The New Orleans Democrat., 1876-04-16
TAXATION TO BUILD RAILROADS.
THE New Orleans Pacific.
Editor New Orleans Democrat.

|
The New Orleans Pacific.
Editor New Orleans Democrat:
10 simple, unpretending, common-sense per,
sons. your editorial remarks on the subject o.
| taxing this people to build the New Orleans ~
rifc. or any other railroad, are really refresh
ING. ii il hard fight that you are engaged IN 4 :.
the fight Of reason ahd natural rsnl
and hired Ink but II know the mission Of W the
New orleans ,DEMocRAT \ is 70 advocate !, the
'hod up your hands while you pray"
For weeks past have watched the newspaper
contest NJ 69 ssDs sss s & ss9s as Resps9 sps
to this moment have seen nothing w the shape
Of argure or logical deduction ip It's ~ favor. mr..
tatiys articles. endeavored to lead the advocates
of the road into the legitimate contest OF reason,
| but all his newspaper antagonists resort TO the
| tion of hs premises and ridicule of his conclu-
| sions. And when we come to add 70 THIS the
unmlsed denn5ciations oi those wn1 ct%rs Peeys is
presented and II s impossible 70 resist the con
clnsion that not few Of these denuncatory ar
| ticles bear the ear-marks of the hired penhy-a-
This plan Of taxyton ls nothing at oil now.
| have fived long time In this city. and have
years years. AGO maS named Edserton sang the song
sweety and got large snhs,e,riptlo1n 9y vo.e o.
the people G road t2 Mobile Edsesp I on posss po.s
| but the property holders have been undergoing
| the luxury of taxation ever since ~.
Again Mr.. Hohb and others wero seized with
! tho premature mania Of building road to Gan
| ton Mssissip Private enterprise would not
do II. and again the voter was appealed to 70 tax
subscribers to the stock. and the most wonder
| ful guarantees were formally enacted FOR the
preservation Of these Interests 10 the road; @ az
well az for State and city control. III due time
here came along man named MeComb =
Christian capitalist and railroad king. He and
s saa%ay e e sssds
together and the result was that Warmeth's
Legislature ordered the state and city to sell out
ers OF New Orleans luxuriate In taxation 70
build the road now in the, hands OF m Illinois
MONOPOLY. The miserable corrupt Christian , Ian
other bubble and tho road built with our money,
wrecked and ruined from neglect. has passed
Again were we taxed TO build tho Opelousas
road then property holder luxurates In the tax
but the road has passed into the hands OF Nor
And so with tho ROAD to Donaldsonville-an-
other ono Of the swindles perpetrated In order
to give the property holder tho opportunity "
luAuriate in the privilege Of being taxed to build
But Il il useless to point many Of our people to
these lessons q the past. The adypcates Of the
will pays-that is. 1t will bring produce, in
crease drayage. enhance the value Of real estate.
etc and @ IN g9es s yetG from tho a North
built the road to Mobile. The universal cry was
that Il would tap eastern and northern Missis.
even Tennessee-that it would bring incaleula-
bic amounts Of produce to New Orleans. and
that we would. in return. furnish this vast region
what II would require from our stores. Certain
ly the conditions on which such calculations
should be based were the best the country tapped
| AK tho merchants of New Orleans to-day IL
that road has dcne ono 1.-THE OF what was prom
ised In spite Of the railroad. built in the best
freely with the entire network between New Or
leans and New York and st. Louis, does not the
mass Of the cotton go to. and almost tho entire
trade In goods come from. New York; Isnot the
whole trade In bread and meat wit IN the Western
cities2 And If this be true OF short line OF 1870
Roa nasd What @ shall 1--WE ne starting
200 miles away from our levee andtapping new
This Mobile road. then. has not given us the
prosperity predicted from even the Now Orleans
Pacihci On tho contrary. have we not steadily
gone down. even VIII ile y was built and put In
that we would not be worse off had our millions
been taken to build It instead Of the millions Of
others?
The mania for building railroads with money
extorted from property holders by n majority
vote ts very, peculiar one, Hod made the
gnbnr o bowond tbs or Se o
ton except the trees. orcs. etc. which must be
transformed by tho skill OF man. Now. 10 effect
railroad, n majority vote is diverted from tho
Legitimate province of government and made to
extort the earnings. or even the substance. of
does not even say that from the earnings of every
man shall be taken 2 certain percentage. but
2% a has oesn ~
required TO build and conduct tho trensporta.
ton OF tho Mississippi river and It's tributares2
ground they are worthless without transporta-
ton. Surely. il It is right to tax to establish
transportation on the ground, II Is equally 50 to
establish II on the bosoms Of these streams.
l wonder when hear Intelligent men arguing
that our decadence Ia due to the absence OF a
railroad 70 Texas. Suppose such road were
and meat from the West bring them down here
BY rail and river and reship to Texas in success
m WIN @ W,o ara ,rs oi
utility that has It's origin In the West
=, Again; can We purchase imported goods from
leans. handle them. and reship in successful
competition with those cities? The negative
answer is staring ps 10 the face every day. We
nessee and Georgia within few hours Of us by
rail- and yet our trade with these States is small
New oreans Pacific G n claim the trade Wiz thsse
States alone--linked IA we are to them by the
Mobile and the Jackson roads1sdded to that ex-
listing by water routes. would build np on this
No. tho people of New Orleans have something
better to do than simply to rote themselves pros
porous and happy they must rise as one man
In their majesty and shake OF and into utterly
irredeemable fragments the last yes,ige Of bad
government: tnGy must. Dy tDe INSTITUTION OF
Just and economical government give security
ieef that It Is protected b., every voter and not
liable to be preyed upon. Then shall we see capt.
tai flowing into our city for investment In build
ing, banking, manufacturing direct import
ing. instead of flying by millions from the rag
ing and consuming fire Of taxation. Then.
also. shall we see our own local capital rising
out of the dirty junk shop Of traffic in the various
forms of 30 called State and city securities'-
the life-blopd Of the people.
Look back on our happy past when govern
ment was Just and taxes light: railroads no
railroads. property had value. and our city grew
stronger year by year. Commercial storms
might come and many strong house might
topple before the gale, but the active recupera-
tive element was there. and the city grew
steadily.
And yct even then were we sowing the deadly
poison seed in our midst. Even then we lis
tened TO the siren song Of the railroad builder,
and piled up debt through the unthinking and
mised voter under the interest on which We this
day stagger towards utter ruin. We built tho
roads and we pay the interest. but values have
gone and ruin is all around us.
Arc our people lost to reason. right and
justice2 Are denunciation. ridicule and low
appeals to agrarianism to rise in open warfare
weapons in contest like tho one before this
people2 Does capital hug these weapons to its
embrace and pour out its soul over their fiery
brandishment2 Or does II not rather sink itself
even In metal forms. under the bosom OF tho
earth. until the communistic hurricane has
spent itself on what is exposed2
Vote two millions more of taxes to the New
Orleans Pacific Railroad and we shall see-noth-
Ing new, but only over again what we have
~ LAST DiTtCHER
-~1A