The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-06-09
THE ADMISSION OF NEW MEXICO.
A Territory with Fourteen Hundred
American Voters and Bankrupt
Treasury-Its Income Expended
In the Salaries of the Judi
ciary-YieWs of the Tax

| New 1Ork heralu
The materials which New Mexico fur
nishes out of which to make state are
| shown in some statistics which the COM
mittee on territories has before it, and
| the facts deserve consideration. The
| territory had fourteen thousand three
hundred and eighty-nine voters in 1875,
of whom less than fourteen hundred
are Americans, the remainder being Mex
| leans. The American vote includes all
| the United States government officials.
If the territory should become state
the fourteen hundred Americans would,
enough to fill the state, local and federal
offices, leaving, perhaps. two over to go
to the United States senate.
The total valuation of property, ac-
cording to the assessment of 1874, and
based on actual value, was little over
seven and half millions. In one of the
counties three firms pay twothirds of all
the taxes, and in another, four firms pay
three-quarters of the taxes. According
to the report of the auditor, made in
December last, the counties then owed,
in unpaid taxes, $72, 500. The territory
has debt, besides this, of $98, ,S12, of
which $9650 consists of interest unpaid.
That is to say, the territorial treasury is
bankrupt. Since this report was made
another payment of interest has become
due and remains unpaid, and this in
creases the debt about $4,000. The eX-
penditures have been for the past two
years 500, ,S39, of which the clerks of the
district courts received 1884; the sher-
ifs $10,274; district attorneys $11 ,6S2;
jurors and witnesses $40, ,436, making a
total cost of justice alone of over SIC, 900 |
out of 800, ,00Q expended, but not by any |
means collected, in taxes from the peO- |
pie. Briefly, the territory, with less than |
fourteen hundred American voters, owes
now something over 100000, exclusive |
of county Indebtedness, cannot pay the |
interest on its bonds, and consumes very |
nearly all of its income in running the |
courts of justice.
1t does not seem that territory so
sparsely populated, with so very few
Americans and with so low a property
valuation, can afford to take on itself
the greater expenditures which must
come if is made a state. 1t had in 1874
only four school houses and only forty
schools in which English was taught at
all. The truth is, the people of New
Mexico do not want it to be made a
state; the taxpayers, already heavily
uO llOI NduG IL, stllu IIlS JILL |
will probably fail in the house when the
condition of the territory is exposed.
But shrewd preparation for the first
political canvass, if it should become a
state, has been made by the territorial
in law requiring the ballot
of each voter to be numbered, so that the
probate judges and clerks, who have
charge of the poll books and ballot boxes,
may be able to ascertain for whom each
voter has voted. This remarkable regu-
alton is found in the statutes of the ter
ritory, and reads as follows:
"All votes shall be by ballot, each
voter being required to deliver his own
Tote in person. Each ticket shall be
numbered, and the number be placed Op-
)osite the name of the voter"
For sparse and ignorant population,
great proportion of whom are not only
lIiterate but dependent, such a law as
his is certainly effective. 1t would give
he leading politicians an "iuside view"
which would be very helpful to them
II the choice of a legislature which was
o elect two United States senator's.