The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-02-24
AGAINST THE RAILROAD TAX.

mills or the property of this town and o.
Pineville, as l have always been opposed
to such taxes. In 1874 when the Corse
syndicate came very near securing bonds
that would have bankrupted this Parish,
I fought that proposition. 1t was then
advocated by very nearly all Of those who
favor the proposed tax. When the parties
who could and who really intended to
build the road came along they built ii
and did not ask for any tax. So it will
be with the North and South road. The
parties who will build it will want no tax.
Specializing parties who have nc capital
and whose only purpose is to sell out al
ways want a tax and donations. 1t is
these which constitutes their stock in
trade ;-it is just these things they pro-
pose to sell out because they have moth
ing else to sell.
1t is said that our affairs are at a low
ebb and that this road will increase the
value of property, bring new trade and
brighten up things generally. If expert
ence goes for anything ours with the two
roads we have should teach us the fallacy
of this hope. The two roads on this side
of Red river have sapped and taken away
the trade of Alexandria, and the North
and South road when built will do the
same thing for Pineville. That improve
ment has resulted and that good will re-
suit to tho Parish generally from the roads
we have and those we may have, l con-
cede but right here it seems to me lies
the folly Of taxing the two towns for tho
benefit of the Parish generally. The
towns are to be injured and yet taxed
the Parish is to be genarally benefited
and yet not taxed.
As to increase in the value of real estate
it is a queer idea to accomplish this result
by incseasing the burdens it is to bear-to
make ownership more Onerous, revenues
less and productiveness smaller. The ak
ION is that the more property is taxed the
less valuable it is-the less it is taxed the
more valuable it is. For an example of
what excessive taxation does for real pro-
perty we may look to New Orleans at this
time and to u condition a few years ago
under Radical regime, when the owner
ship of taxable property was %burdensome.
When our present two roads were first
built we had a short lived boom and now
property is worth less in Alexandria than
it was before they came. Hopes of any
other result are delusive. Railroads will
not build up the town by bringing either
an increase of trade or in the value of pro-
perty. Capital invested in factories and
large enterprises will do both. The tax
money it is proposed to raise put into an
oil mill would do more than forty rail
roads to improve our town, and it would
be ours and under our control. l am will
ing to be taxed five mills for that or any
other purpose by which the money is to
stay here-for which something is to be
given in return, but I am not willing to
see $40, 900, $4,000 or $40, 900 given away
If, as claimed, the tax is only to be paid
when the road is built-''when you hear
the whistle"-and the road is to double
the value Of real estate, then the tax will
be upon an assessment double what it now
is, and the tax will itself be doubled, and
it will be q ten mill instead Of O five mill
one. Let us look at this tax q moment
To the man of family who owns his home
and whose only desire is to possess and
improve it as a family residence, the in
creased tax is just SO much taken from his
income-just by SO much an additional
charge laid upon him for the privilege of
owning a home. If he does not want to
sell it, it makes no difference to him that
its market value has increased-it is not
in the market. Some one might say he
could sell that one and buy a better home,
but the increase in value if it comes at all
will come to all property, and he will be
relatively no more able than he already
was to buy a better home-but his tares
wiU be doubled. To take the case of one
one who rents his home, the increased
taxes will be charged by his landlord to
him i'll the shape of increased rent, and
unless his wages are increased he will be
just SO much loser, and even if his wages
are correspondingly increased he will be
really no better off than he was before
nor will the lessor be any better of. Ev-
erything will have moved up, but the
same relative proportion of values, rents
and wages will be preserved and nobody
is really any better OFT. This is no matter
OF mere conjecture, for we saw it all in
1882 when the Morgan and Texas and Pa
ciiic roads came here. Is experience to
go for naughtf Are theories better than
tactsf There was q temporary initiation,
but the bubble soou burst because there
was no real improvement-no actual
progress.
The only real estate owners who wonld
nov be beuetitted by another such boom
are the few who may have propesty to
sell. There are q very few SO Situated,
and if the many are willing to be taxed
Tor the benefit of these few they are kind
and c%onsiderate to say no more of it.
But the advocates of the tax say that
two railroads having seriously injured
Alexandria the only hope is in more rail-
roads. This proposition has not the au-
thOrity of even the homeopathic theory of
similia similibus %curantur, for that is based
upon the idea that like cures like and not
that the same cures the same-nor is there
any foundation for the. assertion. Rail
roads, unless they bring to or carry away
something from a place are of no value
beyond the convenience of communication
with other points. Railroads afford facil-
tiles for trade and travel hut do not create
either. 1t because Of their facilities CAPT.
tai thould come here to buid I'D factories
and to draw a wholesale trade with q new
section of country, the benefit will come
from the capital directly and from the
railroad indirectly. The railroad will
not furnish the capital-it may come
because of it. Now, what is the first