Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-07-01
A RADICAL JOURNAL ON TENNESSEE
FINANCES.


FINANCES.
The Washington Chronicle was re
Gently delivered Of a long discourse oil
State debts in general and the Tennes
see debt in particular, based upon a par
agraph from the Appeal to the effect that
the Legislature +" failed to make any rea
sonable arrangement to provide for the
July and January interest" The Chron
icle may be good authority to Boss Shep
herd and the Washington rings, but its
gracious advice to Tennessee Democrats
is loves labor lost" A journal which
has defended corruption and a reckless,
u%nprineipled administration so long is
not a competent judge Of our home af-
fairs. Our ~neighbor, however, pub
fishes the article in full, with great rel
ish, and makes it the occasion for a
column editorial defending the funding
ring and reproducing an array Of figures
and arguments from that eminent inan-
cier, Major Sykes. The Appeal tackles
the Legislature for not providing for the
July interest. Ia what. manner this
should have been done, whether by bo.v-
rowing as was done last January, or
otherwise, is not stated. A mere in.
crease Of the rate of taxation, even to
sixty cents. the rate demanded by the
lpnders last winter, would not have
helped matters now, IL. t1e tax books
are seldom placed in the hands OF the
collector before the lst OF January,
When the funders had a majority in the
Legislature in 1873 they left the tax at
forty cents, and now they bowl at the
anti-funders who succeeded them for
doing the same thing-that is, leaving
the rate just as they found it. And
in each instance ihe officers Of
the State we're left undisturbed in
the power to i" provide money by Dor
rowing it on such terms as they saw
proper Last January they succeeded
and the funding ring had nothing to say
about the failure of the previous Legisla-
ture. This year Colonel Gaines, the
worthy Comptroller, went to New York
on the same mission, but =" failed y to
borrow. The reason assigned was that
he refused to give ten per cent, the rate
ofinterest asked on Wall street. Perhaps
there was a demand for collateral also,
as it seems that such requirements had
been complied with on previous occa-
sions. The only p%ostponement directly
caused by the present Legislature was
an act of relief suspending until next
October the enormous penalties on
delinquent taxpayers fixed by tie
odious assessment law Of 1873, which
was passed by the funding Legislature
in support Of their pet scheme. The
various disasters of last year had re-
duced the people Of many counties TO
actual distress, and the slight relief af-
fordedby suspending penalties was moth.
ing more than a matter Of humanity.
AS to the ill-tempered demand made by
a few Of the more outspokeu iunders
recently for an increase Of taxation, we
would remind the Washington Chronicle,
as it is 30 interested in Tennessee local
affairs, hat the platform adopted by the
last Democratic State Convention held
at Nashville, pronounced %unequivo-
cally against increasing the rate
OF taxation. This was not a
meaningless expression, to be popular
for an hour, or during a canvass, but the
deliberate purpose and determination Of
the people, and not only Of Democratic
people but all the people of the State.
Some of the funding organs argue thai
forty cents on The one hundred dollars
will, when collection is resumed, NEE
the current expenses and the ~interes
falling due. If so, it will be paid
~ HANM
but no party will dare 10 rails,
the present rate Of taxation, for i
is as high as the tax payers ca
possibly endure, and self preservatioI
is the FIRST law Of nature. The Chronicl
may carp about reputation comm
only from the South, aud the Appe,
may approvingly r%epublish such article
but they both know that the North gre
rich upon the misfortunes of the Sout
and that much of the Southern debt
illegal, null and void. Some Of our ow
bonds we're perhaps issued Irregular.
and we know that the funding job WI
rushed through with undue haste. tt
people submitted TO this and have e
dured thus far every exaction with fort
tude and patience, but a higher rate
taxation would be the certain precurs,
CfrepudiatiOn. The real repu iiatiOnis