Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-11-19
CUR NASHVILLE LETTER.
Triumph of the LObby-New Laws Passed
The Tax Question. &c.
rfspondencc of the CHRoEICLE.l
NASHVILLE, Tenn. Nov

NASHVILLE, Tenn. Nov. Is.
The lobby triumphed over the people
again to-day, The bill authorizing the
Railroad Commissioners to compromise
suits with certain parties relative to the
sale OF railroads, was passed in the Senate
this, morning, not, however, until much OF
its poison had been extracted. The lobby
was in the interest of the Nashville and
Chattanooga Railroad and Davidson coun-
ty. AS watched the movements of the
lobbyists during the discussion whispering
in the ears of Senators, | was strongly re-
minded of Milton's picture of Satan try
ing to deceive Eve in Paradise, ~rv
''Squat like a toad, close to the ear of Eve.
Assaying by his devilish art to reach
The organs of her fancy"
The main arguments in favor of the bill
were two: First, that the commissioners
are men who can be trusted and second,
that it was necessary to compromise the
suits pending, in order to prevent the con
stitutionality of the law being tested. But
the States Attorneys i'll their report to the
commissioners give it as ther opinion that
Davidson county has no showing in court.
The result of the passage of the blu will
put about $4,000 of State money into the
treasury of Davidson county and the
benefit to the Nashville and Chattanooga
Railroad will doubtless appear in due time.
Gibson, Mcconnell, Staley, Clarke, Win
die and Hughes voted against the bill.
sss 2 LAWS PASSED.
l examined the acts of the present ses-
sion in the office of the Secretary of State
this morning. These acts are twenty-five
in number, twenty efwhich are purely To-
cal, and the other two are general. One
of the. general laws provides that in all
civil cases before a j Justice of the Peace the
hour of trial shall be noon, unless differ
ent hour is fixed in the warrant or by the
officer. The other general law authorizes
the courts to tax prosecutors with costs
who willfully abandon the prosecution of
criminal cause. And thus the people
can see at a glance all that has been done.
1t is perhaps well for the people that more
general laws have not been passed. The
present General Assembly has had Reso-
luton on the brain, judging from the host
of resolves it has made. l
THE TAX QUESTION. 1.st
The House for the last two days has been
discussing the amount of ad valorem taxes.
The Democrats are split on this question,
about One-half favoring 80 cents on the
hundred dollars, and the balance favoring
so cents. The merchants lobby is doing
all it can to have the privilege tax taken
off them. This, of course, means a high
tax on the farmer. "A Stranger WOuIu
think, to hear the petitions read every
morning in the Legislature, to read the
newspapers, and to hear the lobby talk,
that Tennessee was inhabited almost eXclu-
sively by merchants. The farmers are 81
lent on this question of taxation; but if
they made efforts in proportion to the eff
forts of the merchants, not only would
Nashville be filled with farmers, the Leg
islators be crowded out of the capitol, and
the halls of both Houses be filled with pc
titions and memorials. .sF }rsra
Perhaps it is not generally known
that the votes of the Republican Dele
gates in the Constitutional Convention
provided the adoption of the Merchants
tax amendment-an amendment which if
adopted, would have shifted the great
burden of taxation from the shoulders of
the merchant on to the shoulders of the
IarmeT'# rFF BAD PA u = 1oChs'