The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1881-04-19
In an article on !" Gadsien County Taxa

In an article on {" Gadsien County Taxa
ton The Econo''tst says
Ifthe people Of Cad den county can believe
the statement of the FLbRIDIAN they must have
been made very happy by its issue of the 5ih
inst. Blu, can they believe it The editor. in
that issue, says |" Il will thus be seen that taxes
in Gadsden county are one huRdred and Wirty
i'er.dHt lsss under Democratic government than
they were under Radical rule" Now, if that is
true tile people Of Gadsden county are now re-
quired 10 pay 20 taxes at all Indeed, they are
30 per cent better off than il they were paying
none To pay 100 per cent. less than under the
Radicals IS 10 pay nothing. y merchant who
takes On % per cent on the price OF, say
bushel OF corn. which he has been selling at 81
per buShe reduces It's price to IS cents per
buslel; if he takes off so per cent. he reduces it
10 80 cents bushel; if he takes off IS per cent
he reduces it to % cents bushel; and if he takes
oiflO0per cent, or, in other words, if he lessons
the price 100 per cent. he gives il away to his
customers To reduce taxes 100 per cent, and
the FIpRIDIAN says they have been reduced 100
per cent? in Gadsden, is to take them off alto
gether.
What the FLoaIDIAN did say and the connec-
ton in which it said il was this
4 In 1874, the year in which the act was passed,
tthe tax actJ the whole State tax assessed in
Gadsdtn amounted to $1575227 Last year the
same gross tax was $G,747.73, and this year, on
the same amount Of taxable property, il will be
S6S2312. 1t will thus be seen that taxes in
Gadsden county are one hundred and thirty per
cent ASs under Democratic government than
they were under Radical rule, while the govern.
ment itself is million times better, more less"
Itdil not suit the purpo of the Economist to
give this whole of the paragraph, as to have done
so would have defeated its object and exposed
It's ignorance. Any school boy not an idiot will
~
tell the editor that to double the cost of thing
is to increase the price 100 per cent So that if
the Economisfs merchant paid s. a bushel for
corn last year and now buys il for 81, he gets it
for one hundred per cent. less, and if he buys it
Tor 40 cents the cost 10 him is 1870 per cent less
The people Of Gadsdcn paid more than double
the taxes in 1874 by $2,256.Sl than they paid in
$780, the difference between the two years being
$9O0454. If the Economist does not like the
FLoRIDIAN's way of stating it, will it tell its
readers what the per cent. of saving is to the
tax payers of that county between now and
then as shown by these two years? Will it give
US theper cent necessary to be added to SC, 747-
70 10 make up the sum Of $15,75227?
In this same luminous article on Gadsden
county taxation" speaking of the present rate
the Economist says "Of course nobody, unless
it is tile editor, believes that such rate of taxa
ton is necessary, nor believes that the editor of
the F1oRDIAN believes it," This is modest, if
reckless The "nobodies of the Legislature
believed it to be necessary for they enacted it
all the departments Of the government believed
1t to be necessary, and so do all thinking people,
leastways so long as the taxable resources con
tInue The same as now. When these improve,
as We verify believe they would under better
revenue system by many millions, taxation
would be so reduced as to approximate the low
rate OF the old days. But will the Economist in
form The public how the utmost economical ex
penses Of the State are to be met short of an
eight-mi tax, when 81 mills of the 8, on the ba-
sis OF the taxable resources Of last year 1881 49,
S46) are absolutely required for public schools,
the insane asylum, interest on the debt, and jul
rors and witnesses? Does the Economist really
believe that the remaining II mills will pay the
cost Of assessing and collecting the revenue, and
all the other necessary expenses of the govern
mentf Docs anybody believe that the editor of
that paper believes its