THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL', PORTLAND, ; SUNDAY MORNING, JULY .13; 1913. a : IRE TO RISE IN NEXT FEW WEEKS Permits Taken Out During the Past. Week Include Number .of Manufacturing Plants as ' Well as Residences. The Ford Motor Car company has be gun the erection of an assembling auto v plant on the block at East Division street, between East Tenth and Cast Eleventh streets.. It Is to be a three story fireproof structure of reinforced concrete, covering bait a block, and will cost 1160,000, , The Portland Bronxe & Crucible com pany baa plana for a new building to be erected at th corner or .wenty-secona and Tork street, North Portland. As " designed, tha structure will be fireproof, and will, have ground dimensions of 64x 80 feet, and will cost approximately 1 10,000. : Tha plana and specifications ' have been filed with the, building In soection bureau and a permit Issued. A permit was taken out last Tuesday ' by the Investors' Building a Trust com. pan y for m -story residence to ba built on tha Alameda, near Wisteria -avenue. In Beaumont, at a cost of 1700 J, On tha sunt data Miss Edith Valk took a permit for a $4000 two-story frame dwelling, to be erected on East Thirty-third street, betweenhaver and Failing.;''' '.V ."'... ' Permits were issued last week to builder of dwellings to cost $J000 or 'lass as follows: E. W. Boeder, 114-story cottage. East Forty-fourth street, between Clay and Harrison. IZSOO. - I". - W. Peterson. 1 U -story, cottage. Colonial street, ' between Mason and gktdmore, $2600, - Mike Steres, one-story cottage, Buf falo street, near East Sixth. 11360. Mrs.K Oirard, one-story bungalow, East Sixty-second street, near tha Ala meda. 11650. ' Mrs, Maude M. Gorman, one-atory cottage, East Sixty-second street South east near Fiftieth avenue, iieoo. C. W. Davis, 1 -story cottage. East " eighty-third street, near East uiisaa, :. i2oao. . .j v A. C. Curnow, one-story cottage, Forty-eighth avenue Southeast, near East urty-secona street, iieuw. J. M. Fletcher, ltt -story bungalow, East Forty-sixth street, hear Hawthorne avenue, $2600. ' Mrs. Alice Rahenaon, 1H -story dwell lag, East Seventy-first street Southeast, near Fifty-fifth avenue, izooo. - E. F. Smith, one-story cottage. Bast Forty-sixth street, near Klickitat, 1 1000. ' Joseph Campbell, one-story cottage, East Eightieth street, between Oregon and Holladay, $1000. H. Beach, one-atory 'cottage. Gay street, between Ains worth and Holman, $1250. '"ry '.',..' I - Albert Dobner, one-story cottage, East Twenty-eighth street, between Wygant and Going, (1109 - , . Eugene F. Cucu, one-story cottage, Russet street, near Delaware avenue, $2000. r C. F. Kash, 1H -story cottage. East, Salmon street, near East Fiftieth, $8000. J. R, Wood, two-story residence, Eaat Davis, near East Sixty-eighth, $2000. Mrs. E. Xk Meyers, one-story cottage, East Twenty-third etTeet, between Go ing and Prescott, $2000. ' E. Carson, 1H atory cottar, Boise street, near. East Thirty-ninth, $1200. v Mrs. Bessie Long, one-story cottage, Vinant street, near Morgan, I1L M. E. Williams, 1 H-story bungalow, Eaat 8ixty-nlnth street, near Fifty-fifth avenue Southeast, $2000. .. J. A. Vonado, one-story bungalow, Eaat Ninth street, between Holman and Highland. $1800. ' J. K. Elmer, one-story cottage. East Fourteenth street, between Henry and Duke, $1500. A. A. Toung, one-story frame laundry building, Denver avenue, near A Ins worth street, $1600. NEW SALES REPORTED BY REALTY COMPANY The Smith-Wagoner Realty company reports the following property sales for the week: To W. H. Breisel, of Pocatello, Idaho, residence at 1324 East Madiaon street. $2850, To Mrs. Edith Taylor, for F. 8. Hal lock, a residence located at Flrtand for $1050, and one located in same addition to C. A Parkins for $1000. Also two lots, located in-Lenta, belonging to N. W. Leadbetter, to, Oscar Reynolds, of Fairbanks, Alaska, for $1000. This firm has recently removed Its offices to the new Stock Exchange building. Third and Yamhill streets. A $500,000 office building will be erected in the downtown district of BU Louis by the Order of Railroad Te legraphers to take the place of their present inadequate quarters. The plans for the building have already been ap proved. MILLION V . I mfaiimiim -iV llillllllllll" mil N, J - ' "' i" f I , Jr" M I - r: t : rjh v U - ms. $?fcy.M JcfT - fl 0 u 11 J Tic J : v mm r 'V ''Mi ri M i v- 'A v' " " ' ,i.:V :f 1" i "V' i " i - -7: i 1 ri i 4a i , ' 4 " -n I m - 1 y- .. jm - -;v ' r i i ''Vr' f ei I -:-::.V,y;V wmuilliuiiuirmTrr- , 1 "Z 1'' V'Frt Bteet; oMtrlctlont orthweetero Kctionat Bank bulldlnr. Morrison, POINTS OUT TAX REMEDY I :l ' '"i.i.'.,! ni - 'm, i,, ri,;, mini ,v e .(..