EXPLANATORY.

On page 102 of the first edition and page 86 of the second edition of the Eighth Biennial Report is given the following table:

TABLE XXVII-Recapitulation of Tables XIX, XXII, XXV and XXVI, showing the Actual Value and Assessor's Valuation of Different Classes of Real Estate in the City of Chicago in 1893.

*Two pieces of ground and one building being exempt, are not included in computing average assessments.

According to this table the ratio of assessments to real value of the 80 pieces of cheap residence property is placed at 15.90 per cent. as compared with the lower ratio of the other classes of properties listed. These 80 pieces of cheap residence property, as indicated, are all contained in Table XXV, page 93, first edition, and page 79, second edition.

In leading up to Table XXV the report says:

"Table XXV specifies every piece of residence property, whether improved or unimproved, which came under the investigation of the Bureau as having been actually sold in 1893 for $4,000 or less. The true values stated in the table are the considerations expressed in the deeds."

This statement was made in good faith at the time because it was believed that Table XXV was honestly constructed, and that the ratio of assessment indicated was the average ratio of that class of property. The report, however, of Professor E. W. Bemis, herewith submitted, proves that the table was fraudulently constructed. In gathering material for the Eighth Biennial Report, the Bureau sent to Chicago Charles F. Sieb, then assistant secretary of the Bureau, and put him in charge of the investigation. He spent several months in the recorder's office of Cook county, and employed to assist him the most skilled clerical help attached to the recorder's office for that kind of work. The sale of more than 3,000 pieces of property was examined as to its price, size, assessment, etc., covering a period from 1870 to 1894.

Having the full confidence of the department, Mr. Sieb, on his return from Chicago, was placed in charge of the work of the material he had gathered. When approaching the end of this compilation he requested that the sales of 1893-4 be bunched, "because it would expedite matters with the printer," who was waiting for copy. It was granted without suspecting that the real motive for bunching these sales was to hide, as far as possible, the doctored condition of table XXV, whose 80 pieces of property claimed to have been sold in 1893 exclusively, but in fact were picked from the sales of both years because of their high ratio of assessment to real value.

In presenting the investigation of Professor Bemis on this subject only the summary tables are given, the report already exceeding its legal limit. The primary tables are in the possession of Professor Eemis, where they may be seen. A study of these tables in conjunction with Mayor Swift's commission, will show that the contention made in the Eighth Biennial Report, namely, that the large property owners are assessed at a lower ratio than the poorer classes, is clearly maintained. '

A comparative study of these tables shows that the average value of the 839 pieces of property is $10,310, whereas the assessment is $1,350, or 13.09 per cent. The number of pieces of assessable property in the central business portion of Chicago is 2,196, which Mayor Swift's commission places at an aggregate value of $438,447,180, indicating an average value of nearly $200,000, with an average assessment of only 9.28 per cent. Comparing the ratio of assessment of the vacant land in these tables valued at $1,000 or less, we have an average assessment, for the 203 properties, of 14.64 per cent., whereas the 63 pieces of vacant property in the central portion of Chicago are assessed at 7.03 per cent., as reported by Mayor Swift's commission.

While this discrimination, in the foregoing statement, is startling enough, it is insignificant compared with the very low ratio of assessment placed on gas plants and street car companies in Chicago, which this report places at less than 4 per cent. . The Chicago Gas Light and Coke Company, The People's Gas Light and Coke Company and the Consumers' Gas Company were assessed in 1896 on the average at 2.99 per cent. of the market value of their securities. The Chicago City Railway Company and the West Chicago and North Chicago Street Railway Companies were in 1896 assessed at 3.23 per cent. of the market value of their securities. When it is further considered that the average ratio of assessment on real estate outside of Cook county is from 25 per cent. to 35 per cent., it is further perceived what a gross injustice is perpetrated on the citizens of the other counties in the disproportionate amount of taxes they must pay in making up the $8,000,000 or $9,000,000 which constitutes the biennial budget of the State. The farmers, under this unequal method of assessment, are compelled to pay from six to eight times as much in support of their State government as is exacted of the corporations.

GEO. A. SCHILLING.
CHICAGO, ILL.

Mr. George A. Schilling, Secretary of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Springfield, Ill.:

MY DEAR SIR:-In accordance with your commission of last June, I beg leave to say that I have critically examined the tables of your last report, and to present my conclusions in the accompanying pages.

Very respectfully yours,

EDWARD W. BEMIS.

The Primary Tables given in Part III of the Eighth Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of Illinois for the year 1894 contained originally a study of 995 properties that were sold during the years 1890, 1891, 1892 and 1893-94, and gave the year of sale, location of the property, dimensions, pur

chase price as expressed in the warranty deeds, assessments by local assessors and the State Board of Equalization for the year of the sale, the amount of taxes and the per cent. of assessment of the purchase price, in the order of the amount of consideration.

