5 6 
THE A B C OF TAXATION 
to one of the most important business thoroughfares 
in the heart of the shopping district of Boston, an 
impressive lesson in the inequalities of the present 
system of taxation. 
In this and the following object lessons the valua 
tions, unless otherwise noted, are those of 1907. The 
total valuations on both sides of Winter Street includ 
ing the estates on the Tremont and Washington Street 
corners were: 
1898 
$5,142,600 
LAND 
$61.57 per sq. ft. 
$2,681,989 per 
acre 
1907 
8,272,000 
97.50 per sq. ft. 
4,247,100 per 
acre 
1898 
$675,000 
BUILDINGS 
$8.08 per sq. ft. 
$ 353.836 per 
acre 
1907 
605,200 
7 ■ I 3 P er s q- ft- 
310,582 per 
acre 
Showing for nine years an increase of 58 per 
cent in land, and a decrease of 11 per cent in 
buildings. 
The assessed valuation of the estate at the southwest 
corner of Winter and Washington Streets (Fig. I), was 
in 1907, 1557,000, of which $19,400 was for buildings. 
The land alone, 1,955 square feet, increased from 
$342,000, $175 per square foot, in 1898, to $537,600, 
banquet in a series of seventeen given by the League during the years 1897-1903 
to the following bodies: (1) Patrons of Husbandry; (2) Association of 
Massachusetts Assessors; (3) Labour Organisations; 4) Massachusetts 
Woman’s Suffrage Association; (5) New England Free Trade League; 
(6) The Massachusetts Clergy; (7) Young Men’s Christian Association; 
(8) Boards of Charities and Corrections; (9) Representative Taxationists; 
(10) Representative Business Men; (n) Twentieth Century Club; (12) 
Real Estate Men; (13) The Catholic Clergy; (14) Members Boston Merchants’ 
Association; (15) Political Economists; (16) Professional Economists; (17) 
Landlords of Boston, followed by (18) A Dinner-Discussion of the Economic 
Club of Boston, and (19) Lorimer Hall, Finale.