-. : v.. W. A, Somers, who invented Sbmers jialt 'wstein. of realty valuation. (This Is tha first of a series of ar ticles by Walter W. Pollock of Cleve land, Ohio, describing the faulta In pres ent methods of appraising real estate for purposes of taxation and pointing out tha remedy, This article tells how W. A. Somers discovered and first ap plied In St. Paul his sclentlfio system for measuring land, values. Future ar ticles will show how It Is possible for any community to be equitably assessed by ascertaining community judgment and applying such judgment mathemat ically to each ownership of real aetata) Tha American people have been long- suffering In tha matter of the appraisal of their real property for tax purposes. Th funotion or governmental activ ity that is called tha assessment has always called forth tha bitter criticisms and often the vituperation of the peo ple. The people have been helpless be fore a complete lack of system and con sequent lack of equity between the tax payers. And notwithstanding all this, assess ments of real property In nearly every city In the united States and In very village and country dis trict are being made today in the man ner they were made 50 years ago. Only one man in all that time has developed the inventive genius, together with the inclination and opportunity for Its nse, to bring Into existence a system by which tha bitter criticisms and th vl tUDeratioas of the people would be made superfluous and without meaning. That man i v. a. somers, formerly of St. Paul, Minn., and now of New York city. ltsks nos 0tody - In the early '90's Mr. Somers was city engineer of the city of Bt. PauL For more than 10 years he bad been con nected with tha engineer's department of that city, first as assistant engineer and then as chief engineer. Before that he had been in the real eatate bualneas, and during his office-holding years he kept In close touch with tha real es tate activities of the city. His es-, pedal work In the engineer's . depart ment waa consideration . of special as sessments for local improvements, which caused him to study, In a crude way as compared with his later inves tigations, the effect of Improvements and the extent of their financial effect upon land area. While - chief engineer of St. PauL a lawyer friend of Mr. Somers accepted the post of assessor of real property' on the condition imposed by the assessor that ha would turn tha lob over to En gineer Somers. St Paul at that time waa recovering from a recent land boom. Prices as compared with values had been very much inflated. The reaction had set in and prleea were very much lower than the assessment figures. While Inequal ities existed as between property values, the asaessment as a whole was too high, which added to the general confualon that always exists In assessments made without rhyme or reason, produced an Intolerable situation. It was this sit uation that led to th selection of the lawyer to be assessor; and It was his own firm belief that he waa not equal to the task that led him, by permission to turn the whole work over to Mr. Sottiers. Old Figures Investigated. When Mr. Somers took hold of the assessment work of St. Paul he direct ed his attention first to the old assess ment figures. An examination of those figures disclosed a woeful lack of uni DOLLAR STRUCTURE FAST TAKING SHAPE II J formity of judgment of value, not only as between property on different streets, but also on properties upon tha sasqa street and close together. There was everv evidence of th lack of any sys tematic method of obtaining opinions of value or of using opinions that were obtained or arbitrarily arrived at Being of a mathematical turn of mind.' and bis whole habit of thought and action running in the direction of systematic . methods. Mr. Somers first began to analyse. It oocurred to him that it would be well to learn the dif ference in opinlona of value between lota at corners and Inside lota ' He mad some diagrams Illustrating corner and inside lots and sent them out to the real estate operators of tb city. For tunately for this aort of an investigation, which was at best but a "fishing ex cursion," as tha lawyers might term it, th lots of St. Paul were for th most part of a uniform depth of 100 feet and there were many corner lots 50 by 100 In else. Tha big thing that this request for help upon a methodical basis resulted In, was to make it clear to Mr, Somers mind that there waa in the minds of th citizens a tremendous amount of Information and opinion about th use of the streets of the city of Set Paul. "Conunnnlty Opinion" Soaghi, It developed that many people, real estate men and others as well, knew a great deal about the relative useful ness of the streets of that city. It was to use this informalon to develop what he called "community opinion" that Mr. Somers bent bis energies. The discus sion concerning the relative' value of corner and Inside property, tha differ ences in the