Arizona republican., 1913-11-10

Ing world, to examine all of the copper and iron mines in Michigan and report to the commission his opinion of their value. The time given MT. F'inlay to make this exam ination and report was very short but he quickly organized a staff of assistants and the results. as a whole, were quite satisfactory to the com mission, though later on cases of in equality developed which the Tax Commission and the local assessors have been attempting to straighten out.
 It should here be borne in mind that the valuation of the mines as determined by MT. Finlay were by no means the valuations which were placed upon the assessment books of the various counties. The Tax Com mission, for example, might from it's study of assessments conclude that one of the counties in the Upper Peninsula should be assessed at $5O,- OOO, ,OOO From the information which it had it might have assumed that the mines were worth $40,000,000 and the other property in the county $1O,0OO, 900. It thereupon certified to the County Board of Supervisors that the county assessment must total $50, 900, 900. It was then left entirely to the Board of Supervisors as to how that money should be divided, and if they in their judgment thought that $25, 5,0O0,0 GOO was enough for the mines, then the balance Of the prop erty in the county had to come in for the other S25, 100000. l am in formed and believe that practically this state of affairs exists in Tough ton county today this being the county in which the famous Calumet and Hecla mines lie
 In determining the value of the copper mines in Michigan, Mir Fin lay had a comparatively simple prob lem as all of these mines are com paratively narrow beds. averaging say 14 feet wide, and dipping at very regular angle to the northwest. Some of these mines were only 1000 feet deep, but one of them was at least 5000 feet measured on the slope. an other one was 5000 feet, and several were 5000 feet. These IOdes as a whole are pretty uniform, so that af- ter mine had been worked down $1,00O feet, and the relative prOpOr- ton of pay ground and poor ground determined, it was easy to assume a life of the mine, estimating that the ultimate depth of the mine would be in the neighbOrhood of 1000 feet. Taking then an average price of copper, and taking the costs of producing this copper. and figuring in the life of the mine, MT. Finlay arrived at a certain valuation for the various copper mines of the Upper Penisula. He did not have the problem, as in Arizona, of two radi- caIy different types of mines, but had a problem, which might be con sidered a compromise between the two, that is. the steeply dipping vein whose future life could be fairly well predicted.
 When, however Mr. Finlay took up iron mines of the state, he was up against an entirely different prob lem, for here the ore occurs in most irregularly shaped masses, develop ment in many cases was not carried far ahead, and, in my opinion the valuation put by him on the iron mines was too low and against the interests of the state simply for the reason that MT. Finlay was unable to. and from the nature of things could not, determine the ultimate life of the iron mines, assuming that he was fairly correct in determining the value of the copper mines. Had the value of both the iron and the cop per mines in Michigan been based upon the annual profit I believe that the revenue of the state would have been greater and that a large amount of dissatisfaction would have been avoided
 The present arrangement in Mich igan is almost ludicrOus in it's re suits. A ledger is to be kept and an account is to be opened with each mine. It is to be charged up with the new ore developed during the year, and it is to be credited with the ore shipped. Ap immense amount of office work is to be carried on, a corps of mining engineers is to be employed. and when they get all through they are not better off than if they assessed the mine each year on the basis of what it had produc- ed for the year before.
 This is supposed to be an era of conservation. and yet if you will proceed to assess and to tax mineral resources, which in the ordinary de mand of the country should not be taken out for twenty years to come, are you putting q premium on the early exploitation of it's natural re- sources, and are you not inducing the owner to get it out and sacrifice it. rather than to hold it in reserve for later generation. It is of course, admitted, that we must not deprive ourselves of necessities, or even moderate amount of luXuries, for the unborn generation, but cer- tainly we do not wish to repeat in our mineral industry what we have done in the past in our timber in .dustry Along this line of argument it is to be noted that Pennsylvania has made an arrangement by which cut-over lands which are reforested are taxed but a nominal amount until such time as the timber is developed and is ready to be cut and sold. Whether the percentages adopted in Arizona are sufficiently high, it is not for me to say, in fact the leg l +I 1ax on