The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1880-07-02

EIeIo 1nem, 8uU, II COIUpleUeu ouuek
present legislation, can taxes be col
Article 2O3 of the Constitution of 1879
provides that taxation shall be equal
and uniform and directs that "in order
to arrive at this equality and uniform
ity the General Assembly shall, at its
first session after the adoption of this
Constitution, provide a system of equal
ity and uniformity In assessments,
based upon the relative value of prop
erty in the different portions of the
State.'' And that ssthe valuation put
upun property TOR the purposes Of
State taxation shall be taken as the
proper valuation for purposes of local
taxation In every subdivision of the
State" The consequence Is that no
valid assessment can be made until the
system provided for by the Constitu-
ton has been adopted, and that no tax
can be collected In any subdivision CT
the State because there Is no assess
mont under which 1t can he imposed.
In fact we are completely hampered
and paralyzed in all our measures of
revenue unless we can find the required
enabling act, and yet search the statutes
of 1880 from beginning to end and no
where will 1T be be found.
Twice does the legislature point to
and 20 of act No. ~ of 1890-flrst by
directing the assessors to estimate all
property subject to taxation at its cash |
value ssundcr such rules as may be |
established by a system of equalization |
of the property of the State, under art. |
203 of the constitution" and second,
when prescribing the duties of the
assessors for the parish Of Orleans for
the assessment of 1880, "to the end
that the actual cash value may be as
certatned, being governed by the pro-
per system of equality and Uniformity
In assessments, based upon the relative
value of property in the different por-
tiOns of the State, under article 203 of
the constitution :" but tho needed,
Indispensable law to give vitality to
the system Is missing, and hence not a
legal step can be taken In the direction
of assessing and collecting taxes for the
year 1880.
In view, then, of this deficiency in
the legislation of the State and of the
obstacles thrown In the way Of the pro-
per collection of the revenue, the neces-
sity and importance of an extra session
of the General Assembly must be
generally admitted, II for no other pur-
pose than TO adjust these serious diff
dculties which have grown out of in
5uuS1CuC ut1U U0ACCGAV0 4c&1S1NelOus
John Bence, of Glendale, lost his
little baby, boy only twelve or thir-
teen months old, yesterday in u
most singular manner. A little before
noon Mrs Bence had rocked tho babe
to sleep and had laid him away in his
crib upstairs. The crib is of the or
binary pattern, but with the little
rounds which connect the upper and
lower side Stats, some eight or ten
inches apart. lust before dinner Mrs.
Bence sent one Of her older children
up stairs to sec If baby was all right,
and the report was favorable. Baby
was still sleeping sweetly. Twenty or
twenty-five minutes later the mother
went upstairs herself, to find her
little baby corpse. He was hanging
by the side of the crib, his head fastened
between the two side Stats, in which pos
ition he had been strangled or smother
ed. On awakening he had attempted
to crawl feet first out of the crib between
the stats, and between two Of the rounds
already referred to. His body once
through, Its gravity had suddenly
jerked his little head down against
tue stats, holding his chin and mouth
'sotightly compressed that the slightest
sound from him was impossible. In
this position he had died. Cincinnati
Enquirer.