The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1876-05-31
THE STATE DEBT.
COL. A. s. COLYAR,s REPLY
TO HON. JAS2E.B BAILEY.

QuSSLIOus
The following is the speech deliv
cred at the Olympic Theatre, Nash
vile. May 10. by Col. A. S. Colyar,
in reply to Hon. James E. Bailey
We copy from the american: no ,
The calculation showing that we
can pay current expenses and inter
est on the public debt with tax OF
sixty cents is erroneous.
Besides other palpable errors if
ignores the accumulated interest. It
we are going to restore our lost Gre
dit, we must at least give new note
for the debt that broke US. The pre-.
sent Comptroller, in statement
which he furnished for publication
on the 10th of February last, soon
after the Governors open letter ap-
peared, shows that the accumulated
past due interest on the 1st Of jan
uary, 1877, when the Legislature
meets, will be $2,446.541. As / do
not want to get on disputed ground
on this question of figures, will take
what Col. Bailey says the bonded
debt is, to-wit: $23.72O,505. The
interest funded and added to the
bonded debt makes SIG. .167, ,052.4
To this want to add one more
item. which, if we are able to pay all
our debts, we must pay, to-wit: the
unpaid and never heard from depos-
itors in the Bank of Tennessee.
This was the States Institution,
and because it was the States, many
of our own most worthy citizens put
their money in it to be kept-the
State used it and lost it. These now
very poor people have no friends to
cry on the stump and in the news
papers "broken faith.'' Nobody to
demand in eloquent tones the restor-
alton of the States credit bat if the
State is able to pay the capitalist, it
must pay these suffering people.
Suppose we put these deposits at
100000 and fund it, we have the
debt of the State $26, ,667,O52. The
interest on this is $1,000, 900. The
current expenses are put down at
about 100000; but when we have
session of the Legislature at $780,
600. averaging $650,000 this makes
to be raised 81 100000. OF this we
will pay, say, $4,000 from privi-
leges, and this is what the Comp
troller puts it at in his statement for
publication. Mr.. Bailey puts it
higher. The fact is, in view of the
declining mercantile business. and
the wrong done, which will probably
be corrected, Of taxing all kinds of
business as privileges" it will prob
ably be much less, but I have put it
at that. @'-
Then suppose we collect from the
railroads $4,000, and this is the
Comptroller's estimate, and we have
$390,000 paid. This leaves to be
raised $1.86O,OOO. Heretofore the
costs of collection and de.inquencies
have not been less than 131 per cent.
If your taxes are now greatly in.
creased, with the unprecedented
stringency in money matters, not less
than 10 per cent. should be counted;
and now the simple question 10 arith.
metic is, What per cent. on $275,-
100000 will raise 81, $50. 900, allow
ing Is per cent. for delinqnencies
and commissions? The answer is 80
cents on the 500 or y mills will do
it, and raise sinking fund of $61,-
900. 3'1ft saI - 1+ats.at =
\ 1t is thus shown by the Comp
troller's figures, as published on the
10th of February last, that If the
Legislature takes Col. Bailey's ad-
vice and leyies tax of only so cents
or 6 mills, that the people of the
State will again be humiliated be.
fore the whole world, as they have
already been by the hasty action of
the convention two years ago,, when
the people were told that the taxes
should not be increased above 40
cents, but the credit of the State
should be maintained. Allowing d
few sap-headed politicians in a con-
yention. in a committee room, in
twenty minutes, to do the whole
peoples thinking for two years, on
the all-absorbing question of our
State debt, we are made q laughing
stock, and put in the hnmiIiating at
titude before our creditors of miss
ing the amount we needed for two
years expenses just So, 446, SAT. q
We can better afford to tell our
creditors that we are not able to pay.
than to tell them that our public men
did not know, and hadn't business
sense enough to tell how much il
would take to pay, and that they
madesa mistake, and the error was
nearly equal to the whole amount
due the bondhoiders for two years,
and yet this is what we have now to
confess before the whole world. II
seems to me that the State HASN'T /
much to lose, but would make a won
derful advance by paying interest on
about cne-half the debt. ~ q
But how Is it proposed to get along
with the tax 1 have indicated on
property?7 First, by letting all the
property of the State sold and not |
paid for or mortgaged, be twice tax.
ed. Second. by taxing the property |
mt its full valne,a when most of the
States tax on a given per cent, Of |
the value. The census valuation Of |
all the States is an exaggeration, but |
this exaggeration Is supposed TO run
through the whole, and therefore it |
may be looked to in meeting the mr.
gument that we are taxed lightly /