values of the front half and tha rear half of a 100 foot lot, was tabulated and analysed and applied. Mr. , Somera undertook to reduce the method of comparing tb values of cor ner and near-cornew lots with inside lots to a mathematical basis. He un derstood, though at that time this idea had not been expressed in words, that there was a mathematical relation be tween the values of any two lots af fected by the same street Influences, and he proceeded to place upon paper some quick method that would result in uniformity of expression as to Just what that relation was. He finally produced what he termed his "scales," which con. slsted of diagrams, from which the relative values of regular 60x100 foot lots, second lots and Inside lots could be compared. While these scales were clumsy In their operation, they were found to analyse accurately and mathe matically the differences in most of the regular alies and shapes of lots found in St. Paul that year. So accurate have these scales been found to "weigh" these differences, that they have never had to be changed, and the Somers System of Realty Valuation as used today for assessing land values In a dosen or more cities is built upon thoae scales. Found Too Clnmsy. After St. Paul waa reassessed by Mr. Somers by the use of his scales, he removed to Chicago, and was con nected with the assessing depart ment of that city. It was there that Mr. Somera found that the scales were too clumsy to use for practical work, and he began turning the scales, or rather what they stood for, Into ma thematical tables. This was tha work of several years. After a year in Chi- -from Sixth to Broadway?' 1 LARGE BUILDING SITE ON EAST O. F. Darling, president of the Invest ors Building & Trust Co, has purchased a large building sits at the intersection ox itast Blxty-tu-sfr j street, wisteria avenue and the JHameda,' in Rose City Park, whlch he plans to improv at ones with a $10,000 residence - RV, W, W. Younger, of the Roe City Park Methodist church, Is preparing to ouna -new noma on East Bixiy-nrsi street, near Sandy boulevard. nr. way or preparation for a large amount of hard surfacing, tha streets of Rose City Park are badly torn up by contractors, who are building sewers and putting, down gas.and water mains. It Is expected that within a tyear every street in the addition will have a brand new coat of pavement. - cage, duMng which stline the Chicago assessing department did not have fore sight enough to understand the practical value of Mr. Somers" work, he removed to New York, where for over three years ne was connected with the department of taxes of that city. He' was a special expert, but at no time was his System usea . in that city for assessment pur poses, i His special function at' that time was : to investigate complaints , of assessments, and make special report to the president thereon; upon which th department could decide as to the valid ity of such complaints. It was while connected with th New xoric department that Mr. Somera was invited to Cleveland by the late Tom u Johnson, who was at that time fin ismng . sis . career as mayor. It was Just at this time that Mr. Somers had completed his mathematical tables for the .quick computation of corner and near-corner: lots. These tables Were used in' Cleveland and In Columbus, unio, lor the first time for tax assess ment purposes. V - j Sxample-Zs Followed. These two cities had hot been assessed for ten years previous to 110. While for that -reason th assessments were very low as compared with present opinions of true values, the inequalities as between Individual property owners were no more apparent nor no more numerous than in" the assessments of other cities, Including Chicago and New York, where Mr. Somers had had ex perience in a limited way. How, three years after the assessment in these two Ohio cities, real estate prices have been so standardised that no loan or sale Is completed without first securing ref erence to, and knowledge of, the as sessment of that property, which had never before happened In either city. since that time the Somers system as Invented In St Paul and perfected in Chicago and Cleveland, has been used for assessment purposes in Springfield. Eaat St Louis and Jollet lit; Denver, Colo.; Lancaster, Wis.; Houston, Beau mont, Waco and Galveston, Texas; Aug usta, Ga.; Des Moines, Iowa., and Wes ton, Canada. No asaessment made in any one of these cities has ever been overturned by court procedure. In deed, none has ever been disputed In legal action.. More than a billion, one hundred minions worth or land and buildings has been assessed for tax purposes under the Somers system methods, over half of which is land value. All of which came about because a lawyer was elected assessor of St Paul number of years ago, who knew that he did not know bow to perform the