Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1864-04-27
TAXATION! TAXATION Z"

| lay en- unnecessarily heavy tax 10 pay the debt
| for bounties to FIJI up the quota for our county,
and thus avoid the draft. For once. at least, Ma
/ dam Ruuor told the truth-the tax has been laid
and the duplicates being placed in the hands
of the collectors rapidly as the unta that loafs
around the Commissioners Office can prepare them.
| That the people may know who are responsible
] for this enormous tax, and how it came to be lev
| led, we will present them with few facts and
| figures
| The order for draft of three hundred thou
| sand men made on October 18th, 1868. Find
ing that nothing was being done to fill our quota
on the 9th of January, 1864. we called attention
TO the fact that other counties and localities were
Offering bounties for the purpose, and that many
| Of our young men were enlisting and crediting
themselves to those places. From day to day, and
from week to week the Comm issoners were in ses
sion in this town, and mu st certainly have been
aware of the fact that men from different sections
of the county were leaving to enlist for other pa-
ces and get their bounty We we're losing men at
the rate of from ten to twenty per day. The vet
erans who re-enlisting in the army. were al
| so having themselves accredited to other locali-
ties, where they could get local bounties. Yet
nothing was done Not until the 4th of March,
one month after the call had been made for the
additional two hundred thousand men, did the
Commissioners offer bounty. Having gone home
without acting in the matter, they were brought
back by message from the clerk (the day fixed
for the draft getting alarmingly close) when
| they concluded TO offer bounty of S20e. This
offer was of course too late, and on the 9th of A
/ pril they increased the amount to $500 per
If bounty of $50 had been offered in the begin
ming of January. the whole quota cold have been
filed at cost of less than $4,000. Their pro-
| crastination will cost the county over $4,000
Having thus thrown away the opportunity to
get men at moderate cost. they proceeded imme-
diately to levy an enormous tax Wsas0mt uniting
70 ascertain the amount of the debt they had
CARED. From this undue and unseenly haste in
matter that required no haste it is fair to infer
that their object to make political capital for
the approaching Presidential canvass, by charg-
ing the necessity of this tax upon the Ma
| tional Administration. Had their motive been
solely to provide for the payment of the debt they
would surely have waited until the amount of the
| debt was known The quota is not yet filed, and,
from present appearances 1t is to say the least,
very doubtful whether it will be. If they do not
get the men, then certainly, they will not have to
pay the money. Why, there! e!ore, lay this enor-
nous tax before they know how much will be re-
quired2 It is true they have issued a large num-
Der of bonds and distributed them to everybody
who represented themselves commit ees to
fill the quota of township, but many of these
bonds not used, and will not be used, if they
can rot get TIE men. Hence the amount of the
debt is not, and can not for the present be known
But if the men had all been obtained, and the
debt nted to the largest sum possible to es-
innate under the circumstances. the tax levied is
improper and unjust. Our quota of the five hun
dred thousand, furnished to from the Pro-
vost Marshals Office, was 34i men. We presume
that two-ffths of this number would be our pro-
portion of ths additioual two huudr ed tbousa nd
making our whole quota about 490 men At $500
per man, the whole debt would be SI44.000 To
pay this sum in ive years, and the interest every
six months, would require annual tax of about
S34 000 two per cent on the assessed valuation
of the county. This would have made the bonds
good investment, and wcul Id have been all the
holders desired. 1t Woiild. moreover, have fallen
lightly on the people, and could have been paid.
to use common phrase, wit hout their feeling it
But instead of adopting this Inahifesty proper
| course, the CouRty Commissioners doubtless I'M
| der the instructions of the copperhead clique
| by which they always surrounded, have gone
| to work and levied tax of fUe per cent on the
assessed valuation of the county, which. accord
ing TO the last tri-ennial assessment is ST .694,-
| 933 90. This makes the amount of tax levied for
the present year SS4 646 50, leaving, after deduct
| ing two per cent for collection the sum of S82-
s53 72 to apply to the debt for bouhtes, or SI2,
| 646 65 more than half of the whole amount
! With such reckless haste did they proceed to
levy thls tax, that they, doubtless never stopped
to inquire what they going to do with the
money after they had it. Having distributed
their bonds broad east over the county acith the
coupons flie1t up for from to si1 years, they
| can't pay them when they have the money It is
not at all probable that people who have purchas-
ed these bonds with coupons due every six months
for four or six years, and exempt from taxation,
will present them for payment at the expiration
of one or even two years. They desirable
investment and will most likely be held, as long
the coupons last. Then, if the holders see pro-
per to retain them, what is to be done with the
money? Is it to lie idle in the treasury while
the county pays the interest the bonds2
1t might be well enough to inquire, while on
this subject. how the Commissioners are to get
back these bonds, if the parties to whom they
have thus distributed them should ial to get the
men Most of them have been negotiated, and
| in order to raise the money they have sold many
of them at considerably less than their face
Now if they fail to get the men how will they get
back the bonds ? Is it probable that persors $ who
have been induced to withdraw their capital from
other investments to buy these bonds, will give
them up again whenever called upon And if
the money which has been received on them is
paid into the treasury, the bonds are still out for
larger sum and on interest,
We have heard it suggested that Il was much