The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1879-05-08
OUR PAST POLICY.
Its Effects Upon the LabOring Men
Some Facts for Them to Consider.

We find in the Knoxville Chronicle
an interview with Maj. w. J. Sykes
in regard to the debt settlement pro
posed by our legislature from which
we make some extracts which present
some new views of the question:
Question What do you think,
Major, said we, of the probability of an
adjustment by the legislature at its
present session
Answer cannot say. 1t is very
doubtful whether they VIII pass the
fifty cents bill through both houses, as
the session is near its close.
Q.-Suppose they dc, will the Gov
erner approve it, and will the bond
holders accept it?
Al think the Governor will glad
~ approve it. What the bondholders
viii do, l do not like to venture an OPP
inion. If the new bonds were made
secure in any manner, by appropriate
ing a portion of the revenue of the
State to the payment Of the interest. 1
think they might accept it, if ap-
preached in the proper manner by the
proper men. | do not think that taxes
levied to pay expenses of the State
Government should be paid in anything
but money. There should be a special
tax TO pay the interest on the State
debt, and in payment of this tax the
coupons might be made receivable the
very year they become due. l cannot
sec the necessity Of collecting money to
pay coupons, where the coupon Itself
might be used in payment. This would
make coupons useful lii transacting the
ordinary business of the country if the
bonds were made of small denomina-
ton, and even if they were hundred
dollar bonds, the coupons might be
USED in large transactions.
Q.-Suppose the Legislature fails
TO make settlement, what then?
A.-Tho people must and viii take
it in hand. A settlement must be had
during the present year-1he people
demand it. If there is no settlement
and no prospect of one, then the suits
against the railroad companies will be
pressed with vigor, and suits will be
instituted directly against the State
upon ali bonds issued during the time
when by her own act the State allowed
herself to be sued, and these amount,
az / learn, to eight Or ten millions of
dollars, principal and interest. Mr..
Eugene Kelley told me ne had said to
Gov. Marks, that if no settlement were
effected, Il was the inten ton of the
bondholders to sue the State directly.
Mr.. Kelley said the same thing to
me in a letter which | showed you.
Gov. Marks told him they could do
nothing in a suit and Mr.. Kelley said
to him that some very good lawyers
thought they could. If suit were
brought against the State, we could
not and would not plead, as the law
yers say, nil debit non est factlun, fraud
or failure Of consideration, but merely
the plea of the jurisdiction of the
court or that State could not be
sued. It would be like man plead
ing infancy upon a contract. Such q
suit would be ruinous, even if we
eventually gained it. 1t would be
disastrous also to the bondholder; and
therefore, he should, and l believe
would, prefer fair, honorable settle
ment.
Q.-How does it happen that so
many men in your section Of the State
who pay no Stale tax, object to paying
the debt?
A.-This I never could understand.
except upon the ground that they are
nlisinformed. Many of them believe
the poll tax goes to the bondholder,
when, as Won know, it goes to the
common schools. They are made to
believe that the taxes are paid by them
out Of their labor, when, in fact, they
get as much for their labor when taxes
are high as when they are low. If
there were no tax at all they would be
paid no more than when taxes were
high.-1Ec taxes 2re paid rs every
man Of sense kn7yga ont If that portion
Of the products belonging 70 the owner
Of the land. If the laborer gets two
thirds Of what is made, the land OWL
or has to pay the tax out of tho other
third, which he gets IS rent n hen
l.c vents his land taa tcH1ur, hc
peve- puts c. the tax, because, II ne