The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1876-06-08
THE ADMISSION OF NEW MEXICO.
A Territory with Fourteen Hundred
mRFiCaE Voters and "a bankrupt
TEeasury-Hts Income Expended
in the Salaries Of dlse Judi
SIary-VieVTs Of the Tax
Payers.
New York Herald

The materials which New Mexico fur-
nishes out of which to make a 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 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 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 a half millions. In one of the
counties three firms pay twO-thirds 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, ,629. The territory
has a debt, besides this, Of S,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 800, ,S39, of which the clerks of the
district courts received SO, ,334; the sher-
ifs SIO.274; district attorneys $l1, $50;
Jurors and witnesses $40, ,436, making a
total cost of justice alone of over SO, 600
out of 800, 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
/ new 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 q territory 50
sparsely populated, with so very few
Americans and with Sc low a property
valuation, can afford to take on itself
the greater expenditures which must
come if is made Il 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
burdened, do not want it, and the bill
! VIII BIODdDly all HI lAlC LiOAloC N4ACii bAAN
condition of the territory is exposed.
But a shrewd preparation for the first
political canvass, if it should become a
state, has been made by the territorial
legislature, in a 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 cacE
voter has voted. This remarkable regu
lation is found in the statutes of the ter
ritOry, and reads as follows:
Gail votes shall be by ballot, eacf
voter being required to deliver his Owl
vote in person. Each ticket shall bt
numbered, and the number be placed Op
posite the name of the voter"
For a sparse and ignorant population
a great proportion of whom are not only
iIliterate but dependent, such a law a
this is certainly effective. ItwOuld Civ,
the leading politicians an "inside view
which would be very helpful to them
in the choice of a legislature which wa
to elect two United States senators.