New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-03-16
HEROIC TREATMENT,

ACT NO. Al, OF the late session, entitled
ian act to enforce the payment of taxes
due the State. ETC.. is not amenable 70
the charge of ambiguity. whatever may be
said of II as radical remedy for grave
evil. The act is in effect the response Of
the sovereign State to the defiance of the
tax reSisters, and is so framed as to bring
serious penalties upon all who fail in their
duty to contribute 20 the public expense.
AS severe and effective as this law appears
to be. we venture 70 say that it will result
in the collection Of the current revenues
this year at less cost to the people than
ever before.
In addition 10 granting every facility 10
tax collectors. il is provided in section
eight that a delinquent list shall be pre-
pared and published by the Auditor. list
of the names Of all delinquent taxpayers,
which publication shall have the effect to
outlaw the persons therein named, 80 that
they can not appear as plaintiffs or wit
nesses in their own behalf in any court Of
this State. They may relieve themselves
Of their disability at any time by paying
up and receiving a quittance from the
Auditor. if in the parish OF Orleans, or
from the tax collectors if in the country.
The necessity that existed for such
law, and which may be said TO have
created il, in common with many other
inventions, is not creditable TO the sense
Of justice Of the people against whom il is
designed to operate. The poor people of
this State who own no property, although
their unrequitted labor produced perhaps
four-ffths Of all that requires the protec
ton Of our laws. are not at all agrarian in
their tendencies. They do not. as is
sometimes done in other countries. ques-
ton the right of the present possessors TO
their property. though they might pos
sibly make a very strong plea in equity
for division. But they demand, as they
have right 20. that the property Of the
State shall be made 10 pay the expenses Of
the State government. The man who
refuses 70 comply with this reasonable
demand is not entitled 70 protection, and
hereafter he will not receive it, He will
be denied, for himself and his property,
the protection Of the government which
he refuses 90 support.
There will be, however, few or none
to whom this tast resort will ever be ap-
Piled For the means placed in the power
OF the tax collectors are so ample that JUS
tice will in nearly all cases be satisfied be-
fore it comes 20 the final penalty.
The justification for the adoption Of a
summary method OF collecting public dues.
if any were needed. can be found in the ne
cessity that exists for the authority OF the
State to be paramount within its own ter
ritory. If Louisiana is a State at all. she is
entitled to have government. one that con-
trolls and governs. not a mere tigurehead
that can be swayed one way or another
by the breath of the loud demagcgue.
declaiming falsely in the name Of the peo.
themselves is to be used as charter 20
disregard laws. there will soon be no
people left 20 govern. All would be sub
iect TO the domination Of the mob. unless
the paramount authority of the laws is
maintained. And where a sufficient num-
Der o: disconnected people 20 be dan
gerouS. appear as open and undisguised
opposers and resisters Of the laws. it is
the more humane as well as the more
economical policy of the State to put them
down at any hazard, az any cost. II is
better that a few diseased minds suffer
than that the whole body polite become
gangrened.
Such must have been the philosophy of
the authors Of act No. II, for it seems 20
Us to provide heroic remedy for the all
ment that seems to have attacked our tax
reSisters.