The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-02-20
Ndshriilc american.

NdshriHc american.
In an interview with Representative
Smith. of Memphis, yesterday, he gave an
american reporter the following graphic
account of the causes which led 20 tho
passage by the General Assembly Of tho
bill to repeal the charter Of that city:
The condition Of our city has been
such rs 10 cause great uncasiness as to
the future among all classes of her peo-
pie. Her citizens have been holding
frequent consultations as to the best pol
icy to pursue for the benefit Of all con-
cerncd.
want here to state that We are not re-
pudiators. We cannot be put in this po-
sition. We want to pay, and have paid,
until now. Our city taxes are SO on the
$lG0 of taxable property, and arc vastly
on the increase every year. But for tho
relief granted by the Legislature We
would have had to pay an assessment Of
$4,000 special mandamus taxes this
coming year. Our next assessment would
lave been much larger, and if we had
gone on we would, in few years, had to
pay seven per cent. Of all our taxable
values in taxation. No people could
stand this. No Legitimate business can
pay six per cent. taxes and hold up
under it. Resides, our delinquent tax
lise is verv large, and was constantly in
crcasinf,. Year after year we have seen
the accumulation Of hundreds Of thou
sands of uncollected taxes, and tho
prompt taxpayer, from year to year, was re-
assessed and had to pay double; and we had
one case in which there had already been
four levies Of mandamus wrts from tho
United States courts, and only n few days
since fifth writ WAS ordered, making
five, to collect ono debt, and then, in the
face of the fact that tho uncollected
levies now amount to $4,000 and the
debt only 1925, 900. Yet so imperfect is
our system for tho collection Of taxes
that the prompt taxpayer had again to
pay for the delinquent. And again the
merchants stock could bo levied on and
sold, and hc had to pay or leave town,
and SO wo were crippled and hampcred
on all sides.
Strange rs it might sccm, our homo
relentless than others. These homemade
OH the city daily, and had been devouring
our city was destroyed, il its commerce
localities, if our manufactures, our ware
houses and our machine shops were fore
cd TO close and thousands Of men and
women driven to stnryation's door?
Besides all this and in addition to all
this, we have been afflicted aud scourgcd
rs few people in this world ever have
boon. Within period of five years our
city has twice been visited by the most
terrible and fatal plague ever known in
the world. Thousands of our citizens
have been forced to flee from their homes
and seek safety in all portions OF the
country, leaving our beloved city one
immense charnal house, its commerce
dead, the sound Of tho anvil and tho
busy hum of business hushed, silence
reigning in our Streets, uiibrohrn save by
the rumble of the death cart, the wall OF
the mourners for the dead, or the cry Of
orphaned children. The death roll Of
our citizens from the plague Of 1878
numbered over five thousand, reducing
orr population one-tenth. And yet this is
not all. In addition TO tho immense loss
to the business interests Of our city, over
So 100000 were lost to us by those who
He'd from the fever, in actual expenses
for travelling and board. We had 10 ap-
peal to the Christian charity of the world
to help us bury our dead, and the one
thing that relieves the awful desolation
was the constant stream Of substantial
sympathy that poured in upon us from
our Northern brethren, from Cauada,
from the South, the East, the West aud
from the Old World.
We want to bury our own dead. Wo
want to clean up our streets. Wo want
to build our sewers and pave our streets.
80 far as human sympathy and assistance
could afford relief, we experienced it in
the munifcent benefacticns that poured
in upon us, but our generous friends
abroad, after the horrors of the pestilcnco
mad subsidized. took occasion. as we'll they
might, to adIionish us OF our duty to pro-
tect ourselves against recurrence fthe
awful scourge by proper sanitary meas
ures, foremost among which is orr ex-
pensive system of sewerage. We repre-
sented the urgent necessities of our situ-
alton to our creditors, and implored them
to suspend the exactions oftheir demands
for little while and afford us an 4oppor-
tunity to devote our shattered resources
to the protection and preservation Of our
city and the lives OF our people, but they
seemed insensiblo to pity and turned
deaf ear to our entreaties. Had we en-
joyed tho rights and privileges of an in
dividual or ola private corporation even We
could, under the humane aud just pro-
visions of the law, have gone into bank
ruptcy or made an assignment Of our
ossets and obtained relief in this way.
But, being public or municipal corpo-
ration, we could do neither and could
only look for assistance to the legislative
department of the government to which
pertains the power to create and to des.
troy these political subdivisions of tho
State. In our despair, then, we turned
to the Legislature and invoked its inter-
position 70 rescue from impending ruin
tho commercial metropolis of the State.
Why People Sleep lii Church.