The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-09-05
.On This
Occasion
. Just few thoughts by the Editor
} on things Material and Immaterial.

Several times within the past few
years we have informed the granger
counties of the state, who have made
it a practice to refer to this county as
producing nothing but "Snowballs and
iron ore," that we had more farms
than any other county in the state.
We take it all back. The last census
shows that there is one county IN the
state that has more farms than st.
Louis county and this is Otter Tail
county. At the time We made the
statement, we were right. On January
/. 1925, we had 6,951 farms while the
1880 census shows 1883, loss OF 2,093
in those five years. However, in 1920
we had 4,271 and the ten year increase
was 587. These census figures shat
ter the belief held in the southern end
of the state that all they can get out
of us is taxes.
The statements made were pooh
poohed. However, the census figures
should prove them. We can also state
that the shipments of dairy products
out of st. Louis county are larger than
from any other county. The port
records of Duluth show this. With the
coming of the waterway via. the ST.
Lawrence to the ocean and direct con-
nection with foreign ports, these ship
ments are bound to INCREASE and the
value of ST. Louis County to the State
of Minnesota is bound to Increase
providing we are not taxed to death.
This county has so far, built up an
enormous trust fund for the state and
this fund is being added to by millions
yearly from occupation taxes OF iron
ore, royalty on state owned mines, roy
atty taxes paid by lesSees, ad valorem
taxes and a multitude of other pay
ments which, off -hand, we cannot just
remember. Every acre of land in this
county, and we have 3,271 ,693.03 acres,
exclusive of town lots, is valued on the
tax rolls at $7204 an acre. These
acres, including town lots and build
ingS thereon carry a total valuation
for taxation purposes on the state roll
of S329,078 ,576 and an average tax rate
of Ills for general purposes. To this
add the extra taxes levied against the
mining companies and it will be plainly
seen that st. Louis County is some
county and pays the larger gobs on the
salaries of sundry state officials and
EMPLOYEES, who with the exception OF
those we could count on the fingers OF
one hand, are not from this county.
Compare these figures with the
valuation of Otter Tail County, the
county mentioned above as having
more farms than st. Louis County.
Otter Tail has 1,250,575.26 acres out
side of town lots. The value per acre
is given as S1277. The total valuation
of the county is 23,212,242. There is
not a farm in Otter Tail County that
could be bought for $500 an acre while
st. Louis County has thousands of
acres of land that can be bought for
from 81 to SIS an acre. Yet it is from
the granger counties that orders are
given as to the conduct of the three
taxpaying counties of the state, RAM
sey, Hennepin and st. Louis, which
pay into the state treasury $68,342,-
564.36. leaving $64, GAL ,285.18 for the
other "a counties of the state to pay.
And this is not all. Already several
movements are limited at by prospec-
tive legislators to still further increase
tax revenues. What they want is more
money to spend. This is very laud-
able ambition Money is made to
spend and money in circulation is very
apt to keep business moving. But, why
raise this extra money in one or two
of the counties of the State?. Why
hang another milestone around the
neck of the mining industry, as some
of them propose? Excessive leWeS
which the mines have been compelled
to pay in the last few years are re-
sponsible for the closing of 129 mines
in st. Louis county out of total of
1876 mines in the county according to
men who know whereof they speak.
1t is easy for the legislature to kill the
goose that lays the golden egg. The
goose is about two-thirds killed already.