METAPHYSICAL ELEMENT IN STATISTICS. 121 



Statistical columns, headed " value of property," are iuvariably filled up with much 

 larger figures than men are willing to pay taxes upon. Now, considering that the 

 authority to whom taxes are paid has something to say in the matter, and that the figures 

 of assessment are really the result of conflict between the ideas of the taxer and the taxed, 

 there is a natural safeguard against taxing values being placed unreasonably low. And 

 experience shows that when the value of property is subjected to the only process which 

 brings out the real value, namely, the offering for public sale after fair notice, the taxation 

 value is generally found to be more nearly correct than the meta2:)hysical notions current 

 in the brains of owners of property, which are entered in county and state returns as 

 value. 



15. It is to be remarked that in the older communities of the Eastern States, where 

 values have been settled by a long course of buying and selling, the difference between 

 the assessment and the real value is generally much less than in the newer communities 

 of the West. 



But taking the whole area of the United States (a prodigious term to use) there can 

 be little doubt that values are placed at higher than taxing figures to the extent of 

 thousands of millions of dollars. 



16. These disturbing influences arise even when simple questions of population are 

 entered upon. National vanity is a potent factor in the determination on the side of 

 exaggeration. So also is pride of strength, place and powder among the countries of the 

 world. If the question is as to the population of particular states, it is for preponderance 

 of power in the councils of the nation. In such an enormotis territory, sectional questions 

 are continually arising which give rise to the keenest disputes, and the finest arts of 

 manoeuvring find exercise in dealing with questions of sectional population. 



But it is when endeavouring to determine the amount of national wealth in the 

 shape of public property and in the value of great public works (such as railways, canals, 

 etc., other than public property) that the most intricate questions as to what constitutes 

 real value arise. The fierce competition for constructing railroads, which has occa- 

 sioned every main line to be duplicated or triplicated, has naturally depreciated the mar- 

 ket A^alue of the stocks and bonds of the roads in question. Certainly, in this case, the 

 market value at any particular time is the real value at that time. For it is the final 

 residuum of the conflicting ideas of large numbers of buyers and sellers settling them- 

 selves in the end down to quoted figures. Yet, in any estimates or statements of national 

 wealth, it is beyond doubt that such railway property would be valued at what it cost, 

 which figure would sometimes be 1,000 per cent, more than the other. 



17. Turning now to England, and examining the conditions which influence esti- 

 mates there, we find a state of things diametrically opposite. There is no tendency to 

 exaggerate for the purpose of drawing population to the country. For population is 

 redundant. And there is no rivalry between counties (which are the nearest counterparts 

 of the American states), nor is there between towns and cities, for the establishment and 

 growth (jf new industries, for these have been settled in fixed localities for generations. 



There is no need to exaggerate wealth for the ptirpose of strengthening national 

 credit, for England does not borrow from other countries. With respect to national 

 glory, national position, and national strength, these, too, have long been settled beyond 

 controversy. And, as is well known, the national habit is rather to minimize wealth 



Sec. II, 1891. 16. 



