The Brookhaven leader., 1883-05-10
Give ms n Fair Assessments orthc
Lands.

aberdeen kXamlner.I
Rcmember in assessing your lands
I.this year,. that you are afiixing
value TO them that will be accepted
rs fair and accurate by the thou
sands oEcapitalists in the East and
in Europe who are now carefully
scanning the ,atistics of the South;
and that you are writing your State
up or down for the next four years
unless the Legislature of 1884 sees
fit to order new assessment.
Money is going whtre lands are adj
vancihg in value, and il by short
sighted policy YOU undervalue your
lands as much as usual in listing
them with the Assessor, and the
total for your county in 1873 does
not greatly exceed in value the
present aggregate, you will have only
yourselves to blame il money lenders
and progressive men take you at
your figures, and seek investments
for their money in Texas, Florida,
Arkansas and Dakota.
Many of you who are engaged in
cotton culture are obliged to obtain
advances 10 money or supplies,
hence it is all important to you TO
cheaper money, or in other words re-
duce the rate of interest This you
have learned by experience cannot
be done by Legislative inactmcnt,
for there never was q law framed to
reduce the rate of interest or to pun
ish usYy that could not be easily
evadeH and there never will be.
Such laws only serve to Cypress the
needy borrower and add to the Ieve-
nues OF the lender, for if the money
is not sent out of the State it will,
like all other commodities or values
be governed by the immutable laws
Of supply and demand, and obtain
rates Of hire commensurate with the
risks of the lender. Transactions
will be made without disinterested
witnesses; usury will be deducted
from the amount turned over to the
man who gives The note, while the
paper will only bear upon its face
the legal charge; and two dollars
worth of security will be required
for every dollar loaned; and then
again, only those men will be able to
borrow money who can be depended
upon to regard the "true inward
ness" of the transaction as a secret
of honor-a matter as sacred in its
character as gamblers deem their
debts at cards. This being the case,
it is all-important to our people who
can offer no other securities to the
money lenders than liens on their
lands, to demonstrate to the world
that their lands are valuable, and
this can only be accomplished by
such reasonable and fair assessments
as will enc 'urage capital to seek in
yestment in our county.
A little travel will assure any land
holder that capita is seeking invest
ment whore lands are high, and
steering clear of every region where
the men who own the lands decry
them. 1t is ell nonsense to expect a
money lender 70 accept lien upon
| SOui IdI III HI GCl vi hitCtu ublldIS Gu
acre when you assess it at three or
five. Such men are not in habit of
giving the benefit of the doubt to
their customers, nor are they willing
to invest their money where the land
roll shows prices to be "at a dead
stand" and that stand the lowest on
the continent for fertile and improv-
ed lands.
The land roll of Mississippi in
1888 will be more closely scanned
than any of it's predecessors, and we
do hope that in every county the
valuation will vastly exceed that OF
the last assessment, thus afFording
the outside world something like a
fair idea Of the c0untry's aggregate
wealth, enterprise, advancement and
responsibility, while it will at the
same time enable the Board of Su-
pervisors to raise the usual amount
of revenue for county and school
purposes, upon a greatly reduced per
| contaOe of tayatiOn