Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-05-13
local resources, or in the virtual
confscation of local property
through excessive taxation.

|
ington realty for taxation at STA 600. 600
| and realty and personally combined al
a total valuation of s933, 600, from
which tax revenue of s15.211.9o5 should
he says. without hardship be derived
and on the basis of these vast imaginary
taxable resources, he pronounces the
| local community capable unaided. OF
performing the nations task of main
| tanning and developing the nations city
on the grand national scale and plan
designed by its founders and now in
operation.
Washington is no more able today. rel
atively. to bear this burden than it was
in 1885. and in the seventies, when in
patriotic and public-spirited effort to
perform the nations task it worked it,
self into bankruptcy. The city is more
populous. more prosperous and has more
taxable resources than In the last cen
fury, but the burden of captal-maki king
and northumberland has grown
heavier in vastly greater proportion than
its own increase in strength.
To assert that Washington realty on
the average basis of American assess
ment for taxation is TO he valued and
taxed at s744 200. 900. and to base a seri-
nance and development on this wildly
preposterous assertion, is to build on a
foundation that crumbles the moment
pressure is applied to it,
Washinston's taxed realty, as We have
seen. is only fraction Of its area. and
constantly decreasing fraction. owing
TO successive concentrations OF taxed
taxed fraction does not include the city's
great workshops. its largest industrial
plants. represented in other cities by
mills and factories standing for millions
of taxable property. Here our great
mills and factories and workshops are
Uncle Sans property, and do not figure
at all in the assessment roll
Representative Crisp proposes to assess
and tax this decreasing fraction of the
capitals area. thus deprived of the
ment. at a figure which values it as
worth more than twice as much as the
whole of wealthy, busy. industrial Balti-
more, with 22i.416 greater population;
more than twice as much as the whole
of the magnificent city Of Cleveland with
its great industrial establishments and its
population 229. 1914 larger than that of the
District
More Than Cleveland and Baltimore.
The taxed fraction of Washington is
valued at s4o.0OO,00O more than Baltimore
and Cleveland combined: at nearly three
times as much as the whole city of De-
troit; at over sls.O0O.O0O more than New
Orleans. Indianapolis, Louisville and St.
Paul combined.
The $4,000 Westinghouse. one-third
coiored, and including an extraordinary
percentage of non-taXpaying transients.
deprived of the taxable resources and
even the usual means of self-support of
the ordinary industrial city. are to pay
in taxes more than the million of Balti-
moreans and Clevelanders combined.
Since the average American rate of taxa
ton is to be applied the 10000 Washing
ton taxpayers. nearly all small property
owners. crippled and cramped in money
making in every conceivable fashion,
are to pay In taxes to sustain on a ma
tional scale the nations city more than
the aggregated taxpayers of New Orleans
Indianapolis, Louisville and st. Paul pay
in municipal taxes.
Does not the proposition on the slight
est examination reduce itself to an abb
surdity?
The following table gives the realty
assessments in 1910 of the cities above
referred to. raised to the 100 per cent val
uation basis:
Baltimore 1850. Il .eol
nleveiand ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS so. s4l $50
e. 80 3D. 3D. ~ W
,noiahHpoiis ..--..-.-........' SVf oS.. 10
Washington CRISP valuation, .744, 900, 900
Let us compare Mr.. Crisps total
imaginary assessment valuation of
Washington with those of other Ameri-
can cities, as shown in terms of actual
assessment in the census of 1910:
Washington CRISP valus tom 1885, 900, 900
chicago ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. S4S.994, 53S
81 Louis Gl}..93, 112
Cleveland .-.........-.......- 1870. so
baltimore commandments. t's..o3.',5 III
hesrolt -..-...--.....-.-....-'- 5.2'oao'SS
Buffalo .'39, sol ,9l.,
San Francisco ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 519, l2O, ?S9
MILWAUKEE, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, 2tt.ot3. lJ0
inrlnnatl ..,..-.......-.--... 2.6 Zl:', S6p
NeWaIk ---..-.-..--.- ...-...''-- .,to,Sn3.a .
These cities are all larger and richer
than Washington. Mr.. Crisp proposes to
value for taxation the taxed fraction of
real estate and the limited personal prop
erty in Washington as worth more than
all of Chicago. and not very much less
than Cleveland. milwaukee,, Cincinnati
and New Orleans combined.
Atlanta. Ga, with population of ia. $50
dn 1910, has a total assessed valuation
1910 of 1920. $50. 49s. per capita assess
cd valuation of $77S.1O and a per capita
tax levy of 1913.
Mr.. Crisp would value local Washing
ton. as contrasted with these figures. at
SE'3.UO.GD, more than seven times as
much as Atlanta; would fasten a per
capita assessment on WaShingtonianS of
$3.50, and would exact per capita tax
levy of $43 ION the revenue estimate of
S15.21 $3.50, or of $50 ION his alternative
revenue estimate OF s13.699, $50. or Of
S34. 80 tthe property tax levy alone). At
the same time Mr.. Crisp says of Washing
ton: There are a few manufactures in
Washington. very few wholesale houses.
practically no manufacturing industries
or enterprises"
Mr.. Crisp proposes that the 10000 tax
NfN vi,