Amador weekly ledger., 1858-01-09

would inevitably be followed by sale ant
monopoly of them, whereby the interests o.
the State would be greatly injured, while
thousands and hundreds Of thousands of citi
zens of the common country would be des-
poiled, robbed Of right which they would
otherwise exercise for the benefit of them
selves and their families.
A few of the mountain presses, we believe
| frightened by the groundless cry from the
cities and valleys of inequality of taxation
are ready to concede that there should be
some kind of tax" upon the miners; and
they sagey recommend ifanything an income
taxi Well, now what of that--what of an
income tao t? Why simply this. If the mer-
chants and the farmers are so anxious for
equality" in the matter, they would not GER
tainly object to raising the whole revenue of
the State government in that manner. That
would be fair--that would be equal
ity," which they prate so much about-yet
the miners would pay less taxes than they, for
their income is less than that Of any other
class of people in the State We are inclin-
cd to think that universal income tax would
cause the dissatisfied people of the cities and
the valleys to complain more bitterly than
they do now.
The forthcoming reports of the Controller
of State and Treasurer of State, will show
that the mining counties pay their just pro-
portion for the support of the Government.
1t is contended that the Foreign miners tax
paid into the State Treasury should not be
credited to the counties; but that besides that,
the mining counties should pay as much as the
agricultural counties This is ridiculous
You have your farms, and the profits Of mer-
camille traGe-we have the mines; we don't
care how you raise the money to pay your
share Of the State taxes-you have no right
to care how we raise the funds to lquidate
our portion This is plain talk, and as true
as it is plain.
In order to explode the notion that there
is inequality of taxation, and that the miners
are delinquent, il will not be necessary for
the Controllers and Treasurer's reports to
show that the mining counties pay tax
equal to the agricultural counties and COM
mercial cities, aecerding to population. No
one conversant with the facts will contend that
the chief wealth is not centered in the cities
and the agricultural counties. The miner,
who has perhaps tcied for half dozen
years or more, is perfectly willing to pay his
poll tax, and his road tax, and all that, wheth-
er he has saved money enough to pay board
a week ahead or not and Il he has been for
tunate enough to lay by a few hundred dol
lars, he is perfectly willing to pay the tax on
that but he is not willing to pay as much
revenue as the man who has blocks Of houses
in the Cities stores OF goods worth thousands
or hundreds of thousands, or farms and stock
that would command more money than he can
ever hope to have. If taxation is TO be ra-
ted according to population, then the mining
counties do not pay enough if according to
property and wealth, then they already pay
their full proportion
This article is already too long, and must
be closed. All we ask for is, that equality Of
taxation and the freedom of the mines shall be
maintained. If there were any favors shown
towards the people Of any part Of the State,
upon the score of taxes, the miners should
have the preference for the State Govern
ment is of less use to them than any other
class For instance, they want no legisa-
tion-are better off without it-and while
they help to pay for annual and expensive
sessions of the Legislature, they do so with
out anything in the shape Of a quid pro quo.
But they do not ask favors give them their
rights-their simple rights.
DEMAGoGUEIsM.-It is the veriest humbug
for members Of the Legislature to make q
fuss about subscribing for few newspapers.
If they would take them and read them they
would be much better qualified to represent
the wishes of the people; if they would heed
them, all the big Treasury leaks would be
stopped, as an offset to the trihing sum re
quired to pay for the papers. Two or three
gasy, "penny wise and pound foolish men,
bers' spend more Of the peoples money in
talking about the matter than would be re-