The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-12-02
ARE THE PEOPLE UNWILLING Ob
UNABLE TO PAY THE TAXES LEVIED!
Editor NO. Bulletin !:

Editor N. o. Bulletin:
In late issue Of your paper you make an
appeal to the people to sustain the new al
ministration Of the city by paying up PACK
taxes, and in the course Of your remarks you
commit the grve error OF attrlou1lng .ne
enormous delinquency OF the people 10 an IN
willingness heretofore to pay their money
even indirectly to an illigi.imate government;
Now l freely admit that no unpreJudlced
man could blame this people Tor refusing as
long as they possibly could to pay their hard
earned money into the hands OF the alien
will aims, who have for SIX years been forced
upon them. Nor could any such man plane
them for Withholding money from the hands
of the late city Administrators who have Deen
utterly false to al the pledges under which
thew went into Office And no doubt the spirit
of unwiIlingness pervades the soul OF every
patriotic man and woman in the city.
But you greatly err, gentlemen, when you
incUlcate the idea that unwillingness to pay
has really created and sustained the long roll
of delinquents. Nothing is truer than that
inability takes the precedence. You ought to
know that the regular organization commonly
known as ''Tax Resisters, was really "Ihe
Peoples Association to resist unconstitutional
taxation" and thai only such taxes as they
said their counsel deemed unconstitutional
taxes but the authorities would have all or none.
Before any really honest court they must have
succeeded but they were strongly fought by
their own Administrators elected to enslave
them. through City Attorney they dared
not remove, and they were thrown out OF
court on a threadbare tecnnicality.
Look at this thing practically gentlemen.
and YOU will not again hold our people up in
false colors to t g gaze OF the world. Here
are facts to digest.
Here is u store in the centre Of the city
which six years ago cost $34, 600 cash. 1t
readily rented for $1,000 year, could pay
liberal taxes, insurance and repairs, and
yielded o handsome profit. Six years ago
taxes began to increase, business began to de-
cline; assessments began to increase and
rents began to fall; the process at once began
to show itself to be one of utter annlhliatlon
of all value and absorption Of all income. In
1872 gross income OF $500 was derived from
this store; the taxes alone, State and city,
were more than per cent on SoO,OOO assess
ment, or, say, $500
During the year 1873, this store lay without
a tenant. The taxes remained the same?
Again, widow lady owns central city
property, which five or six years ago, yielded
her net profit OF 5000.
Now, that same property, kept in only toll
cradle state Of repairs, viii barely yield her
$500 to $4,000. Five years ago she could
have any day sold it for $4,000; now she
could not sell it for half the money.
Again. another widow owns seven pieces Of
improved real estate Five or six years ago
she could pay her taxes, pay insurance, keep
her property in order, educate her children,
and live comfortably, (she has never INDUCED
in luxury; now she must, while living from
hand to mouth, cucumber that property to
pay taxes. The taxes, insurance, and repairs
are more than her income
Are these extreme cases? No; similar ones
exist all around us. Real estate is non-pro-
ductive and unsaleable. On all sides, to pay
taxes on it, money must be borrowed, and
mortgages must be effected. The process is
absorptive; it means nothing but ruin and
misery.
But is depression in real estate all the evil +?
A man may own real estate that yields nothing
or worse than nothing, but he may be a law
yer, doctor, merchant, baker; he may have
business outside Of the income Of real estate
and the tax-collector chuckles over his
liability" to pay. Is he necessarily able !?
By no means The process that has ruined
real estate has ruined everything, except the
hourly traffic in the deprecated promises to
pay" of q bankrupt State and city.
Gentlemen, you are grievously wrong when
you, for one moment, inculcate the idea that
taxes imposed on them. II you are honest
in the expression of such an opinion, your
whole philosophy is wrong; if you incuIcate
the idea as what is called policy, your theory
of action is fatal. Neither You nor the peo-
pie who sustain you can stand on such a
platform. The more thoroughly oppressive
taxation is imposed on this people, or any
people, the poorer they become, and poverty
ut last begets storms which taxpayers and
tax-gatherers at last find overwhelming.
Gentlemen, all the woes of this people have
their origin in bad government, and the nature
of that government is fully defined in the two
words Oppressive taxation" That govern
ment was established to tax, it did tax, and it
has brought ruin on State, city and people.
Two years ago the agonizing rhroes OF the
people of this city brought forth the Mayor
and City Council just retired. They went into
Office pledged to econmy in and efforts at re-
lief of the people from the burdens that were
upon them. Scarcely were they counted in
when they turned their backs upon those who
elected them, kneeled before Pnchback for
their commissions sacrificed principle for
office retained the patent tax-squeezing ma
chine lacey and assistants), bought every
thing and employed everything on credit !;
flooded the streets with promises-to-pay, and
yesterday retired with well, with
the thanks Of the people that they were elected
for only two years.
Now, when you say that this people are I'M
willing to pay taxes. you simply invite the
incoming administration to follow in the foot
steps OF their illustrious predecessors. On
that line Mayor Wilt 4 Co. fought this COM
munity for two years. Where is the credit
Of the city compared with its credit on the
day they entered the City Hall? They en-
tered feeling they were masters, not servants.
They have wrung thousands OF innocent hearts
with the machinery Of their courts, but they
have chaos worse COMPOUNDED, and their men,
cries will live long in the hearts that were
torn, as well as those they were preparing to
tear.
Is this the feast to which you would invite
our new Mayor and Council? Or, as servants
instead Of masters, shall they first show
fixed determination to administer this city in
e-7-r rmity to the real means of their masters,
tv expecting, and, therefore, only asking
lta9 he latter will do their best to sustain
'h}tl They cannot pursue the track worn