Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-12-26

| Unfortunately and in all criminal cases
! would soon bankrupt the state. On the
| other hand, it is vain to expect that
| crime viii be punished if wit
| nesses must be compelled to at
tend courts in distant counties
| term after term without any pay. Under
! such trying circumstances the health of
! the witness declines and by the time court
| comes on again he is too sick to be moved
| and he proves it by the Doctors certff-
| cate. The Twentieth legislature at its
| regular session, in the early part of 1887 ;,
| appropriated SlG0 200 for the payment of
attached witnesses in felony cases for the
| two years next ensuing, or $50 900 per
| annum. This amount has been exhausted
| with deficit of about $50 900 to this
| date. Nearly 500 900 per annum for this
| item alone seems quite large, and doubt
less it is large in comparison with former
years when less was required, or nothing
| at all was allowed But it is not so large
when we consider the size of this empire
| of ours, its population, the number of its
| courts-and its crime. If crime is not to
! be punished, we can rent out the new
! state capitol for a market house, and
: clear several thousand dollars by the
! operation
! "Do not the revenues of the state liz
+! crease in proportion with the increase of
(! its population and taxable values?'
"That depends on whether or not the
| rate of taxation is changed. If the
| rate continues to be lowered as i'll
! the past few years, we shall soon be es-
| saying the miraculous fact of providing a
| satisfactory government for millions of
| people at the same expense formerly in
| CURED for hundreds of thousands Again,
| the amount of the revenues actually real
| lied depends considerably on the practical
| efficiency of the system of levying and
| collecting the taxes. The ingenuity of
! man is constantly finding means to evade
| the payment of taxes. Theoretically,
| taxes ought to be the grateful and vol
| untary contributions of the patriotic citi-
zen, but practically it is not quite that
| way, and their payment must he
| enforced by sales of the property of de
| linquents. Inequalities of valuation and
| failure to render money for taxation,
| have been already discussed in THE GA
| ZETTE. The bulk of the states wealth
| is yet in her real estate, and as the law
for enforcing the penalty for the non-
| payment of taxes thereon is defective,
| there may be i'll the near future serious
| falling off III the revenues on this ac-
! count. In the sale of real estate for de-
liuquent taxes, the law requires quite Il
number Of Things to he done by each
| of several different officers and
unless they are all properly and
exactly done, the sale is invalid. The
burden of proving all these things to have
! been properly done is placed on the tax
sale purchaser, ana the courts give to the
| law strict construction against him.
The result is that tax title TO real estate
in Texas is, i'll law, not usually worth the
paper it is written on. Some men have
ventured to carry them before the higher
courts, only to have them demolished the
more effectually.
"What, then, has proved the induce
ment to the payment of taxes on real
estate?'
"Hitherto it has been the belief that
there was some validity in a tax title.
Our present constitution contains pro
vision on the subject that it was supposed
would give them some effect, but it has
been found to be u sort of delphian utter
ance that means only that Il good tax
title shall be good tax title. Our court
further held that when tax title is
irregular, and therefore invalid,
the purchaser has no lean on the lands
for the elpayment of the
Our lawyers have just learned the utter
worthlessness of tax titles, but
the mass of the people are not
quite up yet on that branch
of the law; and the collectors cry of
'Oh yes, yes, frightens them just lit
tie. But they will soon get bravelv over
this, and then our reliance for the pay
ment of taxes must be on that innate pa
triotism that boils and burns and bubbles
in the heart of every true Texan, and
that Will induce him, let us hope, to rush
forward with his shekels to him that sit
teth at the receipt of custom, with even
more alacrity than if there were Il pen
atty. They are catching on to the law
already, as l noticed for two years
past there have been no tax
bidders i'll Callahan county, and
delinquent lands have almost without ex-
ception been knocked off to the state.
"This delinquent list Will increase |
rapidly in the future, so that the state
will soon buy itself all in and then pro- |
coed to sell itself out again; and thus get |
rich like two boys who made an immense |
fortune swapping pair of jack-knives |
with each other. -
'CannOt the state make money resell
ing the landS?'
lHesb NpGNlllU IaWllS on which the |
lambs may feed, - said the lawyer, eff
the state cannot get up Il valid sale and get
bidders, when she has a valid tax lien
for predicate, how shall she do when
she has only an invalid tax title for
And what shall it profit the
state to resell the lands and bid them all
i'll again? She has never tried Il resale
yet. She is glad to get the elephant off
her hands i'll any way possible and one
of the earliest bills passed by each legis-
lature is Il bill extending the time within
which the owners of lands sold to the state
for taxes may redeem the same.
What is needed is to simplify
the tax sale proceedings a little,
and to give the purchaser, in the event
the tax title is adjudged invalid for irreg-
ularity, lien on the land for the repay
ment of all taxes and cost with the full
legal note of interest therein This pro-
vision is found in the statutes of other
states, and is one of which the delinquent
owner cannot justly complain -
'What other matters will require at
.ention?'' L.
"More than have time even to eslHst
nerate. Many of the more important
ones have been fully discussed in the
public prints; as the road laws "a
he libel law and the land laES.
the statute there sssHesdedsJ,!
'eviSiOn to supply deficiencies, to repaEf