The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1886-07-25
aid and under his supervision that it went
Why ELIZABETH DOES NOT PROTEST.

WHY ELIZABETH DOES MOI fhoIhpls
The absence of this humane provision
has attracted less attention in Elizabeth
than it would here, because OF the differ
ence in the conditions of tax liens in the
two cities. A very large proportion OF the
property on which back taxes are due in
Elizabeth lies on the outskirts OF the city.
There the property was taxed and assessed
many times beyond the benefits for i'm
prevemsnts made in the heart Of the city
and the owners, despalring of ever being
a6le to pay the city the tax tribute she de-
manded, have all abandoned it to tbs tax
gatherer. Some of them have moved
away, and others who still cling to their
little estates, have SO long contemplated
the certainty of eventual confscation that
they have become reconciled to it, and are
prepared to move, too, the moment the
order comes for them to surrender. They
despair of finding relief in the new tax
law. They know that it was passed by the
man who has determined to grind the last
penny ont of them; and they do not ex-
pect to have their assessments reduced by
the new Commission even to the fgu-e
their properties would bring in the
market. To hold their property means
therefore, the payment of more money
than it is worth; and its abandonment
comes as matter of course.
THE DIFFERENCE HERE.
If the absence of this clause bears on
erously upon Elizabeth property owners,
it will bear with double weight upon our
property owners here. No land here is
blanketed with assessments. to more than
its value, and its holders have an equity
worth the saving.
These holdings too, as everybody who
has ever glanced at the tax sales must have
noticed, are small onss, as rule. Some
of the delinquent 81 are rich men, who are
able to pay, and who should be made to
pay. But the most of them are small prop
s-ty owners, who own not much more as a
rule than the rosf that shelters them. AL
through the second and fourth districts
the tracts affected by this Act are in the
hands of the poorer tax payers. As rule
these men have no idea of cheating the
city. They are waiting for change Of tide
in their affairs that will put it within their
po wer to meet the obligation. This Act
takes them by the throat and directs them
to pay up or get out. 1t may not be so
heartlsssy cruel in it's operation as the
landlord system in Ireland that has aroused
sentiment all through the civilized world
against summary eviction, but it is of
the same pattern. 1t gives the poorer tax
payer but q small chance to save from bold
confscation the little homestead that rep
resents years Of toll and self-denial. And
he is eAtitled if not on humane grounds,
at least on economic grounds, to some con-
sidsration. A city's populousnsss is its
wealth. The more small owners there are
in city, the greater it's prosperity. Cities
are made great by their commercial and
industrial pursuits, and the active work
is done by the workingmsn, who earn their
bread by the sweat of their brow. It is to
the interest of the city to encourage these
small settlers, and not to drive them out if
they are here or keep them out if they
think of coming hers, by oppressive laws.
No company of rich landed propristors
ever yet made great city,
BEyIvEs ILLEGAL ASSESSMENTS.
The imperiled Elizabeth holdings would
not be so heavily weighted with city
charges but for the decision in the Bogart
assessment case. Assessments for sewer
benefits had been made on property that
was not directly benefited, and the Courts
decision threw . vast proportion of them
en- the city at large. This decision over
turning the prevailing system of assess
meats, affected not only the assessments
fer the particular improvements involved
in the litigation, but those for other i'm
proyements; and 80 each day brought 9
new lien one after another, in apparently
endless succession. 1t is now said in
Elizabeth that one effect of the Martin act
may be to revive the assessments the Court
has already set aside; and the holders of
property that has some value are in fear
that the new Commissioners may assess
IL II L.
is any number of these dead and buried
assessments on our own tax lists, dead and
buried by decisions declaring them unfair,
unjust and unconstitutional. An act that
resnrrects them should find acceptance
nowhere.
MO SPEEDY FINANCIAL. rrsu1Ts
Inc reporter was told, 500, that among
those VINO are best posted on the subject,