The Alaska citizen., 1913-12-15
AMOUNT RECEIVED BY STATES IN
 LIEU OF TAXES

Mir Pinchot answers the complaint made by the States, and especially | the state of Washineton, that they are | not receiving adequate sums in lieu | If the taxes that they lose by these national forest reserves, in the fol
 lowing language:
 "Th" Western States now receive i for their schools and roads, in lieu | of taxes, 2a rer cent of the erosS reN-
 "nue from the national forests Up
 :" January 70, 1912, they have thus
 received $2,aoG.l0a, of which s1l5.205
 went to the state of Washington. The present congress has set asf1c an ad- | iitional To per cent for building roads,
 and over s2oo.oo0 has already been made available. In some places the proceeds from this 25 per cent of the
 eross revenue already exceeds what l would be produced by taxation under
 private ownership. In others il still
 falls short. In the end ii will surely
 exceed ii everywhere. rearson's mag i azin", May, 1919, D. 62%D"
 Let us analyZe these figures and
 see how they harmoniZe with his statement that the States are prac- | tically reimbursed for taxes thus lost ] He says the state of Washington in
 the eight years has received from
 r ,0o0. .00O acres of land s1l5.0OO. or | s14 4.i00 annually. or I l-i cents per | acre-a magnificent return surely on | some of the finest timber land in the world. estimated hy the Bureau of | Corporations that much of it is worth l from $l00 to s20o per acre. The con | ScrEationists" think that this lti00 should satisfy tn" state of Washin@-
 ton. Mr. PinChot says that in some | places it-referring to tine payment
 made by the Forest Service-alrcady
 exceeds what the taxes would he. H." 1 significantly does not name the places | How is il in the state of Washington? | I think that the valuation fixed by the Bureau of Corporations at from sl00 to s200 per acre is entirely too high. | Place il at one-fifth of their lowest | fi%Ure-s20 per acre. It would certain ly sell today for more than that. At 1 he rate of taxation imposed in our
 state upon private timber holdings 1 the state would receive. not the pitt ful sum of sl4.40o per year, but s7.- 1 593,500 annually. or. in other words, :! if this timhcr was permitted to be 1 i3Ntl Ill the state DI " tSillnSlbh dS we tax pri yate timber, would get 1 as much money for it every year as the Forest Service would pay us in I2S years This timber is fully worth | that much to the state of WaShington 'an any human being see why il is
 not worth equally as much to the Nd l ton? Will any man dispute that i rom the forest reserves of the stat" 1 of NaShinaton alone this Nation is an ~uallv losing more than sI,500 900? I The ma"nificcnt forests of the statc l of Washington, as valuable as any be
 heath the sun, the way they are now | administered are worth just 3-S cents | "er acre The state of Washin@ton, ae- | cordiG@ to the figures given hy Mr | "inchot himself. has already lost in | the nast eight years more than seq, l 0nh 000. And this vast sum has been
 absolutely wasted. benefiting no one | beneath the stars, except that it has | a1ded to the wealth of the railroads | and the Weyerhaeuser syndicate and other private timber owners, and the 1 few inexperienced youths, called in | forest language "silviculturists. what 1 ever that may mean, have received salary from the government for their | fI1 ph