The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1915-08-26
N. P. SANDERS APPEARS
BEFORE STATE BOARD

UAl VNU VI u UVaNV
Bismarck, Aug. 24.-M. T. Sanders,
tax commissioner of the Northern Pa
cific railway company, appeared be-
fore the state board of equalization at
it's meeting Monday morning, regard
ing the assessment of that road. Mr..
Sanders said that he was prepared to
concede that the valuation placed up
on the railroads in North Dakota were
low as compared with other states,
but that it must be borne in mind that
all other property in the state is
placed upon he tax rolls at low val
uation. For many years the railroads
have contended that the lands of the
state were not assessed at more than
sixteen and two-thirds per cent of
their actual value; and that the gen.
eral property of the state is not as
sessed higher than fifteen per cent of
it's real value. That this contention is
now corroborated from several sourc-
es. He read at length from the report
of the state tax commission, wherein
that commission compares the assess
ed valuations with the valuations as
found by the federal census enumrea-
tors, and quoted from that report.
"The value of all farm lands in the
state as returned by the enumerators
was $730,38O,131; and by the asses
sors but $146,651,672. The average
census value per acre was $25.69;
the assessment value was $4.26, max
ing the ratio of the assessed to the
census value 1876 per cent. The cen
sus enumerators valued farm build
ings at $92,274,613, while the asses
sors found but II per cent of that
amount. Farm implements were re-
turned by the enumerators at $49,-
907595, while the assessors returned
but per cent of that sum-
Mr.. Sanders read further from the
tax commission report that in the
applications for farm loans the av-
erage value claimed by the owners is
$29.O4 an acre, while the assessed
value of these same lands is $4.26 per
acre, or 14.7 per cent of the owners
valuations.
The farm lands in the state CON-
prise the great bulk of the total value
of the state, and if they are not as
sessed at one-sixth of their actual
value, then the railroads ought not
be assessed higher than one-sixth of
actual value.
Personal property is not assessed
as high as real property, probably
not higher than 10 per cent of the
real value. In the recent publication
of the census bureau, entitled, "Esti-
mated Valuation of National Wealth."
it was shown that the wealth of North
Dakota for the year 1912 was $2,141,-
626,961. For that year the total as.
sessment was $294,77O,325, or 1877
cent of actual value. Mr.. Sanders
then called attention to the fact that
in 1890 the first state board of equal
ization assessed the farm lands at an
average valuation of $3.SS an acre:
in 1914 the farm lands were assess
ed at $4.3O an acre, an increase of
AZ cents, or of only II per cent in "a
years; while during the same period
the Northern Pacific had been in
creased 1852 per cent.
Mr.. Sanderson then discussed the
report of DR.. Durand, claiming that
his theory of capitalizing the net earn
ings of railroad at per cent, in or
der to arrive at it's value, was con-
trary to the decisions of the courts
and the economists; and that per
cent basis should be used. That DR..
Durand had taken the very highest
figure of valuation he could work out
from some eight different methods of
valuation, but that even admitting the
Durand figures as the value of the
Northern Pacific, the fact still ap-
peared that that company was assess
ed shade higher than the farm
lands, greatly higher than the per-
sonal property, and much higher than
the total of all the other property.
John Samels; of Martin, was bus