The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-02-20
aasEaals aateIIigenGes.
MEMPHIS.
CHARTER,

THO Mournfnl Story of Her Financial Ruin
Causes tnat Led to the Repoalof Her
Charter.
Nashrisle american.
In an Interview with Representative
Smith, Of Memphis, yesterday, he gave an
s4aierica,s reporter the following graphic
account Of the causes which led to the
passage by the General Assembly of the
billto repeal the chatter of that city:
The condition of our city has been
such as to cause great uneasiness 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-
cerned. =
q want here to state that we are not re-
pndiators. We cannot be put in this po-
sition. We want to pay, and have paid,
unit now. Our city taxes are s. on the
500 Of taxable property, and are vastly
on the increase every year. But for the
relief granted by the Legislature We
Rould have had to pay an assessment OF
= solU,UUN e6pSClttl tlfsiliauuanioo ea-ASo sats
coming year. Our next assessment would
have been much larger, and if We had
gone on We would, in few years, had to
pay seven percent. 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. Besides, our delinquent tax
List is gery large, and was constantly in
creasing. Year after year We have seen
the accumulation OF. hundreds of tholI-
sands Of uncollected taxes, and the
S cmpstaxpayer, 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 writs from the
United States conrts, and only few days
since a fifth writ was ordered, making
Ave, to collect one debt, and then, in the
face of the fact that the uncollected
leYies now amount to $416, 600 and the
debt only S125, 900. Yet so imperfect is
onr systens for the collection of taxes
that the prompt taxpayer had again to-
pay Tor the Delinquent. Aud again the
merchants stock could be levied on and
sold, and be had TO pay or leave town,
snd SO We we're crippled aud hampered
on all sides.
Strange as it might seem, our home
creditors have been more rapacious and
relentless than Others. These homemade
harpics and cormorants had pounced up
on the city daily and had been deTouring
us. What cared they if the property of
our city was destroyed, If its commerce
mas driven to other ind more favorable
localities, if our manufactures, our ware
houses and our machine shops were fore
{ cd 10 close aud thousands of men and
women driven to starvation's door?
Besides all this and in addition to all
this, we have been afflicted and scourged
as few people in this world ever have,
been. Within period of FIVE years our
cityhas twice been visited by the most
terrible and fatal plague ever known in
the world. Thousands of our citizens
have been forced to fee from thsir homes
aud seek safety in all portions of the
country, leaving our beloved city one
immense tcharnal house, its commerce
dead. the sound of the anvil and the
busy hum of business hushed, silence
reigning incur streets, unbroken save by
the rumble ofthe death-cart, the vail of
the rnourners 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
our population one-tenth. And yet this is
not all. In addition to the immense loss
10 the business interests of our city, over
So ,0OO, 900 were lost to us by those who
fed from the fever, in actual expenses
for travelling and board. We had TO ap-
neal to the Christian charity ofthe world
to help us bury our dead, and the one
thing tha. relieves the awful desolation
was the constant stream of substantial
Ssympathy that poured in upon US from
.ionr Northern brethren, from Canada,
afrohI the Sonth, the East, the West and
from the Old World. Y
s.: We want 70 bury ollr own dead. We
want to clean up our streets. We want
Ito build our sewers and pave our streets.
So far as human sympathy and assistance
could afford relief, we experienced it in
the .nuni6cent benefactions that poured
lin npon US, but our generous friends
abroad, after the horrors of the pestilence
had subsided, took occasion, as well they
might, 10 admonish US of our duty to pro-
tecs ourselves against recurrence ofthe
awfal scourge by proper sanitary meas
nres, foremost among which is our ex-
pensiFe system of sewerage. We repre-
isented the urgent necessities of our situ-
alton to our creditors, and implored them
Z to. suspend the exactions oftheir demands