Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1852-02-04
STATE TAXES


ton, for the reason that our present system
Of education is defective, and TO reduce these
taxes now would be to delay the time when
the Slate will have the means to perfect this
system. We agree with the editor FULLY, and
we doubt not that mos. of our tax PAYERS will
also accord with him in his views. The
citizens of Charles have always been among
those who were ever ready to maintain the
credit of our good old State, by punc,ually
paying the levies made upon them, notwith-
standing it has been for the benefit, princ-
paIIy, of Baltimore city. To suppose tina,
they are now willing to reduce the taxes
at the expense of education, would be a re-
Election upon their better judgmen. and lib
eral views. The Gazette gives statement,
made up from the Freasurer's Report, show
ing the whole debt of Maryland to be Sl5,-
290,668 GA, also the object for which i. was
created, and then remarks:
ITO pay off this debt the Governor deems
the Sinking Fund, now S2,253,796 81, with
The surplusages of revenue, adequate to the
pay men, of The debt as i, comes due and he
therefore recommended the repeal of the
stamp law, lottery tickets excepted, and a
reduction of 20 per cent. of the State tax.
The Governor argues in favor of a re-
peal Of the stamp law, because he regards i,
the most unequal revenue law in the Statute
Book and further urges it because of its
relief 10 Baltimore. He asks, who has a
better RICH. TO be relieved? Do not the
broad shoulders Of that noble city now bear
up more than one. third of the whole burden
Of the Sta,e?'
We remark that we are opposed to the
proposed reduction while our system oil
education is so defective. We say apply The
surplus revenue TO the establishment Of an
educational fund. How else are we to pc,
one? Look Of the table we have given a.
bove and sees debt Of $14,S43,267 SO con
tracted for Railroads and Canals; and now
when the time has come-after years Of pa
tient taxation imposed on account Of those
corporations-are we 10 be tantalized by
being told that, 'forty years hence The deb
will be paid off, and then you will have
transferred to GU Stock in those companies
equal to what you have paid in, with which
YOU can build up your schools?' We say
no, this proposition cannot be agreed to by
the counties. 1t is to their interest to pay
off The debt in the ten or eleven years, a;
heretofore contemplated, and then the coun.
ties now receiving no benefit, blu. rather
some of them, injured, from those works
will get something for what they have paid
in the shape Of returned Stock. If this cannot
be, then let the revenue laws remain as they
are, and apply the surplus 10 the creation Of
common educational fund, so as to lessen
the local taxes for education. LIE, there be
Justice done in This matter. Is Baltimore
paying largely and cheerfully? So she
ought. Is citizen there paying any more
in proportion To his property, than one in
the country Yet for every cent of bene.
fit which The latter reaps, or ever will reap
the former reaps. or will reap, ten from the
public works. No one who will be candid
will deny this. Then it ia not what Bs,i-
more pays, but what Baltimore repays, and
will continue 10 repay over every other par
Of the State that should be taken into &C.
count Baltimore is growing, in population
and wealth, amazingly. Within the as1
wear 1915 houses have been built, and with
in five years, 1852 The taxable property
in Baltimore is $S4,739,642, while the en-
tire taxation Of the State is $685.
Baltimore, then, is worth almost as much
as the rest Of the State.
If we talk abou. hardship in taxation, we
shall find other laws beside the stamp tax
of this character. The tax on Collateral
Inheritance las, year was $27,926 81, ant
the tax on Executors and Administrators
commissions S30,163 81 and again, tn,
hard pressed creditor, who could no. pay
his notes, contributed last year TO swell TIT
tax on Protests 10 S5,17S.
We are not adducing these facts to show
The necessity for the repeal of the laws i'm
posing them, but rather for the purpose 0
urging the continuance of the whole system
until The public deb. be paid of, or until
permanen, and adequate fund be accumulated
for educational purposes.
The great subject of general education
belongs to the State. We ask why doe
Maryland build Tobacco warehouses,
Medical University, a Peni,en,lary, Rail
roads and Canals, and impose taxes for them
and still neglect to establish a system o
education We are struggling on, and will
our imperfect county organizations dom!
) wonders. Blu. they will ever be imperfec
, and ineflicien, without Stale organzali ton
Who is then 10 superinend the Schools, t.
examine teachers, and see that the cours
of instruction and system Of discipline ar,
such as compou with the advanced stall
of The age? There are honorable excep
tons we know. But generally speaking
the schools are badly managed. Before the,
will be otherwise there mus, be compe,en
and rigid supervision, with published re
? ports in detail in regard to every school il
: The State. A good system would cost u
little more than we pay now; but if it did
is it not as good stock as Mary land Peni.en
,iary Stock : Our Judiciary las, year cos
: Mary land $3S, 952, and we think our read