212 North American Forests and Forestry 



made in the forest counties of Wisconsin. It is 

 evident that, in a case like this, the taxes would in 

 thirty years equal the value of the property, not 

 counting the interest. This is assuming that the 

 assessment is a fair one according to the standard 

 employed. But it rarely is ; and there is another 

 feature of the problem. 



Timber-lands are usually owned by non-residents, 

 often by corporations, the stockholders of which 

 are non-residents. This means that their owners 

 have no direct influence on the election of assessors, 

 and cannot defend themselves against over-valua- 

 tion by defeating the re-election of an unjust offi- 

 cer. On the other hand the residents are directly 

 benefited by unjust treatment of the non-residents, 

 and therefore not likely to be particularly put out 

 by such injustice. The result of this is naturally 

 that timber-lands are often over-assessed, even ac- 

 cording to the standard used for agricultural lands, 

 which is of itself unfair. If such over-assessment 

 is glaringly conspicuous, the courts will, of course, 

 afford relief. But where it is moderate, though in 

 the aggregate it may amount to a great sum, the 

 victims would rather pay than go to the expense 

 and annoyance of litigation. All this is assuming 

 that the assessor is honest. But, unfortunately, 

 that assumption does not always hold true. Not 

 rarely the assessor simply blackmails the timber 

 owner by threatening to put an outrageous valua- 

 tion on his land, in the hope of being bought off. 

 Too often that hope is realized, although the owner 



