The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1926-04-30
AUDITOR CHASE ON
TIMBER LAND TAX.
FIRES, HIGH TAXES, LONG
CROP YEARS CAUSE OF
OBSTACLES IN TIMBER
GROWTH.

The fire hazard, the long period
of years required for each crop to
mature, and u present system OF
taxing timber on the %cut-over lands,
are the three great obstacles that
must be overcome in the develop
ment of forests on the cut-over
lands of Minnesota, said Ray +.
Chase, state auditor, in a statement
issued Friday. He said in part:
I'm the development of forests
on the cut-over lands of Minnesota,
among some difficulties, three great
obstacles must be overcome:
1.-THE long period of years re-
CURED for each crop to mature.
1.-The great and ever recurring flre
hazard.
"Our present system of taxing
timber on the cut-over lands.
The first cannot well be avoided.
The processes of nature in growing
trees to maturity cannot well be
FASTENED even by the application of
scientific forestry principles, but h
experience of old world countries
proves that profits will accrue from
raising timber of much longer life
span and slower growth than the
native timber of Minnesota. There
fore, while the requisite period OF
time is an obstacle which cannot
be overcome, it is not of sufficient
Importance to prevent the growing
of timber, does not preclude timber
from being as profitable a crop as
some other crops, and as compared
with the life expectancy of the
United States, the length of time is
trivial.
''The fire hazard is an obstacle
which can be overcome. Forest
fires will be controlled whenever the
state and all its communities be-
come convinced that forests are
worth saving. No nation, state,
municipality or community will sit
idly by indefinitely and permit the
annual destruction of property
deemed valuable by its citizens.
The fire menace will be fought and
the fire hazard controlled effective
ly just as is done now by the fire
departments of our larger cities.
Successful forest fire fighting is
a very real problem to forestry men,
timber men and to the legislature
and people of Minnesota.
"As to the third, it has been
proved with equal fnality that no
excessive forest reproduction will
be attempted under our present sys-
TEN of taxation.
"In every country where forests
have been developed successfully,
tax laws were modified in order to
make development profitable and
therefore possible. Unjust taxation
hurts every individual and all in
dividuals in the commonwealth, and
it can be proved easily that every
man in Minnesota is paying an un-
just tax. Even if he pays nothing
directly in a direct property tax, he
is helping some one else to carry a
tax burden.
at is not the fault of the cut
over lands, nor is it the fault of the
present legislature, that we have an
unjust basis of taxes on timber and
cut-over land. Rather, it is the re-
suit of constitutional provisions in
herited by us from men who based
their thought and action upon the
experience of older sections to whom
idle cut-over lands were unknown
and hence, to a degree, inconceiv-
able.
SIN Minnesota, our cut-over lands
are taxed like all other lands. Land
is able to bear a tax burden only to
the extent to which it is productive
and since so great an area of orr
cut-over land lies idle AMI produces
nothing, how can it pay? Yet taxes
upon it must be paid if state,
county, township and school district
governments are to function. If