Utopia, N.J.

Fastest growing business in sleepy, elm-shaded Flemington, N.J. (pop. 2,700) is that of holding annual stockholders' meetings. Last week business was brisk. In one day, stockholders of the New York Air Brake Co., American Crystal Sugar Co. and McHutchinson & Co. (garden bulbs) plumped down in chairs in the law office of sedate, greying George Knowles Large, droned through the meetings, caught the first train back to New York, virtuously felt the 50-mile trip well worth the thousands of dollars in taxes they had thus saved their companies.

Six years ago, Standard Oil Co. (N.J.), sick of tax-hungry cities which fattened on the intangible property tax,, moved its legal residence to Flemington, the county seat where the Hauptmann trial was held. On personal property of $45,000,000, Standard paid a tax of $301,500. This lump sent Flemington's tax rate of $3.91 per $100 parachuting to 67-c-. Since then, 135 equally tax-conscious corporations have followed Standard's trail, adding a total of $200,000,000 to Flemington's intangible tax rolls.

Registered agent for 122 of these corporations is Lawyer Large, former county judge. Most meetings are held in his mahogany-paneled office on Flemington's Main Street. Overflow sessions are held in the Women's Club or in the Grange Hall, where Ladies of the Grange stuff stockholders with country fried chicken.

Flemington's tax rate, now 28-c- and by far the lowest in New Jersey, is still dropping. By the end of next year, Flemington and Hunterdon County will have paid off $11,000 in bonded debt with city slicker money, will be debt free. What will happen then, Flemingtonians do not know. But they can dream--of a super-velvety municipal golf course, a Hollywoodian town swimming pool, even a Utopian tax holiday.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.