The Russellville Democrat., 1877-03-01
NO. 6

thOif nNt N' e'''N' making sales, it cost them Sl.lo per acre, or more than twice as much as the State asks for her lands. Had this expenditure not been made, the land would not bave been sold, and that amount of taxation arising from the i'm provement of these lands would not now be on the tax duplieatts $. This demonstrates the fact that the State could never get more for her lands than it would cost to sell them, and it is notorious ly the fact that the people have never been benefited one dollar out of the proceeds of State lands. More than this, It would take the State many years to sell these lands to actual settlers who would improve them. The railways have but one incentive to sell their lands, and that is to rrocurt settlements along their lines which will cultivate the ground and bring business to them.
 It is an indispntable fact that nineteen -twentieths of the immi- grafton which has settled in the State since the close of the war has been induced to come here by the railways, and that, too, thrs' offers of their lands at low prices and on long time. Take these grants away from the companies, and impose 2 tax upon their road beds. and at once the bondholders will force them into tlle hands of receivers, and it will be found that bankrupt railway is q de- cided curse. If the Legislature could and would repeal the law taxing the land grants and the roads,. it would do greater good to the people at large than by any other measure ever proposed. be- cause the companies expend every dollar they can spare in inducing immigration, and in few, years they will have disposed of their lands to actual settlers, who will, by their improvements, double or treble thclr value besides the other additions to the taxable values which their products will bring, and the people will reap the benefit in reduced taxation. The State herself is unable to pay her old debt. even the DOT tion of it acknowledged to be just; and she never has been able to pay it because the vast territory is so poorly developed that her entire income will not produce enough to pay the running expen- ses of the State upon a decent basis. If the state pnrsues tic suicidal course of driving capital and immigration from her bor- dcrs. she never can pay, and the mere passage of an act repudiat- ing the debt will not De needed.
 1.-the railroads and their grants were exempt from taxation for ten years to come. it might ena- ble them to get upon their feet so that they could pay a reasonable tax, but they cannot pay any great tax now.
 It is said by some that the roads are built and cannot be talk en away. and the have no right to exemptions which the poor farm CT has not, but these do not reflect that without railways the poor farmer would be less able to pay his taxes, and the number of per sons and the quantity of values along their lines liable to taxation would be reduced to comparative ly nothing.
 Other states which nurture their railroads have grown rich. lexas and Kansas have grown over Arkansas and have become great States out of the opulation which this State should have kept. The State of Indiana has ninety seven counties, and ninety of them are reached by railroads. The State owes no debts, and the lands throughout the whole State have almost a uniform val ne because of their proximity to markets. Arkansa has richer soil than moct of Indiana, has as fine oak and hard timber, and her pine forrest. while her climate is continuation of all the udvanta- ges Ofthe North and South. All she needs to develop this vast em ; pire and cover it with population
 is railroads. She must nurture those she has, and that course
 will induce the construction of others.
 This is the work for this legis-
 lature to do if it wants plenty and
 prosperity for the people.
 BETRAYED and deceived as the
 Democrats were, they will stand by the compromise. Bad as its