64 THE A B C OF TAXATION 
Athol .... 
BUILDINGS 
LAND 
$1,204,097 
RATIO 
i93-I00 
Clinton . . . 
• • 4,246,230 
1,967,307 
2I5-100 
Abington . . . 
. . 1,749,697 
634,610 
275-100 
Plymouth. . . 
. . 5,477,025 
2,206,250 
248-100 
Amherst . . . 
899,535 
204-100 
Chicopee . . . 
. . 6,115,900 
2,221,270 
275-100 
Amesbury. . . 
1,397,681 
203-100 
Newburyport 
. . 5,269,850 
2,379,600 
221—100 
Adams. . . . 
1,085,300 
239-IOO 
North Adams 
. . 7,257,210 
4,827,075 
i50-100 
Attleborough 
5,479,385 
3,474,395 
158-100 
Taunton . . . 
. . 11,024,365 
5,214,520 
21I—100 
Easthampton 
• • 3,412,906 
408,720 
836-100 
Rockland. . . 
• • 2,346,350 
891,323 
263-100 
Chelsea . . . 
. . 14,600,570 
8,922,300 
163-100 
iilackstone . . 
. . 1,244,065 
760,410 
163-100 
Gardner . . . 
• • 3,767,096 
1,395,618 
27O-IOO 
Total . . 
• • $81,595,727 
$39,890,011 
205-100 
An Enormous Discrepancy 
Query. Why is the value of the buildings 
on Winter Street, 1605,200, so insignificant as 
compared with the land value of Winter Street 
$8,272,000? Is it not because the present system 
of taxation (by making partly improved real 
estate the choicest of all investments) enables the 
owner to get on such an investment a far larger 
percentage of revenue, with buildings thirty to 
sixty years old? 
Under the present system the buildings of 
Winter Street yield in taxation only about one- 
thirteerth as much as the land, so that with 
the very moderate advance in rate from 115.90 
to |iy per thousand upon the land alone of 
Winter Street its business might to-day have 
thirteen times as good accommodations in untaxed