Nebraska advertiser., 1864-02-11


inhabitants Of the Territory as a basis for
a new apportion ment Bat il provides
that should there be a failure from any
cause whatever, either from The assessors
10 failing to make a fell enumeration. or
from the Legislature, by the factions OPP
position of any Of its members, then the
present apportionment will be revived.
There lisa new Revenue bill now be-
fore the Council. 1t was prepared with
with great care by a member eff the
Omaha bar, with especial reference to
the circumstances and wants Of the Ter
ritOry. II has passed through the Judi
ciary Committee of the Council, in which
it received several amendments. In
Committee of the whole to-day it was so
amended as to provide that a road tax of
$500 be levied on each quarter section
of land. No other provision is made
(excepta poll lax Of 81 for a road fund.
This tax, if properly collected, will raise
a ~mildling large road fund, and there
are provisions thrown around it that will
to a great extent prevent the frauds and
delinquencies that formerly occurred
when this law was IN force. l suppose
this provision will pass the House, though
there are a portion of the melnhArs-
much opposed to it. The farmers all
over the Territory, as near as l can as
certain. are generally in favor of it,
though why, | n very well under
stand.
Take Nemaha county, for instance.
This tax will raise a fund of about $4,000.
An advance tax of two and a half mills
to the dollar on all taxable property
would raise about the same sum, and
would not be half so heavy on farmers.
1t is true noA.residents would not pay
quite so much; but rich farmers with
improved farmes, merchants, bankers,
- 81
teamsters and freighters, who are more
interested in good roads and bridges than
most Of the and-holders, would bear a
share of the burden. With the So tax
every poor man who owns a quarter sec
ton of land must pay in money or labor
So, although he may have no other prop
erty, and may be in debt for his land.
HIS rich neighbor may have $4,000 worth
Of improvements on his quarter section !;
be may also have a hundred freight
wagons, and a thousand oxen that tavel
the road and break down the bridges be
may, in addition, perhaps, loan land
warrants with an interest of five percent
per month, or he may be a merchant and
may skin The poor farmer to a hundred
times the extent that nonresident land
holders do, yet he only pays So road tax.
With an adyalorem tax, sufficient to raise
$1,000 in our county, a quarter section
Of land would not be taxed more that s.
when lying on the Missouri river, and
only 81 if a few miles west from the
river. But for the sake Of 'skinning''
non residents, makiny them pay in op-
position to the spirit Of the Organic Act,
relatively more than their share, we are,
many Of US, willing and anxious to be
skinned ourselves. We are like the
man who consented to lose both his eyes
on condition that his enemy should lose
one eye.
There are many important laws under
consideration. A herd law is a good
deal talked of, but / think no general
retaining law can pass this winter. The
members, like their constituents, have so
many opinions on the subjects, and the
interests of different localities conflict 81
much that it is difficult to frame any Law
that would not work great hardship to some
body. 1t is doubtful whether public opin
ion is yet prepared for SO radical a revo.
luton as a general herd law would pro.
duce. There is a bill before the House
granting the right to the people of Ne.
maha and Otoe counties to vote in each
precinct as to whether they will herd
their cattle or not There are serious
objections to this mode of disposing O.
this vexed question But perhaps it il
the best that can be done. There are
localities in Nemaha that need a re.
strAing law, where the people would IN.
doubleday vote for it. There are other
neighborhOOds in which the people think
they would be seriously injured by any
herd law, and of course they can vote
against it. Most people, if the Law
passes, can have a herd la or not, Just
as they choose I; but the trouble will b.
along the dividing lines of such precincts
They say, however, that in the northern
and western counties of the Territory
where they have a herd law in some pre-.
cincts and not in others, that 1t works
well, and produces little confusion.
Mr.. Mason introduced into the Council
and DIR. Rice into the House, bills tC
amend the code Of civil procedure, so a,