Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-01-06
ROBBERY AND RECKLEssNEss.


We are in receipt of pamphlet copy OF
the report of the special grand jury ap-
pointed by Judge Horrigan to examine and
report as to the condition of the books,
records, papers and management of the sew
eral offices of Shelby county, from which
we learn some facts that will startle
the public anew. Shelby county has
lost by defalcations since 1865 several
large amounts of money by Leonard, WHO
fled to Texas, by Garvin, by Mclean, by
Woodward and by Judge Anderson. The
gross amount of these losses would foot up
well on to one million of dollars, enough to
make one hundred miles of good turnpike
roads, costing 1000 per mile, which would
increase the value of property in the county
at least fifty per cent. The people of Shelby
should have learned lesson from these de-
falcations, but personal feeling, political in
terest and Influence and an abjectly cowardIy
public sentiment have interviewed and ignor-
ance as killing in its results has been foisted
into offices of trust and the result is chaos,
confusion and loss. Men of wealth, who
would "wade in gore" if their "houah" was
called in question, do not scruple to secure
reductions of their assessment far below even
the ordinary assessed value of property, and
men of seemingly good social position do
not hesitate to fitch and rob the county of
the polls which they have collected from
the honest, Woodworking young men of the
city. As we looked over this Special Report
we have been filed with admiration of the
men who make it. They have, with cour-
age as admirable as their plainness of
speech and clearness of statement, uncovered
long-standing abuses and the costly results
of official recklessness and indifference.
The special grand jury calls particular at
tention to the great "injustice done the
prompt taxpayer by the action of. our
of assessments. A large number of our |
heaviest real-estate owners being chronic de- |
faulters in the payment of their taxes, and |
often depriving the State, county and city of
the use of the taxes for years, come before
the Quarterly Court and have their assess
ments in many cases reduced to a mere nom
inal amount, thus offering standing pre-
MUM for delinquent taxpayers. In our ex-
animation of the tax books We found many
assessments that have been reduced from
twenty to fifty per cent, and that, too, on |
good paying property; and in many instances |
we find that the parties after securing these |
heavy reductions have as yet failed to pay. |
Your committee are unable to SEE the |
Justice of such action, and are |
of the opinion it should be remedied by legis- |
lative enactments of such laws as would |
forbid the reduction OF assessments after the |
same have been revised by board of equali- !
cation, unless it could be shown beyond a |
doubt that the assessment was an error" |
This recommendation would in part remedy |
the trouble. But what is most needed is a |
healthy public sentiment, which will enforce |
of taxes as a duty equal to the discharge of |
private obligations. Many good people, not |
only in Shelby county but throughout the
State, have permitted the dishonest idea that |
taxes may, nay, ought TO be evaded and |
avoided when possible, to fasten itself upon
them and they will not pay. From this class
is recruited the large army of delinquents,
of the law, and then upon a fifty per cent. re-
duced assessment. Many Of them are owners
of unproductiye property, and refuse to see
that it is a curse not only to themselves but
a burden to the community. They are the
men who refuse to believe in the growth and
of the State, gauging its condi-
tion, as they do, by their own experiences;
and they are the repudiators who yainly i'm
agine'H Z, the reputation of public debt
is the extinction of the delinquent lists on