task of assessing. No other system or method except SIDE BOUGH THE TENTH RESIDENTIAL THE FR Toeay - Five years ago we were offering our if irst subdivi sion in this 'district. We predicted that this property would double In value In Ave years. Our predictions came true, and many of our customers have refold their property for much more than 100 profit. The future of BEDFORD PARK is far better as- is today only three blocks from the Rose City Park car. line, while paving is being rapidly, extended Jrithjsidi rection. Scores of . beautiful new homes .have Qeen jbuilt and areTiirider construction in the .immediate :y- cinity. i,'y No Interest No vwiiic w ui-wi viu ivuoy wm raow yuur iuu iiio Tnko Row City Park car get of f at Seventy-eighth ttreet, wher '. Largest Realty Operators v revised; assessment methods needed. ; i - , ,r '? ' c . . .i -v n - , i . V t 4 ' ' V T4 'AC m C;OOOvAii faSOOvAt.; '." " - .Vv.'f"'. y-s 0 ZSSMTvM. e? AV J? ' : Plat ghowlnr the 1H Mseaunent In th blocks shown today there bave been few changes in ownership during the past half dosen years, except as to block "8," which was. acquired by con demnation proceedings by the govern ment two years ago, as a site for the projected new postofflce building; also the Quarter block at the southwest cor ner of Sixth and Hoyt streets, whloh the rule-of-thumbs method has ever been used an rw here In America for th actual assessment of so many pieces of property nor property or so muon gross value, as has the system devised by Mr. Somers. One of the . reasons for the general satisfaction of these communi ties arising out of the use of th Som ers system i that It is the first real effort ver mad in any of th cities where U has been installed to supplant chaotic lack of method with system. No small part of the satisfaction is due : ' ' , " " SUBDIVISION IN THE SANDY THE MARKET BY ED A. JACOBS WILL BE OFFERED FOR SALE FOR THE FIRST TIME Ml 0 Taxes - money ieiurneqorr 'X'.'.-.i,, irae.,iown;-Ma'W on tKe Pacific Coast 0 t -HOYT r of MoaV',-",- and'4. ; .; new postof flee bolldlng-. was purchased three yeais ago by Miss Edith F. Good, and on which she ha since built a six-story hotel building. Block "8" was assessed- in ltll.for $126,800. In the condemnation suit In stituted by th United States District Attorney the Jury returned a Jerdlct fix ing the value of the block at $340,000. A peculiar feature of the history of the acquirement of this block by th gov to th fact that the people have the op portunity to participate in the actual work of asaessment to tell what they know Of land values in public, and to learn the opinion of their neighbors la public One of the fault of previous asaessment methode has been the futile effort- to equalize the Inaocuraclas and inconsistencies of the assessor's valua tions by boards of equalisation! Under Somers method It 1 possible to equal ise th valuations before they are made. The next article wUI discuss ' the BOULEVARD Joly I SItE v-TV"- . r-.v i-.y. -.'.: ' '- . :.y-:y 'y,':,:i. . .' ' sured than -was the future . of our earlier Sandy Boule vard properties. . v -:-yM' Five years ago streetcars and paved streets were un known in this localityeven one year ago there was no pavingj and in spite of these handicaps the Sandy Bou levard district has developed into the most modern and beautiful residence section in Portland.-. PARK X," Our prices of$400, $450 and $500 for,5o-foot lots1 ''are the. same that-we sold adjoining properties for five .' , ' i l 1. -:. - i! -V..i ". v, ' . . . y-, l-yL,yy'-: n.' lv-Afvth'i-inrtreel-t1r1 '.with .FOjU) PARK will show , a much .greater increase in val- ."; ucs than any other Sandv Boulevard addition. -v--?:: ? v; e a Month iuppiv it iimuciuma inQ aemana wiu n jai V7 269 WASHINGTON STREET4, CORNER FOURTH l l,;ooo T5T, ' ' ' ' ,s -4 ' ifiJ' v n,: '.' "s, ' 46"" 1 ' T" Jf? PACCCVStB5Cp SBssBasBSBMSSBSssseSBMersjsj ?2S, OOP VAA.. Block . S" Is the Bite of the propos ernment is the fact that the owns i were awarded $15,000 more than the sou the owners had agreed to take for it In the 1112 assessment . Sixth str. t frontage In blocks "R and. 48 was va ned higher than Broadway fronts'" Since the 1812 assesment was made JT Broadway bridge has. ' been complef :1 which fact has materially inert!- Broadway value. - 4- fundamental .basis xor sua valuation U land, and will show how; it i pos sible' for the people to use jtor tax ' as sessment purposes their own knowledge Of, the usefulness or uieir, own streets. -.Coaf miners are already preparing for the Joint conference next, year to man la new wage scale tor me, comyeuuve Iratates. Ohio miners have declared for payment on the mine-run system, for a , six-hour day and a ; working . week of i five day,..: DISTRICT PUT ON 'th '-,Ti!tnrA;'acc.tirYri RFFl. MM i- -. G011PAM 'T 'i ; i if lv, .'J if ' '.