The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-01-24
UNEQUAL BURDENS.

There is screw loose somewhere. It i
q very large screw, and it has become exces
sively loose. just who is to blame for il W
do not precisely know, but the blame mus
rest upon the shoulders of somebody, ant
we shall endeavor to discover who that some
body is in order to give him public lecture
free Of all cost.
That the laws for collecting taxes are ample
is plainly apparent, but it is also plain that b,
some species Of hocus pocus or legerdemain
the law is defeated, if not through favoritisn
or negligence, at leas. through an apparent,
culpable Partially.
If any one will search the records O.
paid taxes since the year 1863 he will be
struck with two singularly notable facts.
First. Almost invariably the same names,
embracing limited number Of capitalists and
host of poor or rather small property-holders,
appear and reappear each succeeding year.
Second. The names Of certain capitalists
and property holders, including large pro-
portion of the legal fraternity, never appear at
all.
Where such anomalies stare every searcher
after truth and taxes in the3ace, some expla-
nation is required, and in the absence Of any
satisfactory one having been given for the
past six years, we are left to our own imagina-
ton to find one.
We do not charge the officials either of
this or past administrations with any culpa-
bilityin the premises; they are probably only
innocent victims of a bad and inefficient sys.
tenn, as helpless in their routine harness as
were their illustrious counterparts under the
mild yet imperial sway of the great Lord
Decimus himself. The truth is that the tax
bills are tied up with entirely too much red
tape, and by the time they have returned
from their usual wearisome travels through
the hands of the collectors, the District Attor-
ney, the courts, and SO on, back again
through the same channels to the Board of
Administrators, SO many have fallen ex-
hausted by the way-side or dropped mad
from the roll call, that the proceeds |
arrive in very dilapidated and impoverished |
Consequently tho city's debts
cannot be paid, and the whole middle re-
apses with the city guardians into q vision
ny dream of impossible bonds and tantalizing
oans, doomed never to be realized.
Evidently there is something wrong in the
present system, and it remains with the city
athers to arrange plan whereby tax-paying,
10 long as it is enforced against some, may be
nforced against all. Why one man should
70 required to do what another is excused for
lot doing, passes our comprehension. The
hing should be equalized or stopped alto
ether. So far as the taxes for the metro
olitan police, the schools and the park are
we are decidedly in favor Of the
eople resisting their payment to the bitter
nd.
They are plainly unconstitutional, and their
election inficts intolerable hardships upon
,e people, rich as we'll as poor Every in
ulgence should beextended to poor, and in
eed to all taxpayers in times like these, but
lie burden upon some is greatly increased by :
,e indulgence extendedto others who, per-
APPS, are more able to pay.
Even the rascally and unconstitutional
xes would be easier to bear if all could be :
AIDE to pay up alike. The taxpayers, as q
ody should. in our opinion, unite, and while
fusing to pay one cent of the unconstitu- =
onal taxes enumerated above, offer to settle a
r such as are unquestionably just and due:
far, at least, as they maybe able to meet =