Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-01-17
Friday evening. IAN. II. 1879.
Retrenchment and immigration.

EDITOR LEDGER-During the pres
ent session of our legislature | doubt
not a great deal Of craftsmanship will
be expounded as to whatour legislature
ought to do in order to relieve us from
our overburdened taxation. Retrench-
ment and reform is the watchword all
over our State, and by reducing the
income of h~igh-salaried public officers
on an equitable basis of the purchas-
ing power of our present dollar, it will
aid in reducing the public debts: and
if the desired retrenchment and re-
form are enacted by our legislature,
will this reduce our taxation to such
an extent as to make it an inducement
to moneyed men to make investments
in property again? | doubt about the
inducement, as who will invest in real
estate without it can be made produc-
tive? and we have not the people here
to make it productive. | believe in
the Western States old saying, ito re-
duce taxation you must increase
population, and as old as this
proyerb is, no one with common sense
will dispute its deep meaning, and the
wisdom of those legislatures which
acted upon it, and made liberal appro-
priation for immigration to their
States. The influx Of immigration,
which is being effected through the
instrumentality of the immigrant bu-
reaus Of the various States, has in
creased their revenue a hundredfold
and enhanced the prosperity of their
people generally. These are plain
facts, which every intelligent man
who has travelled, or has read the
histories and the rise and progress Of
the Western States will say are
true. Think you, Memphis property
owners, iffor your thousand or fifteen
hundred vacant houses, and still more
larger number of vacant lots, tenants
or purchasers could be found, would
not increase the value of your
property? And by being thus made
productive, your income likewise en-
HANGED, would you think it to be a
burden to pay even 4 per cent. taxes?
What l apply to Memphis is appli-
cable to every city and town in
Tennessee; but this illustration is a
small comparison, when it is applied
to our millions of acres Of %unproduc-
tive farming and mining lands, though
rich in soil and minerals, yet almost
~valueless. The taxes on these lands
are a burden to their owners, and the
revenue the State and county derives
therefrom is small, but if for these
lands tenants or purchasers could be
found, say but for one-half Of these
lands, which is at least ten millions of
acres, of what would not be the in
crease of its value, and the increase
of revenue derived thereof? Would its
owner still cry, too high taxation!
Does not this illustration show that
there is wisdom in the saying: ITO
reduce taxation, increase population. :
A State immigrant bureau, when well
managed, is the strong lever of a
State, through which it is lifted from
poverty to prosperity, and it is
hoped that the people of Ten
nessee and its press in a unit
will urge our present legislature to
carefully consider the need of an eff.
fective immigrant bureau. The spring
season is nigh at hand, and as reports
come from Germany and Russia, a
large immigration from those coun-
tries may be expected to the United
States, which immigration generally
sets in in the months of April and
May. Let us be on our watch and en-
deavor to turn the tide Of immigration
to Tennessee. The emigrants from
those countries are welcome every
where, They are industrious, hard
working people, most with ample
means to buy themselves homes.
These are the people who made st.
Louis, with a population Of half a mil
lion, when twenty years ago it counted
but 10000. st. Louis property-own-
ers have to thank their legislature and.
the immigrant bureau for their pros
perity and rapid progress. Through
the fundamentally of the immigrant
bureau the West is built up, aud if we
ever expect to become prosperous and
be relieved from our present burden.
we must act at once. q. H. b.