Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-10-28
SEWERAGE.
Letter fIOm a Memphis Merchant That
Breaihes the True Spirit.

OF. LOUIS, OctOOer Il, lciJ.-EDl-
TOR LEDGER Your correspondent
writing from St. Louis calls attention
to the remarkable unanimity of opin-
ion expressed at the meeting of merS
chants in this city in favor of a tax of
not less than 4-many advocating as
high as 10 per cent, for the purpose Of
sewers in Memphis.
Memphis to-day owes a debt of six
millions of dollars, almost the entire
amount of which was contracted for
the purpose Of carrying out grand
schemes of public improvement, such
as railroads and wooden pavements.
And what is remarkable, they were
always carried by wonderful unanim-
ity Of sentiment, the very few having
the courage to oppose them openly
being branded as old fogies and bad
men generally. But it is always the
case, when time proves the few were
right, they never receive any credit
for their sagacity. The old debt which
Memphis owes to-day is as legal
against her as any debt which she can
contract in the future in the name of
the Taxing District. 1t amounts to
near one-half of the entire cash value
Of every piece Of real estate within her
limits.
The great State of Tennessee, an
empire within herself, whose repre-
sentatives have in national, State and
municipal halls of legislation, pro-
claimed her grand resources, her fer
tile soil, her genial cline and the in
dustry of her population, in the adyo-
cation Of the contraction of debt,
amounting in all to only $25,000,0 600,
and contracted for the express purpose
of developing the grand resources of
the State, and with an assessment
amounting to $223, 100000, on a basis
Of little more than half the real value,
and on which a tax of only Z mills
would be sufficient to pay the interest
of the entire debt and sustain her pub
lie credit and noble name. Still, we
find her to-day, by direct vote of hel
citizens, in actual partial, if not total
repudiation; having, by the voice oil
her people, refused to compromise on
basis of so cents on the dollar, de.
claring to the world that the burden
cannot be borne-and Memphis a city
within her confines, and subject to hel
share of the same debt, and more. be.
cause assessments are in Memphis on
scale near twice as high as through
out the balance of the State, numbered
by her old debt and county tax of nc
small proportions, now, by the populai
voice of her people, favors tax suel
as in the whole history of the country
no parallel can be found, and to such
an extent that you can hardly call il
taxation. There is supposed to be
some limit to taxation proper, so it ba.
been proposed to call it contribu.
ton"
Memphis, when she abrogated hel
old city charter for the express pur-
pose of obtaining relief from her fnan.
cial distress, applied to herself new
and suggestive title. She is called the
, Taxing District and to prove thai
, she is entitled to the name, almost hel
t first official act was to levy tax o
Sl.l5, which is the highest tax evel
levied under the old corporation o
half century, when the condition O.
the new corporation, without a dollar o
debt, is taken into consideration. He
officers arose one fine morning as
founded to find $1,000 in her Golfers
We had become so accustomed to pa,
enormous taxes-high as the new tay
was-we regarded it as relief. as i
{ was SO much less than under the ole
government, and having full conf
= dence in the men at the head Of af
fairs we paid it cheerfully Now, be
cause this tax of $1.15 was prompt,
paid, it does not follow that the grea
mass of the taxpayers will submit t
such terrible rate of taxation as i
proposed and on which there is such al
apparent unanimity of sentiment. /
is more apparent than real. The peo
pie cannot stand such taxation for an,
purpose, even for the salvation o
T Memphis. Why, every scheme b.
which Memphis has been plunderec
has been for the salvation" of Mem
phis, from the time of the construc
ton Of the Memphis and Charleston
and Little Rock railroads down to tht
Raleigh railroad swiadle, and the con
struction of her wooden payements
And these schemes were all carried
by wonderful pnanimity of publ,
opinion" and it was as much as
! mans reputation was worth among bi,
friends to oppose them. At the meet
ing of merchants here, when Mr. !. NJ
Hill arose and suggested that sucl
taxation was greater than the grea
majority of the tax paving communit,