New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-07-07

The Levee Tax Again.



taxes, was glad to see, was duly honored
by timely insertion ia the proper place,
and again noticed in a lengthy editorial in a
subsequent editionyin which you seek to
demolish my position. will beg your in
duIgence, if, in this comm nication, seeking
to right myself, / prove rather lengthy.
Indeed, would feel quite cramped if, in
defending myself, were restricted in space.
would further crave your fOrbearanee if
this article should be rather typographical
and disconnected, since, in replying, will
have to attack your different points sepa-
rately as they occur to my mind.
The first item to which l would call your
attention is the assertion that II would put
in plea Of exemption Of myself and neigh
bors from the levee tax" and that you are
constantly called upon to contribute your
money to save the plantations Of your coun-
try cousins from overflow This i can only
regard as a piece Of inadvertence on your
part, and only notice it for the benefit Of
those who may have seen it, and not mine,
the tenor OF. which was solely to show that
you should share the tax with us.
One great point advanced by you, Mr..
Editor, is that, as the city pays fve-eig ghths
of the State tax, besides her municipal tax
and license, and has to keep up her own
levees, both river and lake, she should be
exempted from the State levee tax. This
drain on you is enormous, certainly, but
then you are richer, and ought to pay more.
It is not that you pay fve-eighths and we
three-eighths of the tax; it is that you are
worth twenty-five per cent more than we,
and it is just that you should bear that
much more than we do. When we were
the richer Of the two, and paid eleven-six-
teenths Of the entire State tax, while you
only paid fye-sixteenths of it, we of the
country never grumbled, nor did we ever
claim any abatement on any other score.
As for your own levee expenses, licenses,
etc, they are local matters, which, as
tax, Is but small percentage of the income
incident to the commercial and other adj
vantages which rebound to your benefit;
and you can well afford to bear it. In con
neotion with such local advantages for
which your country cousins claim no offset,
I may mention your postal facilities and
accommodations. While you sit in your
lordly Office and have your letters brought
to you by our Uncle's liveried servants,
which cost you nothing extra, and for which
we bear our part without complaint, we,
your country cousins aforesaid, have to
leave our homes and work, saddle our
ponies and trot up the road som etimes as
much as ten miles to get even with you.
Yet we do not complain, for these are local
disadvantages for which no one in partieu-
lar is blamable.
The next Of your arguments which /
would notice is rather peculiar one, and 1
can not reply to it in full without eIiminat-
ing an acrimonious discussion relevant to
past issues which years Of pen war failed
to settle, and to which the sword barely
gave quietus En- passant 1 must say that
1 can not too severely reprobate your action
in springing this subject upon me. I forbear,
then. to reply to that portion Of your
editorial, and will only submit the follow
ing facts, to show that if the taxes of New
Orleans have been increased by the war,
that the country has suffered likewise.
/. The wages of the hired freedman is
now greater than the tax on the slave.
,. The natural increase of the negro race
is greater than the mortality among them.
8. The amount of labor rendered by
slave was greater than any yet extracted
from hired freedman.
4. The dangers that planters encounter
from strikes and other combin ations con-
trast strongly with the certainty Of slave
labor
s. The depredations committed by tie
negroes in their unbridled license, and the
impunity with which they may violate all
Law, tell severely on the minor industries
connected with farm life, such as stock and
poultry raising, gardening, dairying, etc.
have 20 thank you, Mr.. Editor, for call
ing my attention to the fact that in 1860
the city paid only ive-sixteentbs Of the
State tax. Now for years, generations, I
may say, the riparian, not the parish, but
the individual, kept up his own levees at
an enormous expense, and the city Of New
Orleans, and in fact the entire State -four
ished and grew wealthy on the strength Of
IT.
In fact ali Of the interior alluvial lands
were reclaimed and made valuable and in
habitable and tributary to the welfare Of
New Orleans, all at the expense of the
riparian proprietor, and that too, while
New Orleans was paying only fve-six-
teenths Of the State tax. And now that
we are stricken down and you are prosper
Gus, that we call for the help we are en-
titled to. you scott at us and bid us help
ourselves.
Many cases have occurred wherein the
planter, depleted by repeated leyee making
and finally unable to make another was, sold
out and himself and family turned adrilt, a
sacrifice to the prosperity Of New Orleans
and the balance of the State. Now show
me a man in New Orleans whose 1evee taxes
have ever summed up to the value Of a
sugar plantation.
The argument which you dedueed from
my figures as weakening ny OWE case is a
weu rounded sophism, and would com
pletely mislead the unsugpecting. I quote
from You: "The advance in value ,of city
small as it is ($32, 1896, ,0t0 over and
above the loss in slavesl, is attributable to
the improved prospects of the rural dis
tricts since. the war, not to any accession /
within its corporate limits" / must say
that my perceptive faculties fail to discern
your logic. If You admit that the ''im-