This list of properties, as found in said report, was placed in the hands of the Chicago Real Estate and Index Company. A new investigation was instituted to determine which of the properties of all the years were vacant and which were improved at the date of sale, and whether the location was accurately given in the tables. All the properties in regard to which these two points could not be determined with certainty were thrown out, although in many cases there was no evidence of error in the tables. The actual taxes paid had also been given in most cases.

The properties for 1893 and 1894, which were combined in the Primary Tables, had been separated. All the properties sold in 1894 were examined with reference to their price when sold and the assessment upon them. Only 6 of the 132 properties, or 4 5-10 per cent., were found wrongly given. This was such a low percentage of error that, in the case of the more remote years, where accurate investigation is more difficult, only those properties were examined which, by reason of their extremely low or high assessment, seemed suspicious. Sixty-eight cases were thus examined, and twenty-one were found wrong and rejected.

On the whole, not more than ten per cent. of the properties given in these Primary Tables seem to have been wrongly recorded, and in many cases this is due merely to typographical error. No reason appears for believing that they were other than fairly selected from the sales of those years.

Not so much can be said of the text table of eighty properties, designated as Table XXV, page 102 of the First Edition, and page 86 of the Second, which, through the fault of a subordinate, as I understand, was so unfairly selected that its conclusions are untrustworthy. These eighty properties professed to be representative of all the sales of 1893, but twenty-four pieces belonged to 1894, and those of small value in the Primary Table which had a low rate of assessment were omitted.

The Primary Tables, however, with the eliminations above described, seem to warrant some deductions, although they do not embrace as many properties as one could wish.

It will be seen from the tables that, grouping all the properties according to the year of transfer, the percentage which the assessment bore to the real value was 15.36 per cent in 1890, 12.34 per cent. in 1891, and 10.43 per cent. in 1892; it then suddenly rose in 1893 to 13.19 per cent., and fell again in 1894 to 10.72 per cent., thus indicating that, with the exception of 1893, when conditions were doubtless somewhat abnormal, on account of World's Fair, there was a steady decline in the rate of assessment from a little over of the value in 1890 to a little over of the true value in 1894.

The average assessment on the 839 properties investigated was, for the entire five years, 13.07 per cent. of the true value, which aggregated $8,650,263. The werage true value of these properties was $10,310.

L. S.

In all these tables the amount of the sale recorded is assumed to be the true value, although in many cases probably the sale was for more and in some cases for less than the amount recorded.

These tables also show, in the five years period of 1890-1894, inclusive, a much greater decline in the assessment of improved properties than in that of vacant properties.

In 1890, for example, improved properties were assessed at 15.59 per cent. of their true value, and in 1894 at 9.80 per cent., while the vacant properties which were assessed at 13.77 per cent. of their selling value in 1890 were assessed at 13.95 per cent. in 1894.

The average assessment of all the 365 improved properties during the five years was 13.55 per cent., and of the 474 vacant properties 10.73 per cent. Turning now to the assessment according to the value of the properties, it will be noticed that in the vacant properties the 203 pieces of $1,000 or less in value were assessed at 15.64 per cent. of their true value, and the 228 properties, worth between $1,000 and $5,000, were assessed at 10.36 per cent.

The number of investigated vacant properties of over $5,000 in value are too few to warrant any deductions. It may be noticed, however, that there were 43 vacant properties over $5,000 in value, which were worth $777,287, and were assessed for $79,017, or 10.17 per cent.

With regard to improved properties, the five worth $1,000 and less, assessed for 19.24 per cent. of their true value, are too few to warrant deductions therefrom. On all other properties the figures indicate an increase in the rate of assessment from 11.31 per cent. on the 173 properties worth between $1,000 and $5,000, and 11.96 per cent. on the 88 properties worth between $5,000 and $10,000, to 13.49 per cent. on the 79 properties worth between $10,000 and $50,000, and 14.12 per cent. on the 20 properties of higher value.

In all cases the number of properties investigated was perhaps too few for one to make sure deductions therefrom.

Recapitulation.—Sales of Improved Properties for Five Years, 1890–94, Inclusive. Classified According to Years.

Recapitulation.-Sales of Unimproved Properties for Five Years, 1890-94, InGrouped According to Years.

clusive.

Recapitulation.-Sales of Improved and Unimproved Properties for Five Years, 1890-54, Inclusive. Grouped According to Years.

Recapitulation.-Sales of Improved Properties Classified According to Their