The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1927-10-07

great majority. II THESE tcuUoVers
lands justified the payment of en- -
rent taxes, these owners would have
laid them rather than imperiI and
o. ssibIy lose the title to their land
and write OFF, their investment as a
loss. But so per cent or more OF
Them. elmer have already done this
or are in the process of doing It,
having ceased to pay taxes.
'.The actuating motive for tax pay
ments on such lands has so far been
the belief in their ultimate use as
farm land. The failure OF the lands
20 be brought into such use. or even
TO be purchased by farmers, is the
underlying cause OF tax delinquency.
The immediate cause is the Increased
buroen of taxes, brought on by the
public program OF expansion OF
roads, schools and county expenses,
In the effort to encourage agrlcui-
Cural development on lands which
nave not proved adaptable for use.
Northern Minnesota pinned. It's
faith on agricultural settlement,
disregarding both the physical and
economic limitations to be met. For
ms policy lumbermen alone were
not responsible. Had they attempted
70 withhold vast areas from sale and
settlement they would have incurred
che same hostility as was shown at
the very time toward the withdrawal
of the Minnesota national forest
lands at Cass Lake, which was COG
sidered as lnlmical to the best IN
rerests of the region because 1t
blocked settlement.
Best Use For Timber.
sfHad a more far-sighted view
been possible in these earlier days
1t might have been recognized that
much of this land would find its
best use in continuous production
OF timber crops. This would have
prevented the heavy pubic expendi-
lures which have saddled debt and
nigh taxes on cutover lands, and
greatly increased the difficulty Oh
oevotlng them even to timber pro-
duction.
"Lumbermen perhaps might have
looked far. enough ahead and had
the courage to undertake forest pro
duction had the public been IN SYM
patty with such use of the land.
But the plain facts are that the
settlers themselves We're hostile to
such policy, set numerous fires while
clearing land, regarded burning as
an aid in settling the country, and
do yet in some districts, and were
largely behind the policy of develop
ment of roads and schools which
led to high taxes, expecting to OBJ
tain the bulk of these taxes from
wild lands and nonresident owners.
In many sections, timber trespass
ways and still is common practic.
on the lands of nonresidents. Such
public policies, openly advocated,
made the business of growing new
forests on a large scale a financial
risk of the first magnitude and one
which no lumberman had the cour-
age or disposition to face.
"Now, when all but three or four
of the large timber operators have
cut out and with their. holdings,
originally blocked up in manageable
areas, now scattered by sales to
small absentee owners throughout
the United States, the same public
attitude persists, that any adjust
ment of public expenditures look
ing towards restoration of sane
and rational use of cutover nonag-
ricultural lands for timber crops
is merely a device to escape the
payment of taxes on the part of the
big lumbermen who ruined the
country but cutting the timber and
now want to grow another crop
without bearing their share of taxa
tion.'
"The tax figures above quoted
Indicate the true situation. With
three times as much tax delinquency
for small absentee SPECTATORS as
for the large owners; with SO per
cent of such small holdings delin-
quent; with only one-third of the
region held in bloch of over 400
acres, of which a considerable per-
centage- is held by land spectators
and not by operators, it should be
evident that tax delinquency de-
ponds not on ownership, but pri-
marily on whether land owners,
large or small, lumbermen, specu-
lators or farmers can see a pros
pect of earning profit at some
future time after meeting the taxes
they have to pay and their other
operating expenses.
Owners of nonagricultural lands,
when they find out that they can
not sell these lands at a profit for
uses of which they are not suitable,
will cease paying taxes on them un-
less they can substitute some other
future source of profit which will
justify the retention of the land.
Forest production, is the most
promising substitute, but the reve-
nue. is long deferred and cannot
justify heavy tax burden annually
during the interval of growth.
"With so per cent of small hold
ings in wild land delinquent, the
contribution which these lands now
make to public revenue is equiva-
lent to but one-half the taxes that
are levied-and all these lands re-
main unproductive with the posi-
bility that this ratio of payments
will sink much lower. In actual
application, therefore, these lands
as a whole pay revenue equal to
but half of the rate of other lands,