Daily Republican. [volume] ([Wilmington, Del.]) 1874-1890, 1884-11-04

slization papers, and . few other
never vote anyhow under any clrcum
stances. The greater number Of those
who do not vote are persons who are
cheated ont OF their votes by . law that
gives collectors of taxes arbitrary pow
or in the collection Of the Same. We
have not the least doubt that there are
thousand belonging to the Republican
party alone who are regularly assessed,
but are deprived Of theft votes to-day
by the partisan actions OF two persons,
| and those persons are the collectors Of
taxes. ~
OF these thousand persons, the half
probably have been turned away BY
beingtoldthey were not assessed or by the
fiimsy excuse that letter was wanting
or there was letter too many in their
ma mes. The other half q little timld by
nature, would rather forego tho duty Of
voting than TO submit them
selves to the ordeal Of running the risk
Of getting their taxes paid and b. 10
fused in the end. We think we put
the estimate rather under than above
the true figures when We say that At
least thousand Republicans In our
city Of fifty thousand population have
been cheated out of their votes to-day
from the causes we have mentioned.
This is only the political view Of the
evils Of the Acknowledgement of our
voters. In . financial view the evils
penetrate still deeper into our system of
government.
These persons who are disfranchised
hxu tu-
from paving what they honestly owe
the county. Here are at least one thou
sand dollars In taxes credited to the
county upon the tax duplicates that
the county will not get. These thou
sand persons honestly owe the county
that much money. They are not OPP
posed to paying 1t and would gladly
pay il if they had the opportunity
This they are deprived of in just the
manner tina. the laws that govern the
collection of taxes wink at and per-
init for partisan purposes. When the
reckoning up time comes at the regular
annual meeting Of the Levy Court
! these thousand names, with all they
owe to the county, are swept wholesale
from the assessment books. But here
is thousand dollars that the county
loses not only for that year, but for
the next, for the law Is 80 adroitly
drawn to cheat Republicans out of
their votes that they are Dot permitted
to be assessed the next year and hence
the county loses two years taxes in
stead OF one-and this equals two
thousand dollars.
This money must be made up from
some source. The county must have
money to build almshouses, to repair
bridges, to pay salaries and to feed
| criminals. Extra care is taken by
the collectors not to collect anything
from Republican poll-tax payers, what
offers more ready source from which
revenue can be collected than the real
to own some Owners Of real estate
wonder why their taxes are gradually
increased. They have the solution
here. They have to make up the thou
sand dollars that these thousand Re.
publican voters that were assessed this
year were willing to pay and which
the collectors in part refused and made
no effort to collect the balance, and the
thousand dollars lost the next year by
the refusal TO assess them at all.
What we have said only applies to
the city Of Wilmington. When we
come to Apply the same basis Of calcu-
lation To the whole county the amount
of money lost by the county may safely
& be doubled. Real estate owners must
make up this deficiency. May we not
properly ask how long this state of
affairs is to continue 1t must con-
tinue as long as they are willing to pay
the amount Of their taxes without
grumbling. without complaint, without
protest