The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1921-12-22
CLIPPINGS
RAILROAD TAXATION

OF the IdllTOdu IdAdt1OH Was q COIAl-
plete surprise to many. as few be-
ieved that railroads paid any such
amount, but were complaining of
their own taxes.
While the Union Pacific is con-
sidered the best built and best run
railroad in Kansas, with the heaviest
Of rails and best of equipment, as is
best shown by its stock being way
above par, while others run in the
eighties, yet other roads are paying
in other counties very heavy taxes.
Barton county has the main line of
the Santa Fe and the branches, and
the Missouri Pacific and branches
121 miles of track and forty-two
miles of side track, and has on its
assessment rolls $4,627,235 to tax.
Rush county has the main line of
the Missouri Pacific and the Scott
City line of the Santa Fe from. Great
-sixty-two miles of track and
nine miles of siding, with an assessed
valuation of S2,195,976 on its tax
rolls.
Rocks county has the Missouri Pac-
life at Stockton, and the Union Pacific
which runs from Salina to Colby, with
forty-nine miles of road and over four
miles of siding and has on its tax
books S1,36O,512 of railroad prop
erty.
Russell county has the main line of
the Union Pacific and the Colby
branch in the north part, so has ST.
375,919 of railroad to tax
Phillips county has the Rock Island
at Phillipsburg, the Burlington to
Oberlin, the Missouri Pacific to
Lenora, with seventy-eight miles of
track and eleven miles of siding, so
has 81, $50, 1888 of railroad property
to help pay its county. city and town
ship and school taxes.
Ford county, with Dodge City as
county seat, has always worked for
railroads. 1t has four in the county,
two each of the Santa Fe and the
Rock Island, and has the pleasure of
taxing l4,36O,675 of railroad prop
erty-ninety-nine miles of track and
forty-eight miles of side-track to help
pay expenses. No wonder they pros
per and are pushers.
While Ellis county has only the
Union Pacific with its thirty-one
miles of main track and seventeen
miles of side-track, with $1.97O,OOO
valuation to tax.
Many here remember the Missouri
Pacific coming to Rush county, how
they voted bonds, they got thirty-One
miles of that track, and it is assessed
at million and a quarter dollars.
Then some remember how the
Union Pacific built the Plainville
branch, and it got thirty-five miles of
track, and over a million dollars of
taxable railroad property in return
for the bonds they voted.
In 1887, when everybody was
building railroads in Kansas, the
Santa Fe offered to extend the Little
River-Holyrood branch to Hays. Hays
and Wheatland voted bonds, then laid
down and went to sleep while Free
dom voted down the proposition. That
road withdrew the proposition the
next day and never offered to come
again. It is on the tax list in Barton
county at over $4,000 a mile. and
the Galatia branch only built last year
is paying taxes on a $4,000 a mile
valuation for its thirty-one miles, and
Ellis county should have had twenty
six miles for thirty-three years.
That same year the Santa Fe built
from Great Bend to Rush Center and
Ness county, and both counties have
the road on their tax list at over $685.
600 a mile and have had for over
thirty years. But Hays lost the OP-
PORTUNITY over night, and no
amount of coaxing could get them to
give another election a chance. And
this taxation value is not done by the
various counties but by the State of
Kansas Board of Taxation and must
be paid the same as your assessment
and taxes. Yet some people think it
does not cost much to run a railroad
and that freight and passenger rates
are high. They have to get this money
from somewhere to help pay their
taxes, especially their taxes and in
terest on their indebtedness. And the
railroads have not word to say about
these rates. Everything is ordered
and done by the Interstate Commerce
Commission at Washington, while the
National Labor Board at Chicago set