The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-11-20
Stanley l.. Mack in Leslie's.

Stanley l.. Mack in Leslie's.
 TIBBING, MINN., the richest vil-
 lage on earth" is, perhaps, the ! ! most prodigal of municipalities. Owing to it's fight with it's principal tax payer, the United States Steel corpora ton, this town during the last re" months has gained considerable noto- rietv in the newspapers throughout the northwest. With it's population of about 10 ooo neople. Hibbing managed last year 'to spend more for running expenses than did the state of Delaware But when II promised to break that record this year. the mining interests paying taxes there revolted. They declared that they were heinz footed and on June 1 last, when their taxes fell due, they refused to pay them.
 Realizing that the withholding of about s750. .OOO from the village funds pending It. igation would virtually starve the village into submission to their demand TOT more economical and business-like ad- ministration of affairs, the mine owners announced that they would fight their taxes in the, courts unless they receiveo some assurance from the village officials that reckless expenditures from the tax fund would be stopped.
 Closely hedged in with mammoth mine pits which approach almost into the busi- ness section of the village Hibbing IS tvpical iron mining town. Twenty-Five nroducIng ore bodies are within Its cor norate limits and it is there that the Hull-Rust, the greatest open pit mine m the world in point of size and produc- tion, is located.
 TIibbing has the distinction of being the largest and richest incorporated village on the globe. It has within it's limits more taxable property than many of the larger cities of the United States. Its last assessed valuation. $S4,696,6S1. is greater than the valuation of all taxable property in the state of New Mexico. The state of Minnesota produces about three-fifths of the iron ore mined in the United States every year. and the Mes aba Iron range, on which the village of Hibbing is located, is the largest and most productive in the Lake Superior region. It is about 100 miles long and from two to 10 miles wide. The largest open pit mines in the world may be found there. and it is from these great holes in the earth that millions of tons of ore are removed annually.
 Victor L. Power, mayor of Hibbing. for the past three years, has been blamed for much of the municipal extravaganza charged to the village. He has publicly announced himself as an opponent of the Steel corporation, and is making polit- ical capital out of the fact. His friends in the iron country are' already talking him for governor of Minnesota. And at Hibbing, he is very popular with the men who do the voting, who, incidentally, are not the heavy taxpayers.
 In 1914. exclusive of the school costs, the net governmental costs in Hibbing for village purposes amounted to $1, ,155. .706. .92. according to official records. This means that every morning the village mayor started for his office he went to over see the expenditure of something more than $3100 for that day. The state of Delaware in 1914 spent less money. Last year it made governmental cost pay ments amounting to s7l6.65S.13. The fig ures for Delaware. however, include costs The Hibbing figures do not Tine report shows;
 That Hibbing last year carried a pay roll amounting to nearly oO.ooo. That