The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-04-03
A Harp ozone string.

From the Nashville Union and American. !
The cheapest way for an individual or a
State to deal with debt, is to pay it.
That ends the matter on the cheapest
possible terms. But if the individual or
State be so circumstanced the immediate
payment cannot be made, the next best
thing is to prevent the debt from growing.
This is precisely what the funding bill
does. Already several years of neglect
had enlarged the State debt over million
dollars year, when in 1873, the LeSisla-
ture determined to stop this growth, be-
fore the burden should become too great.
To delay the matter till the coming leg
islature of 1875, would have involved a
further increase Of over three millions, to
permanently saddle On tax payers an
additional annuallevy of $200,000 SO of
every delay. By unearthing millions of
property which hitherto escaped, the
funds are provided for resuming the pay
ment of interest and stopping the growth
OF the debt, without increasing the rate of
State taxation. The rate last year and
this is only 40 cents, against 90 cents a
few years ago. 1t may be that men
whose property used to escape taxation,
while enjoying all the benefits Of protec-
ton, do not like the new arrangement, and
hate the funding bill for inducing legisla-
tors and other officials to be more ener-
gstic in urearthing hidden wealth. But
honest taxpayers are not likely TO SYM
pathiZe in such grievances. In so far as
the present assessment law tends to equal
ize the burden on the wealth of all, it is
an improvement on its predecessor. In
this, however, as well as many other re-
spects, it needs still further improvement
and emendation.
Such is the funding law, and such the
means of stopping the growth of the State
debt The Memphis Ardldncbe contin-
ues to speak oft as the most iniquitous
scheme ever forced through the Tennes-
see Legislature in the interest of a mOnied
ring (which purposes to conGscate the
property of the State. If it regards the
State tax of forty cents on the hundred
dollars as conhscatiOn, what does it think
of the Memphis tax of four dollars on the
hundred? From ofwhich theseis Memphis
suffering the most? The Aralanche says
the funding law, unless repealed, will
compel an increase of the taxation rate
for the next 40 years. Does it propose
repeal? If so, what substitute does it
offer? 1t is easy to point to existing
burdens, the legacy of Republican rule.
tits easy to abuse the funding law. What
a practical people want to know Is, how
the situation can be betlered. If our
contemporary has discovered Aladdin S
lamp, it ought not to keep it forever I'M
der bushel. Out with it. When you
repeal the funding law, what are you
going to do with the debt? Let the inter-
est swell the principal, from Legislature
to Legislature, increasing it each term by
IL l. lo1l,rr -
your figures? Is that the way to get out
of debt, or to decrease the burden? Will
our contemporary please develop Its own
plan, if it has airy? We do not want its
might, could would or should have been,
but what can be now and in the future.
The AUdEdRche seems to think there is a
wonderful argument in its statement that
the funding bill requires 'S64 600 900 to
be paid in interest on $27OOO,OO0 debt,
and without at all reducing the debt.
So an individual would have to pay $64
interest in the course of forty years on a
his debt The argument is a powerful
one against debt itself in either case.
But, to assume that Tennessee will not or
can not wipe out the prin cipal before the
forty years expire is to play ducks and
brakes with our revenues. In 1880 the
population of Tennessee was 6SI. 904, by
the United States census. In 1870 it was
| ,2j8, 500. Population has doubled in
the past forty years. Will it do less in
the coming forty? From 1880 to 1861,
the existence of slavery is supposed to
have materially retarded immigration.
The following nine years were filled up
with war, carnage, and Ku-Klux stories.
II rom lS'9O tO lS12 fbo-,a pai1-