The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1885-08-01
THE COTTON TAX.


Indianola Times
"Sunhower.n of Sunrise un-
der date of July 10th, in the Com
mercial Herald, ventilateS his idea
of the injustice of a cotton tax in a
criticism of the very able and ex-
haustive argument which appeared
in that paper a few days previous,
and which was so replete with
good argument, based upon statis-
tical facts, that it has appeared in
all the papers of the Delta, as one
of the ablest papers presented
to the public, why cotton tax
should be voted as the only means
to secure a levee. "SunhOwer'sn
criticism is so puerile that We are
at a loss to get thread sufficiently
strong to bear it up while we un-
dertake to show its fallacy. He
starts out with the old song against
railroads and wealthy corpora
tions: "that we must bow submis-
sively to the dictation of interest
ed eapital;" that the State exempt
ed the railroad from taxation for a
number of years, hence they bear
none of the burdens of taxation.
We will just here say that the rail
roads passing through this levee
district are not exempt from levee
tax; that the Georgia Pacific levee
tax in this county will amount to
more than the land and cotton tax
of any three of the largest planters
in this county. He speaks of the
exemption by the State to these
railroads and other corporations
of wealth aud enterprise as great
hardship upon the people of Missis
sippl. What a progressive states.
man "SuntlOwern would make |!
How rapidly he would develop the
interests of the State with his
short sighted policy! Lend no in
ducements to enterprises of wealth
to come among us. He foreets that
railroads are public benefactors,
civilizers, great motors of trade
and travel, great distributors of
wealth from one end of its line to
the other; that its vast disburse.
ments ofmoney is distributed along
its line to the poor laboring class,
and that nothing but its profits,
which | admit are great under a
well managed road, in the course
of time are taken out of the coun.
try. Hc forgets that capital is as
timid Of Investment (becanse of its
independence as he is of lightning,
and that it must be cOaxed and
persuaded into an adventure. A
great outlay must be made on
these public experiments, and all
this, while the public are deriving
a benefit from them at the cost OF
the capitalists, until they begin
sometimes for years. to pay div
idend. No, he would stop pro
gression, drive out all progress
from our State, and relegate us
back to the days of old fogyism by
proposing enormous taxation upor
all public enterprises. "The L., N
o. & I. II. r. must have a levee
and if ii can do without it we cam
This is the "milk in the cocoanut.'
Is this rightg Isitjust, simply be
cause it is able to build a levee
that it should be made to bear tn,
burdens of a country, simply be
cause it enjoys only equal privi
leges 7 The railroads are willing tt
bear their pro.rata of the levet
tax. They raise no cotton, hence
can pay no cotton tax, but put
mills on the Georgia Pacific at tel
thousand dollars a mile, aud thir
teen mills upon the assessment o
twenty-five thousand a mile upol
the L., N. o. s. I. road, and SCI
whether they pay any levee tax o.
how many planters pay more.