The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1876-02-10
Our State Indebtedness.

It seems to De a very hard matter
for our Legislature to devise means
for relieving the State of tie burden
of debt which hangs like a black
cloud over its prospects, or of even
furnishing the ground of a reasona-
bic hope for such a devoutly wished
for consummation. With the re-
turn of every election day we hear
the stereotyped cry of retrenchment
and reform, until it seems to have
become a mere catchword with
which to tickle the ears of the peo-
pie. Year after year we have had
the "true theory" sounded over the
State, from the press and from the
hustings, and yet we get deeper in
debt. With each successive session
of the Legislature our representa-
tives make new experiments, which
produce results no more encourage
ing than those which preceded them.
And, after all, experiment is the
word. 1t has been one experiment
after another. At one time we
have the funding bill with its con-
sequent increase of interest; then we
have a revision of the interest laws;
then again we have a feeble and i'm
perfect effort at retrenchment, and
again we have the ludicrous specta-
Gle presented of a Legislature grave
ly discussing the lamentable condi-
ton of our finances, and at the same
time considering a proposition to
levy a tax which cannot bring a
revenue sufficient to meet the cur
rent expenses of the government,
Our representatives appear to fioun-
der about in a sea of policy, endeav-
oring to avoid the Scylla of State
bankruptcy upon the one hand and
the Charyhdis of a peoples displeas-
ure upon the other. They treat the
disease that is affecting our com
monwealth as a quack would treat
that of patient whose nobility he
did not dare to offend with unpleas-
ant remedies. They apply sooth-
ing and temporarily modifying oint-
ments to the sores on the body
polite instead of beginning at once
the constitutional remedies which
alone can heal. We talk of re-
trenchment; let us begin it. To cut
down the salaries of our officers is,
however, very questionable sort
of retrenchment. We want the best
men in our executive and judicial
positions, and we cannot get them
by paying them a pittance. 1t is
in the cumbersome machinery oi
government that reform is needed
Especially in our judiciary system
do we need renovation. We pay
out too much money for the justice
and protection which is served uI
in our criminal courts. The most
trivial of petit larceny cases, under
the present working of our system
may cost the State its hundreds o.
dollars and the county sometime:
as much. A negro steals vinegar
cruet, and when tardy justice il
doled out to him it has cost th'
State enough to stock every family
in the county with cruets. Murders
are committed, but instead of speedy
trials, the laws delay costs thou
sands of dollars, and often at las
defeats the ends of justice. Here il
chance for wise legislation anC
the enactment of laws that will sc
cure a dispatch in the business o
our courts and curtail the presen
tremendous drain upon the treas
ury.
But retrenchment will not reliev
US now. We are too deeply in debt
We must have an increase in tn
revenue of the State And her
looms up the greatest difficulty.
proposition to increase the take
would most certainly be regards
with disfavor by the majority of tn
people, and yet common sense an,
reassn dictate no other alternative
We must have a surplus, and a yer
considerable one, too, over the nee
essary expenditures of government
if we expect soon to iquidate eve
the floating debt. But with an in
creased revenue and by a thoroug
but judicious retrenchment, and
rigid but prudent economy, we ma
soon see the light beyond the cloud
that environ us. Then may we Sc
the re-establishment of that conf
dence which is necessary to a pee
pie welfare, and then will our be
loved Tennessee, rich in everythiD
that can conduce to prosperity an
happiness, rise to its true positio
in the great family Of States.-Mui
: freesborO Meas.
t Mrs. Miller, the so called spiritu;
medium, of Memphis, is caught q
, last. Alta ''seance'' on Monday ev.