Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Wealth and Income of the American People (1924).pdf/114

92 Descriplion 1916 1920 Farm lands.................0000005 $ 52,398,000,000 $ 54,903,586,200 Farm buildings.................-... 12,160,000,000 11,287,500,000 Urban land. ......... 0.0.00 cece eee 13,800,000,000 13,800,000,000 Urban buildings.................... 68,500,000,000 65,120,000,000 Total taxed................0-. $146,858,000,000 $145,111,086,200 Tax exempt.............. 000.0000 14,685,800,000 15,000,000,000 Grand total.....,............ $161,543,800,000 $160,111,086,200

I have estimated the value of tax exempt property at 10 per cent of the value of the property taxed in 1916, instead of using the census factor of 1214 per cent. If the census estimates for property taxed are too low, as I think, the chances are that its ratio for property exempt is too high, for such property—public buildings, churches, colleges, schools, museums, hospitals, parks, etc.—consists extensively of large buildings, with published costs, which probably are generally carried on the books at cost. In estimating this class of property for 1920 I make simply a guess. The period of 1917- 1920 was one in which improvements of this nature were curtailed. It might even be found that the additions were less in amount than the losses by fire and through natural obsolescence.

The real estate of the United States is in the aggregate the largest item in the national wealth, its total being considerably more than one-half of all the physical property. No one will be more fully conscious than myself respecting the roughness of my estimates and the particulars that are open to criticism. Nevertheless they are not grossly discordant with probabilities indicated by the census figures if it be accepted that the