Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-07-22

returns but S3S,UuU,UUU IN loIU-a decrease
of s239, 100000. Arkansas is reduced from
sl16, 100000 to S3l 100000 in this respect.
Missi issippi returns 1851 100000 in 1860,
against only s59,O00,000 in 1870-a decrease
of 1892, 100000; and South Carolina presents
even greater difference, returning S359, ,0OO,-
600 assessed personally in 1860, and 1884,
O0,O00in 1S70-being loss Of $3.50 ,OOO,OOO::
Georgia, in 1860, returned larger amount OF
assessed personal estate than any other State
in the Union, namely, s43S, 100000. In 1870,
this total was changed to sS3 O0O,OOO-a loss
of S355, 100000. Missouri, though slave
State, has suffered comparatively little. Her
personally, as assessed in 1860, was S113,OOO,-
600. In 1870 it was increased to Sl37 ,OOO,-
900. Taking the aggregate estimated true
wealth of all the slave.holding States in 1860,
it presents total of S6,746,000,OO0. In
1870, the same aggregate falls to s5,462, ,0O0,-
900, showing loss Of s1,2S4,OOO,OOO. The
on-slave-holding States, on the contrary,
show an immense increase during the same
period. In 1860, their aggregate estimated
true wealth was So, ,34O 100000 and in 1870,
s24,36O,0 100000; being an increase of sl5,-
O2OOOO,0OO. five look at the wealth Of the
late slave States in 1850 there appears great
increase from that period to 1860. The total
in 1850, was s2,947 100000; and in 1860,
Sc, TAG, 100000, showing an increase of 3d.
799 O0O,00O or 128 per cent. Had the war
not taken place, the same ratio OF increase
would have fixed the wealth of the Southern
States in 1870 at s15,3S1, 100000, or more
than two and a quarter times what it actually
proyed to be. And vet, with even all these
enormous losses, the South would now be hap
pier and more prosperous than at any time IN
her history but for the corrupt and tyrannous
rule with which she has been cursed since the
war. But peace has come at last, and the
next decade will show glorious outcome.
THE LOCAL SCHOOL TAX UNCoNsTITU-
TIoNAL.-The Kingstree Star, which is friend
" to the free schools, and would have every
person in the State to be educated, takes the
broad ground that the local or district school
tax is wholly unconstitutional and cannot be
enforced if properly resisted. The points
made are: /. That the tax is delegation of
a power of taxation which can only be exer-
cised by the Legislature there being no pow
er to confer the right to tax for school pur-
poses, although there is, under the Constitu.
ton, the power to confer on cities, towns and
counties, the right to levy taxes for local pur-
poses. Moreover, the Constitution declares
that: "The General Assembly shall
levy an annual tax on all taxable property
throughout the State, for the support of pub
lie schools" g. That the district taxes are un-
constitutional, because they are not "uniform
and equal" While some districts levy tax
of FIVE mills, others levy no tax whatever. 3.
That no tax can be levied Except in pur-
suance of a law which shall distinctly state
the object of the same" &c. The Legislature
can make laws a public meeting cannot, and
tax levied by public meeting is without
law. 4. The general school tax is distributed
among the school districts "in proportion to
the respective number of pupils attending the
public schools" irrespective of the amount OF
the district school tax, which is unjust.
These are strong grounds of objection, and
a judicial decision upon the QUESTION of the
constitutionality of the tax is important, not
only because it is for the public hood that the
Constitution shall be held inviolate, but be-
cause the people at large are thoroughly dis
satisfied with the present system. This gives
handful of negroes the power to tax the
whole of the property in any school district,
where they have natural or an accidental
majority and the people at large have no as
surance whatever that the tax, when collected,
will be properly spent. The school teachers,
in many cases, are as ignorant as their pupils,
and there is waste and confusion where there
should be strict economy and order. There
is no opposition of consequence to the educa-
ton of the people by the State but there is
an objection to paying money for the benefit
Of incompetent teachers and to support lazy
officials. This, and this alone, make the free
schools unpopular with the taxpayers.-Ne'cs
md Tnnr1er