Richland beacon., 1878-01-19

is an act that every Rayvillian is in
teresied in, and it behooves them to
get up petition to the Legislature
opposing said act. and send it down
here to some good, honest man, with
a request To present and oppose the
passage Of said act.
Upt date there have been a great
many bills and resolutions presented
TO the House and referred to appro-
pirate committees.
There have been several plans sub
mitted with regard to a new cons'itu-
ton Ex-Gov. NJ Hahn has submit
ted The plan Of Constitutional Com
mission, 10 consist of twenty three
merbers. and names them; nearly all
of whom live III and around New Or
leans; there is only one named from
North Louisiana, if be is from North
Louisiana. and that is Ex-Cbiei JUS
ticc John Il. LudeliDg. Such plan
is clearly unconstitutional.
There is at This time before the
House of Representatives concur
rent resolution from the Senate to ap-
point a Committee from the Senate
aud House, composed of nine men,
bers from the Senate, and thirteen
from the House, which is net equal
nor fair-it should he hine and thirty
to prepare constitutional amend
mems, to be voted on at the next gen-
: eral election to be held in this State.
| am Of opinion that il such a plan Is
adonted the members of the commits
sion should be selected in equal num-
hers from each congressional district.
/ II the bill does not 50 provide, | fear
that they will be selected from the
Representative from below the mouth
Of Red River. If so, they will en-
graft Oh TIE Constitution of the State a
levee tax. 4 constitution, consisting
of an original and three patches Of
amendments, will he patch to Il
patch, and patch on patch; it will
be as mingled, slreaked and striped a.
the cattle that Jacob chiSeld I.aban
out of. Taxing lte'upiands in Louis
lana to keep up the levees for the pro-
teceion Of the rich planters on the
Mississippi is certainly a commend
able reform measure, when il is borne
in mind that nine-tentbs of the poor
people that live in this State live on
the poor uplands.
The rich lowlanier, to justify tax
ing the poor uplander. says that the
: poor uplander draws more money out
% the State treasury for school pur-
poses than lie pays into the treasury
for Ievee purposes. That might be
true, but they do not draw out more
T for sch Dol purposes than the levee and
school taxes; but it is no excuse,
much less a justification, for levee
tax on the uplands of Louisiana to
!, keep up levees on the lowland But,
sir, let Us go to the figures. The as
sessed taxed value Of the property in
your parish is over $l,000,000. The
,evee tax for the last eight or ten years
has been three mills on the dollar, the
free school tax two mills on the dollar.
3 mills levee tax on 81 100000. $4,000
9 d" school q" 1" 1000
Total $4,000
, If you will put yourself, Mr.. Edi,
tor, to the trouble to go to the Parish
+ School Treasurer's or TO the books Of
the Superintendent of Public Ednca.
! ton of The State of Louisiana, you
will see that ever since this State has
b. been afflicted with levec tax, the
a money drawn by the parish schoo
| treasurers has been less than $21OC
r per aonum. Take $2700, the highest
I sum that has ever been drawn by The
Treasurer of your school fund, from
r $4,000, the sum total of levee anC
S school tax What do you have left
v $4,000. You see, sir, that your parish
# pays annually $4,000 to keep up levee.
e on the Mississippi River. Ten year.
|. make $4,000; and there never ha
e been one spade full of dirt thrown
Il where it would afford any protection
II to your parish from overflow. Th,
ir same principle applied to Richlan'
y parish applies to every parish in th
Stale. We must get rid Of the leve
tax, a: least for the present. 1t wOuI,
be better to give the State the $4,000
you have paid into the treasurery 70
levee purposes, and which has bee
expended where it never can pnssibl
b lie Of any service to your parish than
70 to continue to pay it aud trust to tbei
,e building a levee that will protect tn
If back parishes from overflow, Wer
S. We free of the levee tax it could b
.e applied to the public school. We hav
been so used to paying it, we woul
E. hardly know what to do with tb
X money. Thus
IS 3 mills levee tax SO 90
2 mills school tax 80. .... 200
e, ass'd by parish 200