Connecticut western news., 1883-01-10
CANAAN VALLEY.

CANAAN VALLEY.
 EDITOR OF NEWS There is one sub- iect that we are all interested in and that is taxation. To begin with, 1 am not going to poster you or bore your sub- scribers with any fanatical or political ideas. I find that many good moral principles are not carried out on ac- count of our political system. The sug gestions make are not to political par ties but to reasonable taxpaying people. It takes about $S,0OO yearly to pay the expenses of North Canaan. I think we have had as good selectmen, and man. agers for the interest of the town as could have been found, since the war. We have tried various ways to keep down our expenses and make the collec- tion of taxes easy for the taxpayers. l know from my experience and observa- tion that all of the town officers have done their best to make our taxes as light as possible. The farmers feel as though the heavy taxes they now pay was great demand on their small in come The large amount of property exempt from taxation makes them feel as though there should be relief of some kind, and immediately. We must seize every opportunity that presents itself and let no chance go by us that will afford us relief. Do not wait to see what any political party has to say or do about it. Self preservation should be the very first consideration. Reduce our taxes one-third for all time and see what the amount as saved would do for us-$3, ,666 per year to add to our sink ing fund to pay our existing debt. Now as I have said, throw the interests of the political parties aside and appeal to judgment and common sense of the tax payers and all the industries and fnan- cial interests in the state. My proposi- ton to cut down our taxes one-third at the least calculation is to amend our State Constitution and try Prohibition. This cuts the Gordian knot. No more i- cense laws, no more agitation about temperance every time our Legislature meets. No need to call it temperance move-call it the urgent wants of the inhabitants of the state. l want the thing tried for twenty-five years and if it is public damage and nuisance to us we can annul it. Property interest and every other interest would be safe under prohibitory law. The greatest good for the greatest number would be a fact accomplished. It would benefit every person in the state and the bene- fits would even be extended to the brute creation in our possession. Everything in the state would share in the blessing. Let us drop everything politically and and go for self preservation. Farmers that are so troubled to pay the present taxes, all they have to do is to help themselves out of this heavy taxation. Let any one conversant with the history of our town look over the items of our expenditures for the last twenty years bAN OC 1cl11 ekuu 1OhSot dDOuO 4U 6ull 1IS will say that the right kind of prohib- itory law would have put us out of debt at this present time. You see I wish to be as brief as possible and leave side issues to be taken up when it becomes necessary; and as 1 make @ declaration. have no time to argue the fitness of it; do not even want to preach word of what might be called temperance. But do want those that | find fault, to begin like this: A life lost is worth so much; a family broken up so much; and sum up all the wretched- ness and misery, losses by fire and oth- CT items that belong to the same ac- count and see what they think of it. The value of all this please add with compound interest to our present grand list. You see the common values as we appraise property is not enough in this case. The young men we have lost for want of good prohibitory law, is diff cult to come at. All we have lost are not done breathing yet, so you can see 
 there is quite 8 sum to do. One third of the value of the property now in town does not cover the damage. This is fact and there is no disputing it.
 Let us try prohibition in spite of all the political parties; in the face of all an cient prejudice, or any other obstruc- tion that will be put in the way. Let
 us sow crop that will last; one that
 will yield good returns every harvest one that we will be proud of; one that will be legacy for our children; one that is the entering wedge for good re form for all time, and that makes us 1 love our neighbor as ourself.
 ] And now without any wish to offend any well-meaning person or raising any l political enmity, can see nothing bu lasting benefit to us all in having a gooi
 prohibitory amendment to our Consti l tuition.
 Respectfully yours,
 WM. SARDAM ] For Colds and Catarrh, try GJswOld'