Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1913-09-23
THE Wall OF THE
TIMBERMAN
The Cry Of Distressing Tax
Valuations on Timber is
Scarcely Justified
TAX THREE CENTS PER M
Practice Of Valuing Timber
Lands by the Acre Wrong
Says Correspondent
EDITOR HERALD:

from time TO time, IN season ana
out of season, like Banquos ghost
appears the statement that the tim
most especially that standing in Che
halls county is being taxed out of ex-
istence. Many of the smaller timber
land owners announce that they must
cut their timber or lose it for taxes
A terrible contingency confronts us.
If all these folks decide to log at once
there will not be mills enough to cut
the logs. Picture, if you can, the
intense distress of the poor sawmill
man who has this season been COM
PEELED to close his plant for the rea-
son that temporarily logs could not
be had-the supply having been gaug-
ed too fine-when he sees raft after
raft with a sign on it reading, take
me away for $500 per thousand, $1.OO
down and $1,0O a month, interest at
and saw them all. They would be in
worse pickle than the miser who
dreams that he is buried to the neck
in gold dust, or the drunkard who
falls in a vat of wine. Real estate is
many times sold upon such conditions
but timber, we'll not lately.
The Tax eueaboo
The tax bugaboo posters the poor
and meek timber owner probably more
than any other class of property own
er. He realizes fully that if he can
harvest his crop" and remove the
proceeds to new forests he will never
again give a hoot what the county
taxes may be where his crop was pro-
duced without his aid or assistance.
And far be it from me to suggest such
thing; but the fact remains that
usually a non resident owner has
neither affection for not interest in
his "stubble lands" except to again
speculate at the expense of the COM
munity which was unfortunate enough
to attract his attention. Be it remem-
bered that not all timber owners come
in this class but as most of the tim
Der is owned by corporations and cor
porations have no heart-rarely any
thing more than a bank account and
dividend account-it is a safe hazard
that 80 per cent of all come under
this head.
Timber Taxes Per M Feet
But let us to the task of prying
the poverty stricken timber owner
from the slough of despond into which
he is now submerged. In the first
place he tells you that "the taxes on
timber land are more to the acre than
any county in the state" Sure, why
not? There is more timber to the
acre and it is of better quality than
any other county in the state. Would
you class the poplar groves along the
Why count and estimate timber by the
acre. AS reasonable to measure dia-
monds by the bushel, gasoline by the
pound or logs by the dozen. COUNT
GROWING TIMBER THE SAME AS
WHEN 1T is CUT, BY THE THOU
SAND FEET BOARD MEASURE
THAT 1T SELLS FOR TO THE LOG.
GER.
Now we are down to business: The
total amount of taxes levied for
county and state purposes for the
year 1912 amounted to a cash pay
ment of little less than two cents
(2c) on the dollar of ASSESSED VAL
UE, which was taken to be 40 cents
on the dollar of its actual value. School
taxes added about one-third of a
cent in all. The assessed value of
timber in 1912. according to its To-
cality, quality, quantity and so forth,
was placed af 80 cents PER THOU.
SAND FEET, grading down to 80, so
and a vast amount at so cents. In
no event, or at least in very few
cases would the tax upon thousand
feet of timber, standing in the woods
be more than THREE CENTS PER
THOUSAND FEET. Many a thrifty
person has gained for himself a COM
Portable pension for his old age by
acquiring cheap lands and then charg-
ing royalty of around 10c per thou
sand feet for the right to cross his
lands. This would pay more than
three years taxes-yet little roaring
has been heard. Just to bring out
the "heavy tax burden" feature, re-