The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1897-07-30
COLUMBIA, TENNESSEE, FRIDAY, JULY 80, 1897

ing one-thirty fifth of their gross
earnings. He took the report Of the
Louisville u Nashville Railroad
Company made to the Interstate
Commerce Commission and found
that it had 5l6 Il miles Of railway i'm
the State and the gross earnings per
mile of this road was, according to
its own figures, $6,2l3, making the
gross earnings for the State $3,2lO,-
602. 1t could be seen, therefore,
that if the l.. q n. r. r. was taxed
on its gross earnings in the
same proportion that the in
dividual was taxed on the
gross earnings of his property,
say Is per cent, it should pay in
taxes the sum of S577924. Conced-
ing, however, the objection that this
comparison should not be made on
the gross earnings of the company,
on account of the great expenses of
the railroad business, he took the
net earnings of the company, after
paying all expenses of the road.
The net earnings, according to the
same report, amounted to $2, ,239 per
mile, and having 5l6.7T miles in the
State, made their net earnings for
the State 81 ,l57 ,04S, and if the COM
pany was taxed upon its net earnings
in the same proportion that the in
dividual was taxed upon his gross
earnings, say l8 per cent, this COM
pany should pay in taxes the sum of
$20S, 1868. But the tax books showed
that it paid nothing like this. Its
N hn 70
at something over seven million
dollars, and, taking the rate of
State taxation, or forty cents on the
one hundred dollars, the taxes paid
to the State, according to Comp
troller's report, amounted only to
$28,5l2, and estimating the city and
county taxes at 80 cents on the one
hundred dollars, and the sum would
be $64, ,l54, or total city, county and
State taxes paid by the L. & n Rail-
road Company $92,666, when, if it
was taxed on even its net earnings
in the same proportion that the in
dividual is taxed on his gross earn
ings, it should pay annually in
taxes about $2OS,269. He took up
the Nashville, Chattanooga & st.
Louis Railroad Company in the
same manner, with the same re-
suits, and demonstrated that it was
not paying anything like its just
proportion of taxes, and these cor
poratiOns could never be made to
bear their just proportion of the bur-
dens of government until we were
permitted by constitutional amend
ment to assess their taxes in a man
ner different from that in which in
dtvidual property is assessed.
The speaker then referred to our
judicial system and stated that it
required constitutional revision to
make the reforms which should be
made along this line. Our present
system of Circuit and Chancery
Courts had been modelled after the
English Courts, but that England
had thirty years ago abolished it
and every State in the Union had
followed her example except four or
five. AS consequence of this sys-
TEN we had about twice as many
Judges as were really necessary, and
cited the example OF our sister states
of Georgia and North Carolina
where they had abolished the sys-
TEN of separate Circuit aud Chancery
Courts. Georgia had 30 judges and
North Carolina 10, whereas Tenne5-
see had 46, six less than the other
two states combined. The reduction
of expenses in criminal prosecutions
was also vital problem and its inn
portauce was emphasized by the
mere statement of the fact that
while it cost the people Of Tennessee
annually one million two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars to prose-
cute its criminals, it only cost the
State Of Georgia about ten thousand
dollars. Some of these abuses could
be, and some had been, remedied by
the Legislature, but no thorough
system of reform could be in
augurated without constitutional re-
vision.
He referred to the County Court
system and thought that the proper
solution of this question was to leave
it to the people of each county tC
say whether or not they wished tC
change their form of county govern
ment, but under the present con
stitution every county must con-
tinue the cumbrous and inefficient
system whether they wanted it ol
not.
The speaker referred to many
other defects in our present consti-
tuition and of many desirable re-
forms which it stood in the way of
but the HERALD has not space to
follow through every detail of his
magnificent speech.
He said the Republicans and some
of the office-holding class had sought
to poison the minds of the people
and to prejudice them against the
convention by insisting that the
convention would not be submitted
, to the people to be voted upon by
them. But he asserted that under
the law by which the convention
was authorized it must be submitted
to the people, but besides this b,
ventured to say that there was not t
: man in Maury County or in the
State who had character enough t.
even offer as a delegate, who wOulC
dare undertake to establish the con
stitution without submitting to tht
= people.
: He closed by an appeal to the
. Democratic party. The people wer,
looking to it tor relief and if it failed
= to identify itself with this progress
: sive movement it would forfeit th'
ppO66anpa Of tho paOnlp