The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-07-13


emit methods Of appraising real estate
for purposes Of taxation and point
ing out the remedy. This article tells
how w. A. Somers discovered and first
applied in st. Paul his scientific sys-
tenn for measuring land values. Fu-
ture articles will show how 1t is pos
sibie for any community to be equf-
,tably assessed by ascertaining com
mHndty judgment and applying such
Judgment mathematicaiiy TO each
ownership OF real estate.)
The American people have been
long suffering in the matter Of the
appraisal of their real property for
tax purposes.
Tho function OF governmental ac-
tivity that Is called the assessment
has always called forth the bitter
crittoisms and often the vitupera-
ton of the pe,ple. The people have
been HELPLESS before a complete lack
Of syst~1i and consequent lack OF
equity betwee. the taxpayers.
And Notwithstanding all this. as
sess11ersss of real property In nearly
every city in the United States and
In every village and country district
are being made today in the manner
they w1re made fifty years ago Only
one man in all that time has devel-
oped the inventive genius, together
with the inclination and opportunity
for IT'S use, to bring into existence
system by which the bitter criticisms
and the vituperations OF the people
would be made superfiuous and with
out meaning.
That man Is w. A. Somers, formerly
Of ST Paul, Mimi, and now of New
York city.
In the early 'e0s Mr.. Somers was
city engineer OF the city of st. Paul.
For more than ten years he had been
connected with the engineers depart
ment Of that city, first IS assistan mt
engineer and then as chief engineer
Before that he had been in the real
estate business. and during his office
holding years he kept in close touch
with the real estate activities of the
city. His especial work In the. engi-
neer's department was consideration
of special assessments for local i'm
provements. which caused hin to
study. in a crude way as compared
with his later investigations, the effect
of improvements and the extent OF
their financial effect upon land area
St. Paul First Assessed.
While chief engineer of St Paul. a
lawyer friend of Mr.. Somers accepted
the post Of assessor of real property
on the condition imposed by the as
SCISSOR that he would turn the Job
over to Engineer Somers.
st. Paul at that time was recover
ing from a recent land boom. Prices
as compared with values had been
very much Inflated The reaction had
set in and prices were very much
lower than they had been,
and very much lower than the as
sessment figures While inequalities
existed as between property values,
the assessment as whole was too
high, which added to the general con-
fusion that always exists In assess
ments made without rhyme or rea.
son, produced an intolerable situation.
( 1t was this situation that led to the
selection of the lawyer to be assessor;
and It was his own Arm belief that
he was not equal to the task that led
him. by permission to turn the whole
work over to Mr.. Somers-
When Mr. Somers took hold OF the
assessment work OF St. Paul, he d.
rected his attention first to the old
assessment figures. An examination
| of those figures disclosed a woeful
lack of uniformity of Judgment of
value not only as between property
on different streets. but also on prop
critics upon the same street and close
together. There was every evidence
of the lack of any systematic method
Of obtaining opinions of value or of
using opinions that were obtained or
arbitrarily arrived at
I Being of a mathematical turn OF
mind. and his whole habit OF thought
and action running in the direction
/ of systematic methods. Mr.. Somers
! first began to analyze. 1t occurred to
him that II would be we'll to learn
the difference in opinions of value be-
tween lots at corners and inside lots.
W iv,c~
corner and inside lots. and sent them
out to tho real estate operators Of the
city. Fortunately for this sort Of an
investigation. which was at best but
Fishing excursion" as the lawyers
might term 1t. the lots Of ST. Paul
were for the most part of uniform
depth OF 100 feet. and there were
many corner lots so by 100 in size.
knowledge OF Streets.
The big thing that this request for
help upon a methodical basis resulted
in was to make It clear to Mr.. Somers'
mind that there was in the minds
of the citizens a tremendous amount
/ of information and opinion about the
use of the streets of the city Of St
Paul 1t developed that many peo-
pie. real estate men and others as
well, knew a great deal about the rela-
Tive usefulness of the streets of that
Ito develop what he called Community
lopinion" that Mr.. Somers bent his
energies The discussion concerning
the relative values Of corner and in
i side property. the differences in the
values Of the front half and the rear
half Of 100-foot lot. was tabulated
and analyzed and applied.
Mr.. Somers undertook to reduce the
method of comparing the values OF
corner and near-corner lots with In
side lots to a mathematical basis.
HE understood, though at that time
this idea had not been expressed In
words. that there was mathemati-
lcal relation between the values Of any
|Awo lots affected by the same street
influences, and he proceeded to place
upon paper some quick method that
would result in uniformity of express
lsion as to just wha. ,hst re,ation WAS
He finally produced what he termed
his scales" which consisted. of dia-
4 grams. from which the relative values
tof regular SO by 100-foot lots. second
lots ana inside lots could be com
pared While these scales were clusn-
lsy in their operation. they were found
Ito analyze accurately and mathemsti-
Icaliy the differences In most of the
Irregular sizes and shapes OF lots found
lin 81. Paul that year So accurate
9tAsr,A n~alAa hAAn found II