El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-07-10
Railroads Report an In
creased Valuation on Their
Trackage. 81

Phoenix, AriZ, July 10.-AriZona
railroad reports have been received
and are now in the hands of the boards
CT equalization. The highest valuation
is given by the Southern Pacific, which
gives its trackage at $4,000 a mile
The Santa Fe places valuation OF
S1S,5OO on its track and from these
flgureS the valuations grade down 10
almost nothing in the cases of some
| of the smaller roads.
You will understand" Mr.. lander
said, that these are the figures given
by the roads themselves. They are in
no sense binding upon the commission
and IN some instances they VIII be
raised materially. We are convinced
that heretofore the railroads of Ari-
iona have been paying much less in
/ taxes than they should have paid and
1t IS our business to see that the con-
dition is changed"
In the case of the large mines, the
amount OF taxation generally has been
doubled. In a few instances there has
been little change; but in the cases Of
most going mines that is the rule.
In a good many counties individual
assessments also show much larger re-
turns In some cases a larger amount
Of property has been returned, and this
IS especially true IN the stock raising
counties. Thousands of sheep and cat
tie have been listed this year that
seem to have escaped the assessors on
previous occasions.
The net result of all this activity is
to Increase the valuation of property
in the state from $100,0O0.00O. the
amount for last year, to approximate
~ $lSO,O0O,OOO, an increase of close to
so percent. The rate of state taxes
will be about 20 cents of the 500.
To this will be added the road tax,
for which q rate will be fixed to pro-
duce S25O000, the annual appropria-
ton provided for by the special Ses-
sion of the legislature. There are some
special charges in addition to this, but
the tax commission believes the road
rate will not exceed about Is cents
1t was % cents last year.
Having Trouble With Laws.
The corporation commission, as well
as various business enterprises, are
having all sorts of trouble with some OF
the laws passed by the late leSisIa-
tUre. For instance, there is the act
known as the Kansas blue sky law, an
act which requires stock statesmen to
register with the corporation commits
sion and to submit statements relating
to their enterprises before any of their
stock may be offered for sale. And
it is further provided that before such
stock can be offered the corporation
commission must certify that it will
probably give satisfactory return on
the investment.
we find ourselves in a funny stu
alton because of that law" L. A. Jones,
one of the members of the commission,
said. IF a stock looks all right we
have to certify to its value. OF course
we don't make ourselves personally re-
spOnsible, but we come the next thing
to it. And then, how is it possible for
anybody to certify to the value of
some kinds of stock? This is a min
ing state and we are anxious our min
ing sections be developed We want
people to go to work and open up
mines in undeVelOped sections; and
when they do, how can we or anybody
living tell whether they are going to
pay? The same thing is true in an oil
proposition. No man knows what is
going to happen when an oil well is
sunk, and yet unless we certify that
these speculative enterprises will prob
ably pay fair dividends these men can
not offer a dollars worth of their
stock for sale in Arizona"
That is bad enough but there are
plenty more difficulties. For instance
there is considerable trouble in store
for the railroads. One of the anti
railroad laws provides that all locOmO-
tiYes shall be equipped with 1900 candle !
power electric headlights. But what |
good Will electric headlights do in our
case?" one railroad man inquired |
Ours in a small line and we don't run |
any trains at night. Do we have to
carry electric headlights in the day !
timer"
Apparently they do If the law means |
what 1t says; for 1t says specifically |
that all locomotives shall be so |
equipped.
And there is another feature about |
this law There probably never was Il
legislature more bitterly opposed to |
in all its forms; but as it /
turns out there is just one company
lures the kind of electric headlights de- |
scribed in the law; so, consciously or |
unconsciOusly, the legislature created !
an absolute monopoly in the sale of |
electric headlights in Arizona
There are numerous other instances