Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Wealth and Income of the American People (1924).pdf/109

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The census estimate for all real estate in 1912 was $98,362,813,569 for property taxed, and $12,313,519,502 for property exempt, a total of $110,676,333,071. Apparently the census estimate was based upon local assessments for taxation purposes in the several states, the figures being written up to conjectural real values. Thus a table in “Estimated Valuation of the National Wealth, 1850-1912,” gives the percentages of assessed valuations with reference to true values, ranging from 11.7 per cent in Iowa to 100 per cent in New Hampshire and Wyoming. The value of tax exempt property was estimated at 1214 per cent of the property taxed, there being good evidence to support that figure. With regard to property taxed, continuance of the ratio of increase from 1904 to 1912 as estimated by the census, would give a total of about $135,000,000 for 1916. However, that figure would manifestly be too low, and it is probable that the census figure for 1912 was itself too low, as will presently be set forth.

The total value of the farms of the United States in 1910 was given by the census at about 34.8 billion dollars. Upon the same basis we may conjecture that farm value in 1912 would have been reckoned at about 40 billion dollars, which would leave about 58 billion dollars for taxed real estate of all other kinds. These figures do not match with logical approaches of another kind.

In 1916 the population of the United States was about 101,722,000 people. There are various figures used to express the probable ratio between the total population and the number of families and that there