The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1879-03-06
VOL. VIII.
SHALL rnE CRY BE NO moREe

and intelligent property holders and
largest taxpayers of Austin, its credit
being perfect, sign the petition to the
Legislature asking that the city be
merged into the county. They say
that the corporation, under the uni
versal suffrage system, is simply de-
vice by which bsrnacles and sdven-
turers abstract money from the pockets
OF the industrious working people.
They insist further, that property will
advance in value pro tantO as rates of
taxation are reduced, and, further that
burdens upon this district of the
county will be lessened quite onc-half.
There Is no disposition to repudiate
any public debt. No such suggestion
has ever been made, and the foremost
difficulty presents itself when we re-
fleet that a county court, if restricted
TO general legislation, will find it i'm
possible to levy special taxes on the
Austin district to extinguish the
special local debts of the city. Austin
must pay $4,000 per snnum for water
and $4,000 interest. Beyond this
| no special taxes need be imposed.
-Four or FIVE deputy sheriffs and the
county court will discharge all needful
functions of mayor and aldermen, and
numberless placeholders, of high and
low degree, will be exterminated. But
the main object attained will be the
government of the county and city by
those who, by paying taxes, maintain
these local governments. Iu fact, hid
eous universal suffrage puts Austin to
death.
There are many difficulties TO be en-
countered of which they have little
dreamed who would consummate this
revolution. There is danger in it. A
county court is often constituted of
men who know nothing of the needs
of a city. They can hardly be made
to comprehend the necessity for sew
ers. Science, doctors and the expe-
rlence of cities avail nothing. CouR-
try magistrates never realize evils
of density of population or prac-
tice remedies for the pollution
of earth, air and water effected by
II, 600 people living in an area of two
square miles. The detriment done the
county by plague pervading the
city is indirect, even if ruinous both
to the country and the city, and a
country-chosen court will hardly sub
serve the purposes of one that is city
chosen. The difference between
streets and roads will never be con-
sidered, and when we remember that
each citizen of the city must come
down to 'hard pan" and devote ten
days at least to digging on the ''pub-
lie roads," there will be many weep
! ing in hot summer time that the city
government was subverted. 1t is a
question which should be thoroughly
discussed. There are certainly two
sides to it. 1t has one very
pleasing aspect. While lessening popu-
lar burdens one-half and adding none
to those of the county it will scatter
those obstreperous voters, who howl
and diffuse delicious odOrs about bal
lot-boxcs on each recurring election
day. They crowd into Incorporated
towns that they may escape the neces-
sity of working on roads and that they
may secure more whisky and bribes be-
cause of the greater number of cleo
tions and greater number of bribe-giv-
ing candidates within the confines of
the corporation. These exquisltely
virtuous patriots will be scattered by
the road law suddenly put in operation
by repeating the charter of Austin.
They pay no poll tax because they pay
no property tax and there is no mode
of forcing the collection of the poll
tax. In towns taxpayers pay for street
improvements and non-taxpayers
neither pay nor toll and therefore the
density of non-taxpaying voters in the
suburbs of such incorporated towns.
Their votes are worth twice as much
in town as the country, and when the
industrious farmer, just outside of the
city's boundary, is digging drains for
highways the good town loafer is SELL
ing votes-alwsys snoozing idly in the
sunshine. Taxpayers alone make and
improve streets and bridges and side
walks, and the sristocrat whose head
pays not groat to State or city,
INDUCES in the meanest associations
and turns Texas corporation into q
paradise of ignorance, idleness, and OF
incapable voters. Let these crimes
against civilization at least
be remedied, and if there be no other
mode of escape for Texas to wns they
should cease to exist.