Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1916-04-01

$I00, 068, 000 in AZ years $500, 1860,
in so years $500, 272,000; in u years
$500, 544 90. At per cent interest
this would earn S48,032,640 annually
which is many times more than
critics of this plan can offer any
time in the future from the earnings
of all our resources by handling them
under any other plan that mas been
proposed.
This is impossible, these are magi-
cal figures, some say. Bear in mind
that we took only one-tourth the val
ue of our resources 10 start this fund
Now divide by four the amount thai
would accrue from this one-fourth
under this plan in the time stated.
The result is only one-Sixteenth OF thu
possibilities of the plan il all our
holdings were sold at the low price OF
S16.14 per acre, and still we have
eight times the capital, with eight
times the earnings, that we ever can
have if all the lands are sold under
the present system at the same
price per acre. 1t seems to me that
taking only one-Sixteenth OF the pos
sible accumulations is certainly con
servative enough.
Now | do not maintain that we
would reach this enormous total In
the time stated from this small part
OF our capital alone, because we
would use part OF this revenue to
help reduce our tax burdens and
also reduce the interest rate to bor-
roWers from this fund. | am merely
trying to give an idea OF how inter
est ON interest piles up. The subject
is too big to handle in one address.
| have delivered a number OF ad-
dresses in order 10 present the matter
fully and these will be circulated in
due time
II we follow the present system
we will never have a capital Of more
than fifty to one hundred million dol
lars, with maximum earning capa-
city of not more than $6,000,000. By
adopting the policy | have suggested,
we can build up a fund large
enough within reasonable time to
make Idaho taxless forever.
| advise the using of a part Of
the earnings of this fund to help
pay the current expenses of govern
ment, but never to use all the revenue
but allow them % accumulate and in
crease. BY wisely conserving this
fund the first few years we can make
material reductions In our tax bur-
dens and yet keep the capital in
creasing so that taxes will continue
to grow less until they entirely dis
appear.
There are indirect benefits as well
as direct benefits that will follow
the adoption of this plan. The adding
of 100000 acres of land to the tax
rolls, with improvements and persona
property that will follow as matter
of their development, win Of itself
d crease taxes by providing more
property and more people to pay
them. Another indirect benefit will
be the saving in interest charges to
the people of the state of from two
to three per cent per annum, which
of itself lis equivalent to a very ma
terial reduction in the taxes Of every
borrower. We could begin to supply
our own people money at six per
cent, dropping to five, and then to
four per cent. This money should be
loaned on real estate security only, |
taking care of the farm loans first,
and then we could buy school, county
and state bonds. When the local de-
mand for money ceases, II ever 1t
does, we can buy the bonds OF other
states that have not had the fore
sight to put q similar plan in opera
ton