Daily Republican. [volume] ([Wilmington, Del.]) 1874-1890, 1880-01-10

Yesterday we told how to get assess
ed, bnt assessment is only one of the pre-
requisites for voting and will not quail
fy to vote unless taxes assessed ar
paid. Every citizen however shout
pay taxes whether he votes or not. II
owes that much to the support Of tn
government that protects him, and thu
evasion of the payment of that tax il
as dishonest as the neglect to pay thu
butcher, the baker, Or the grocer. The
fact that the law does not make it obi
gatory for the collector to call upon the
montreal estate owner for the tax as
sessed to him, is no reason that the per,
son assessed should not call upon the
collector and pay his taxes. If such a
reason were valid, the same would serve
for an excuse for not calling on the gro
Ger to pay bill which is owed and not
disputed. While saying this much We
would also say that the collector should
call upon all persons assessed with tax
es, the same as they would call upon
any person who owed them any other
bill, or they should at least notify them
by sending bill requesting them to
pay their taxes and at the same time
the bill should state when and where the
collector can BIZ found. This we believe
is done to great extent by our county
tax collectors to property holders and
sometimes tc non property holders well
known to the collectors, but the great
mass Of non-property holders are never
called upon for tax, or never notified
that they owe any, unless it be through
notice published in the daily papers
which many of them never see, nor
could not read probably even if they
did see it. The law however does not
require this personal attention by the
collector except to property holders, and
IL would be useless to expect the COL
lectors to perform laboricus duty not
really epjoined by the law. We think
the law is radically partisan and wrong
in its designs, but this cannot be help
ed, and we must accept it as it is. 1T
citizens otherwise qualified want to vote
they must first get assessed by the plan
laid down yesterday, and when assess
ed they must personally and voluntari-
ly without compulsion call upon the
collector and pay their taxes.
In very pleasant interview that We
had with the collectors last evening, in
their office G02 Market street, to which
they removed on New Years, We were
informed that there were great mum
Der of persons whose names are upon
the tax duplicates who had never called |
yet to pay their taxes, though they (the
Celleetors) could be found at almost
any reasonable hour through the day
and evening in their Office waiting to
receive taxes. Some of those who have
not paid will probably b. returned as
errors, and will no doubt have much to
say about being disfranchised when the
time comes for an election to be held |
and they will want to vote. Mr.. Car
pepter, collector for the Northern Dis
trict, informed US that number of per-
sons had called upon him through a
mistake to get assessed, thinking that
he was the Assessor, when turning to
his duplicate he found that they were
already assessed, and all they had to
do to qualify themselves for voting was
to pay the trihiug tax of eighty cents
or dollar and twenty cents against
them. He says some of them promised
to come back and pay their tax, but up
to the present time they have not kept
their promise, and it it is not paid by
the time the Levy Court meets in
March, these names will be return
ed as errors, and the persons who
are so anxious to be assessed will
be deprived Of the privilege of voting at
the election next November for Presi.
dent, Congressman and State Leg
isIsture. M4ssrs. Carpenter aud Bed
ford both informed us that they had re-
peatedly called upon many well-known
non property holders and solicited the
payment of the trihing personal poll
tax of dollar and twenty cents against
them but have as often been disap-
pointed in getting what they went for.
It is true they said that they never call ,
upon some persons fer their taxes sim
ply because it would be useless to do
80 unless they would seize and sell
their personal effects or imprison the
parties, proceeding which is exceed
ingly unpopular, and would end in
numerous law suits. "You would be-
said these collectors to us,
Hgere we to tell you the names OF some
persons who have been repeatedly
o,lled upon for the little POLL tax of
enc dollar and twenty cents, and who
do not pay it, though abundantly able
to do So" As there is considerable
anxiety on the part of large number {