Daily Republican., 1885-08-13
r1ow tne County Debt Is Enlarged

How the County Dept N Eah" @O~
The fiasnces G. ,ho County OF New
Castle wocld be helped materially II
tha coil .c,ors Of tie C1uu.y were COM
pellel to make loser collection OF the
.,opnty taxes. NJ. l.ss than five hNr-
sand dollars n yesc for the lasu tet
wears n .ve orea los, 20 he County oy
an II ten ioral re lsct 10 coliect tue
poll Lax from thousands o. our citizens,
princip ,lly OF the Republican faith.
The collection Of IL ,se taxes has been
made a political qrss ion by tue Demo-
crats, as upon the collection OF the, po'l
tax depends the votes OF thst class OF
oitizsns who pay only poll tax. BE-
fore the franchise was given ID the co.,
ored voters, col!ect1rs OF taxes were
compelled to use every effort possible
to mako these roN tax payers pay their
lust proportion o. tie taxes with which
thsy war, assessed.
When the enfrar :hising OF colored
voter. took pls re il broush' five or six
Thousand voters % the Republican par
ty. and had no. tie cry OF white
mans party been raised by aTut long
headed politicians, like United States
Senator willard Salisbury, the
Rspu blicans, BY the aid Of these new
yo.ers. woul 1 mos. assuredly have car
ried the State. TIE issue of "a white
man ) party" however, saved the State
to the Democrats az that election, and
at the meeting of the next Lesisla ure,
lepislation was commenced and 10 time
perfec. led that put the issue of cam
paign entirely in the hands OF the AS
sessors and Collectors.
The law which before compelled col
leetors to collect the poll taxes BY per-
sonally calling upon those who owed
them, MOI on ,e, but twice or thrice be
fore they were returned as delinquents
was repealed, and collectors were re-
lieved from calling personally upon the
voters for their taxes. The bill was
not, but should have been, entitled "a
bill to cheat Republicans out of votes
by cheating the State out OF taxes" By
way of parentbesis we would say tha
this bill before i, was passed into
law, was inst sent on to WashingtoI
to be inspected by Fl IN. Thomas +
Bayard, then L nited States Senate
from Dslawar are. L; was not only on
dorsed by him, but a: his suggestio
was changed in one maierial sense
make it more strin gent and effective i
its purpose to disfrsnchise R-publica
voters by tax collectors. How this
done req uires no explain alton.
1t has been over and over 30 ofte
tested, and found not to fail, that thel
Is no desire on the par. of those 1T ben
fits to make change, and protest
H. Iiafr oh ha ny0uah
vailing. Ever since the passage Of II
law, every County in the State h
either increased i.s debt or its taxi
One or the other is inevitable. Wh'
thou sands of R ,pu bli,an voters are d
franohised, 1t can only be done at
loss Of re venue to the County. So m
ters have gone in New Castle Coun
until debt Of some $500, 900 is piled
against the tax payers.
We do not say that this enorm
debt under which the County Is gro
ing, was created solely by refusal
collect the poll tax Of several tn
sand dollars each year, from Reput
can taxables, thereby depriving th
of their votes, but we do unhesitatin
say that 1T was created by the reck
extravaganza fjust such politicians
would rather have the County in d
over head and ears than t) permit
County to pass honestly from un
Democratic control.
A general assessment has been n
this year when it is presumed that O.
body was assessed. That assessn
has been prepared and placed in
hands of the collectors. The am,
which each taxable owes the Count
placed opposite his name. Ii the
lectors collect those amounts, the Co
will be better off by some Ave or
thousand dollars
II they do as they have done in
past, return thous Ands OF voters
delinquents, who were never aske
pay their tax, 6ve or six thousand az
more will be added TO the debt Of
County.
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