New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-05-08
TIE TAX REsTsTERs RECKONED UP.

the audience is justifable. The whoOplng
at sentiments which breathe blood and
thunder has died ont, and the echoes slum-
Der until they shall be awakened at the
next meeting" In the light Of cold facts
are the resistless pleadings of the lawyers
now viewed-resistless because the Ian
guage of a man who talks business" has
invariably a certain force never felt in its
weight and depth in any other kind Of
speech making.
Among the audience were bankers, lifted
by some lucky speculation out from the
body Of tenants into house owners; land
lords who, by the hardest kind of grubbng.
have succeeded in owning half dozen
houses or more, from which they collect the
rent with remarkable punctuality; ex-oftice-
holders, who saw in the present Organiza-
ton a new party at the tail board of which
they could hang on until chance might
select them as drivers; lawyers. who re
garded the present undertaking as a means
of emolument and future profit, and Dem
Ocratic aspirants for power, which they ex-
pect TO attain by toadying to a spirit of
communism which, unchecked, will destroy
the vital forces Of the very soil upon which
they tread.
There was not banker among the party
who did not know the financial effect of
this movement, or who failed to see the
bonus lying in wait for him by an invest
ment when a temporary embarrassment
sent securities down, and a sale when they
should 90 up again. Here is their interest
| The landlords there know that here, in this
State, has been their paradise. Here, where
writ follows writ without so much as the
raising of finger, and process follows pro
cess, and advertisement comes swiftly after
| advertisement against the little all of the
poor man, on which the laws give him a
! lien and privilege, the landlord felt safe in
resisting the payment of a tax on technical
! grounds, as his tenant-ho no could not
by any possibility resist him. 1t is certain
death for tenant to fight a landlord in this
climate.
Among the landlords sat one whose
pimply face had once shone behind bar
then efulged in an aldermanic chair, then
! daily glowered over the small fry of petty
claimants for city charity, corporation work
and the like, and then, when the civic robes
fell from his shoulders, rode on a monthly
tour over his own property, which consisted
! of about twenty cottages, in every one of
which was a tenant. How many of this Or
| der of landlords, who, under the honor
airy" system of city ofice-holding, began
! their career in fancy and ended it in realty ]!
| Twenty, thirty, forty can be pointed out
0. if the figures of that old city debt
| could speak, and one by one step down, take
| life and become the spokesman of meet
| ing, what stories they would tell of how the
dim procession of everlasting quantities
were made up. What stories these figures
they never lie-would narrate of violated
pledges and stolen hours of the laboring
men, burglary of time robbery, spoiIa
ton, frauds and huckstering of the city
credit that their column might become
larger and the big burden on the people
bigger. What say the landlords? Taxes are
so high it is useless t. own property. That
is, build house for $4,000, and charge fifty
dollars a month rent on the excuse of high
taxes; of course if none are paid, the poorer
you, the richer we.
There is \. He sued for two months rent,
got prov provisional seizure) and he,
himself, took the cradle from under sick
child, and everything in the tenants house,
for debt of thirty dollars. The poor ten
ant had gone into the country having been
sick month"; for a breath of pure air. and
to send him hither the wife by sewing, the
Oldest son by working, had raked up
every cent they could lay hold. The wife
asked this tax resister for little kindness:
the house was bare in a few minutes. and
the invalid returned to find his wife and
three children with no place to lay their
heads. What remedy do the rent laws give
them' None. He had a stout heart and
built himself mp again. But the child is
dead
Bpursued his tenant from pillar to post.
ruined his credit. lied about his reputation
and honor, and run off the furniture.
while he was absent. Any day in Justices
court will afford evidence of the great hon
esty. the unparaIled humanity, the patriot
ism, the nobility of soul Of these landlord
tax resisters, (some of them) of that great
ness in little things possessed by these
men who never have paid taxes under any
government, whether of their own choosing
or not who bribe the undeTstrappers Gf
they cam, fee the bll-bearers and boo1-car-
riers, and then put their own property un-
der cloud by openly refusing to pay.
A landlord who has not paid his taxes has
no standing in court. He can not distrain
for rent overdue. Every tenant can, if he
so selects. resist the collection of rent on
the ground that the non-paying landlord
has no rights which any court is bound to
respect. A movement is now on foot under
which the tenants all over the city will
gather in a monster meeting of protest
against the extOrtiOns of the landlords. to
resist the payment Of rent until the land
lord shows a clean bill-the landlords who
wish to shift their burdens on the shoulders
Of their tenants. The game Of law is one
that two can play at. When the tenants
come together we will hear story Of OPP
3ressiOn from these task-masters the like Of
which was never seen or heard.
The former ffice-holders. who made the
people sweat when they had a chance at
the crank, were there at the Hall IN large
force "The people will believe we are
honest because we call the present govern
ment thieves" So they think. But if it is
twenty years back the finger of justice can
point cut their dark transactions that