Middletown transcript., 1897-09-18
ABoMINABLE BUSINESS.


ume Xxx, Laws, of Delaware, which
has Just been issued, inserted the fol-
lowing remarkable, and as far as we
can learn, unprecedented note on page
799 under the title Of Appendix -
"The act printed in this appendix is
the original bill, the enrolled copy of
! which is printed on page 344. At the
time of the pubii.+ ion of the laws it
was discovered that several errors had
been made in enrolling the bill, and l
publish the original in appendix, as it
appears by the endorsements OF the
clerks Of the respective Houses to
have passed both branches OF the
General Assembly,"
This note is followed on the succeed
ing thirteen pages by an act entitled
san act in relation to the collection OF
taxes for New Castle county," under
the head "Of the Levy Court" The
act printed on page 344 and thereafter
is the same in purport and language,
except in respect to two distinct and
specific matters which we're changed
while being enrolled and which the
Secretary charitably attributes to
errors.
Secretary Hughes deserves the sp-
probation of every honest man in the
State for this unusual publication. He
distinctly refused, as this act diseloses,
to be party to the crime which was
deliberately committed against the
people of the State dCring the closing
hours of the late session of that most
disreputable General Assembly. The
changes which the Secretary points
out and calls ''errors" were deliberately
made either by the enrolment clerk or
by some one who was acting for him.
The responsibility will fall upon the
clerk who took solemn oath to per-
form his duties correctly and who was
paid handsome salary for it, but the
blame does not all rest upon him, and
it must be shar ed by the Senate Com
mittee on Enrolment, three members
of the Senate, two Democrats and one
Republican.
These ''errors" in enrolment, it will
be noted, occurred in respect to the
act which has been so generally con-
demned in New Castle county, the act
namely, which robbed Mr.. Horace G.
Rettew, the Republican Receiver of
Taxes, of the power to collect taxes
throughout the county, and put that
power into the hands of Democratic
workers, one in each hundred. This act
and similar ones haunted the legisla-
tive cham ners all winter Certain MEM
bers for the iower counties hesitated to
besmirch themselves with the crime Of
stealing flom the Republicans of New
Castle county the offices or the emolu-
ments and powers of offices which the
latter had fairly won at the polls. They
recalled the infamy of 1891, when by
similar legislation the Republican
Levy Court of this county was abol-
ished in order that John T. Dickey
might be continued in the tax collec-
tors Office. They recalled that, not
withstanding the tremendous help of
the big Cleveland tidal wave which
swept old fashioned Republican states
into the morass of Clevelandism,
Dickey only succeeded in pulling
through by the bribery of election Off
GERS in the city of Wilmington. They
recalled that in 1896 Dickey did not
dare to run again, but put up the very
strongest man the Democratic party
could furnish and that with all his pre-
cautions his candidate was over
whelmed by the votes Of the tax-pay-
ers who wanted an honest administra-
tion of their tax Office. To change all
this for the second time in ten years
was fraud SO gross and shameless
that even certain Democrats of the
present shameless legislature hesitated
about doing it. One decoy bill after
another was introduced in the House,
while the bill that was really wanted
was reserved until within day or two
Of adjournment. The bill as it finally
passed was engineered by Dickey and
President Scott of the Levy Court
They ''saw'' it through the House and
lobbied for it on the floor Of the Sem
ate on the last day of the session. They
followed it into the enrolment clerks
room, and now Secretary Hughes at
tests tlat it came out of that room al
tered iE at least two important respects.
What were these changes and why
were they made? We will state and ex-
plain the less important first. Section
2 of this act provided that the Levy
Court should appoint at the same time
that they named the collectors for the
ten rural hundreds 1.-TWO collectors of
poll taxes for the city Of Wilmington,
one Of whom shall reside south of
Sixth street in said city and one of
whom shall reside north Of Sixth street
in said city" etc. The corrected" act,
and SO it appears in the statutes, makes
provision for zone collector of poll
taxes for the city Of Wilmington" etc.
1t says nothing about residence; but
half dozen lines further down on the
page the act provides what is absolute
ly silly since there was to be but one
collector, namely, for the division of
the city into two tax collecting dis
tricts with Sixth street as the division
line. This was an oversight on the
part of the scoundrels who doctored
the bill. Near the end of the doctored
act they recalled their purpose again,
for In Section 36 which deals with the
salaries of these collectors, they were
careful to say "poll tax collector" and
MT stenlIncfnrqi1 aa IL annaQrs in thn