Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-02-20

NASHVILLE, February IS, 3 pm, 1870.
7. A. Nelson, President Chamber of Com
merce:
We have passed this proposition in
the Constitution: The portion of a
merchants capital used in the pur-
chase of merchandise sold by him to
non-residents, and sent beyond the
State, shall not be taxed at a rate
higher than the al UatOTeHa tax on
property.
STEPHENS AND HEIsKELL.
The above dispatch to the President
Of the Chamber of Commerce, takes
the sting out of the privilege" prin-
ciple to some extent, so for as Mem
phis is concerned, which sells more
goods to other States than to our own.
Nashville and Knoxville may not be
so well pleased with it. If that por-
ton of a merchants capital which he
uses for the benefit of nOn-residents
should be taxed only on the ad CalO-
rem principle, will somebody please
tell US why the other portion which is
used for the benefit of our own people
should be taxed at any higher rate?
Why should not merchants be com
PEELED by a privilege tax to raise
the prices Of their goods on strangers
as well as on the home folks? Does
the Convention decide that nOn-res-
ident5 are better than residents;
OF that residents will bear OPP
preston a little the most
timely? The OLD fashion YVES to
tske care Of our own people first. But
the Convention decides to leave our
merchants free to sell goods to MiSsis-
sippians and Arkansians at a per
cent. less rates than to T-ennesseeans.
This strikes US as Hberality and states
manship with a vengeance, particu-
larly directed to the home circle.
Departures from sound principles al
ways put Legislators as well as COM
mon people in a quandary. The
members of the Convention have no
pole star, and so wander and get lost
and sink into quagmires as easily as
less pretentiOus, or even less well in
formed people. And now, they will
find themselves between Scylla and
Charybdis. If they tax merchants
unequally on what they sell to non-res-
idents, they will impOverish the State
by driving Off the profits and growth
OF commerce from its limits. If they
tax them out of equal proportion on
articles sold for home consumption, it
will make u own people pay the
penalty of buying goods at dearer
rates from our merchants, and induce
them to remove to the neighboring
towns of other States, where they can
escape the OnerOus imposition ON the
faFners and consumers of Tennessee.
Is it not a little amusing to e the
predicament in which our Nashville
SOlons are placing themselves, in order
tc the enforcement of their "privi-
lege" taxing principle for want Of
that common sense which plain
people have? We beg leave to
laugh-in our sleeve. The Con-
vention is certainly very right
in taking off the tax as to goods sold
to non-residents. If now they viii
take off the tax from goods on sale TO
residents, it will be just as right. AT
ter all, there is but n right way
about the whole matter, and that is to
tax all alike, assessing on the capital
OF all equally so much as may be ne
cessary for the purposes of the gov
eminent honestly and economically
administered. No other principle and
no other course of action will stand
investigation or meet the approval of
intelligent or practical men.