The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1876-06-09
THE ADMISSION OF NEW MEXICO.
a Territory with Fourteen Hundred
AnsericHR Voters and ~ bankrupt
Treasury Its Income Expended
In the Salaries of fhe Judi
ciary-V Views of the Tax

New York Herald.

New York Herald.
The materials which New Mexico fur
nishes out of which to. make a state are
shown in some statistks which the COM
mittee on territoriesehas 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.
Ii the territory should become a state
the fourteen hundred Americans would,
it is suggested, be about numerous
enough TO fill the state, local and federal
offices, leaving, perhaps, two over 70 go
TO the United States senate.
The total valuation of property, ac-
cording to the assessment of 1874, and
based on actual value, was 4 little over
seven aRu half millions. In one of the
countifs three firms pay twp-thirds of all
sl.. and III nssI ss-rsi ssss. =
three-quarters of the taxes. According
to the report of the auditor, made in
December last, the counties then owed,
i'm unpaid taxes, S72, ,639. The territory
has a debt, besides this, of $9S,Sl2, 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 SIC, ,334; the sher-
ifs so, PA; district attorneys Sll ,682;
jurors and witnesses SAC, 1876, making a
total cost of justice alone of over $4,000
out of SOC, 900 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 a territory so
sparsely populated, with so very few
Americans and with Sc low a property
valuation, can afierd 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 peOpE Of New
Mexico do not want it TO be made
state; the taxpayers, already heavily
DuTdened, do not want 1t, and the Dill
will probably fail in the house when the
condition of the territory is exposed.
But a shrewd preparation for the first
political canvass, if it should become
state, has been made by the territorial
Legislature, in law requiring the ballot
of each voter to be numbered, 50 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-
lation 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
vote in person. Each ticket shall be
numbered, and the number be placed OPP
posite the name of the voter"
For a sparse and ignorant population,
great proportion of whom are not only
illiterate but dependent, such a law as
this is certainly effective. Itwould give
the leading politicians an g inside view"
wf1fcir -roTric be very neIpful to them
in the choice of a legislature which was
to elect two United States senators.