Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1875-01-10
ARKANSAS.
Her Recent Financial Condition aud
Failure Prospeeis-The senate Bill
for the Issuance OF e2,5OO, 900
More Bonds.
What the state Has 40 PaJ and What
She Has TO Pay 81 Wiih-All She Needs
is Freedom from Radical Control
10 be Abie 20 Pay.


der in transmission made the Associated
Press report from this city few days
since announce that the senate had
passed bill authorizing the issue Of
State bonds to the amount of twenty
five million dollars. There seems thus
far to have been no correction made Of
the error, and the statement has passed
almost unquestioned as only additional
evidence of the utterly inexplieable
character of Arkansas legislation. The
occasion is a good one to make known
briefly the real political and financial
condition of the State. The facts Will
lose nothing in the telling, and once in.
telligently understood Will doubly damn
in the minds Of all honest people the
rulers with whom Arkansas has been
cursed for the past six years. The
State senate did week ago
pass a bill authorizing the Is
sue of bonds to the amount Of
s., 500, 600 to meet the current expenses
OF the State government, thereby ap-
parenuy indOrsing the suicidal policy
that the current expenses OF the State
government are to be met not by taxa
ton, but by plunging deeper and deeper
in debt. Such, however, was not the
intention OF the senate. The issuance OF
these bonds seemed to be the least OF the
evils which stared them in the face, and
the bill was passed in the hone of tenn
pOrsry relief. During the latter psFb OF
the war, and up to 1868, the State, uu-
der provisional government, Jared well
compared with the more recent tyran-
ny. In 1858 the carpetbag element, un-
der the plea that the work of reconstTuc-
ton would be best accomplished in that
way, framed & constitution giving them
unlimited powers, and submitted it to
the people when tWO-thirds Of them were
under the ban of Acknowledgement. The
minority adopted the instrument, and
Arkansas fell into the hands of the Dor
sey and Mcclure ring. These carpetbag
OfficehOlders found in The State treas
ury, as the result of general revenue,
the sum OF S104, ,S22 in currency, and
500, 500 in ten-fOrty United States bonds
The revenue under easy taxation had
from 1865 to 1868, while Murphy
was governor, and native Ar
ksnsians for the most part were in office,
paid the State expenses and left these
accumulatiOns, with an insignificant
debt well secured. For five years from
1868 the ring ruled; and then through
the patriotism Of Governor Baxter, who,
though elected by the rings influence,
refused to be its tool, the people received
back the government from the plunder-
ers. In the State treasury there was
S139 81. The State debt had been
swelled to SIS, 1000, 900, not including
several millions of bonds through such
barefaced swindles that the courts pro-
nounced them illegal. Arkansas was
virtually bankrupt and without credit
at home or abroad. In 1865, 1856 and
1867 taxation was easy. In 1868 the
valuation OF property was in many in
stances doubled, and in all cases raised
to more than ever before. The sssess-
ments were entirely arbitrary, and there
was no appeal by the rings cOnstitu-
ton adopted in 1865, beyond the de.
cisiOn of the assessor himself, whose re-
muneration was a certain per cent. of
the valuation. There could not have
been conceived worse scheme of legit-
innate robbery. Under their constitution
the ring levied tax of One-fourth OF one
per cent, for convention purposes, and q
militia tax of one eighth Of one per cent.
1t is not necessary to multiply illustra-
tiOns of the iniquities wrought under
that infamous constitution OF 1868. In
this county alone, Pulaski, the taxes
collected by the ring for State and cOun-
ty purposes were more than assessed and
collected in 1850 from the whole Stale
for State expenses. And yet, in spite of
revenue from taxation, the like OF which
Arkansas had never known, these plum
derers ran Up debt of SIS, 600, 900. The
State has now SIC, ,000,00 out in bonds
They are worth on the market forty
cents on the dollar. The interest upon
them is past due, and there is nothing
to meet the matured coupons. There is
also floating debt of nearly 81, 0O0, 900.
The action of Baxter gave the people
once more control. They held a cOnven-
tiOn and framed a new constitution.
This constitution is an instrument
characterized by moderation and limited
powers. 1t has been submitted to the
whole people and adopted by vote of
nearly four to one. Under the new con-
stitution the expenses are greatly re-
duced. Three hundred thousand dollars
year is saved by abolishing sinecure
offices established under the rings in
strument. Nearly as much more year
is saved in the reduction of salaries from
their former eXtravaganL figures. The
report Of the State auditor for 1874 will
show that the taxable property Of the
State amounts to $l06,3 ,34S, 1913. BY the
provisions of the new constitution this
is enough, it is believed, to yield, by rea-
sOnable taxation, revenue sufficient to
sustain the State government, pay the
interest on an almost ruinOus bonded
debt, and gradually redeem the bonds,
the tax being decreased as the pOpula-
ton increases. This Is the spirit in
which the present officers are working.
This Is the aim of the new constitution
and the will Of the people. The senate
passed the recent measure for the issue
OF $2, SOC, 900 in bonds, thinking,
IN that way to fund the floating
debt OF nearly $1,000, 600, meet
the interest on the bonds, thereby
preserving the States credit, and TO
carry along the government until the
next years revenue comes in. 1t may
have been an error of judgment, but
they meant right. AT any rate this
hasty review will give better general
idea than most northern people have Of
Arkansas politics aad finances. All the
people want now is to be let alone aud
they Will work their own salvation. The
ring ID working in Washington 10 secure
the setting aside of the new cOnstitu-
tion and the restoration OF their power
and the constitution of 1868. In his
message the President, while devOtiDg
a good deal Of attention to Arkansas,
still dodges the question, and leaves to
congress the decision. The people of the
State are looking anxiOusIy for il. If
is STAYED of until the Dem
ocraic congress comes into power all
will be well for Arkansas.