly as
sessed was adopted by the tax commits
sion as the basis OF value for assess
ment purposes. The result had the
effect Of increasing the amount Of taxes
paid by the railroads Of the state more
than a million dollars year.
Taking a list Of the matters referred
TO, including taxation, the joint rate
on oats, barley. mill feed, and live stock,
reduction in distributive rates and gen.
eral distance tariff, the express rates
ON fruit and vegetables. the reduction
in grain rates and switching rates in
Tacoma. all Of which are in effect, 1t Is
to say that there is an an
nual benefit Of more than 100000 to
the people OF the state Of Washington.
"The result may be entirely different
In Iowa. We know that the tariff on
our main lines coming from all over
the west, the southwest and the north
west, added to our local traffic, Is very
dense We know many of the branch
lines in this state, which handle local
traffic only, are kept up at very little
expense. We also know the actual
rates charged on many articles are
higher than the actual rates in some
of our neighboring states. No action
should be taken along these lines un-
til a careful investigation has been
made. And the first step is to find the
value Of our railroads. This value will
not only aid US but 1t will be instructive
to the executive council and OF
assistance in the federal court
cases, as suggested in my former
statement. Your remarks about rail-
road taxes in Iowa may be cor
rect. That is outside my province.
I would reach no conclusion as to the
same until after careful investigation.
It may be interesting to you to know
that the taxes paid by railroads in Iowa
average less per mile than in most OF
(.~l>I 49, AH@ 1a{N
ures published by the interstate COM
merce commission on the subject show
that they average 81 per cent higher
500 Reward, 500.