The age-herald., 1898-01-20

camp, 31 at home. At this writing there are s5 patients in camp. Only ten Q0) cases have developed among the whites
 Have Expended SIO,O00.
 Tn round numbers you have expended upon the epidemic directly from your treas ury about $10,000. Under the new arrange ment, by which the United States marine hospital service assumes general charge, | you are not to be relieved entirely or the expense of combating the epidemic, but are to maintain in the hospital and camp of detention only those persons who are taken there from within the corporate ltm- it's of the city, whereas you have hereto- fore paid one-half of the entire expense, no matter from whence came the patients. This will afford you much practical relief.
 The Financial Problem.
 Which now confronts this municipality. de- serves your special attention and inves- tigation, as upon a successful solution of 1t depends the future of your city. The figures from the books of the city auditor and the treasurer do not at a glance pre- sent a favorable or encouraging picture, but the condition shows no lack Of an eco nomical administration by you. The de- felt as compared with 1896 caused by the special expenditures for epidemics, schools and public improvements will be consid- erably lessened, when full collections are made About $15,OOO is due the city for public improvements, secured by lien upon abutting property thus improved, and the prison hire at Coalburg, due. but held back temporarily by order of the city prison to less than one-half of what it was in 1S96
 Heretofore I have called your attention | to the steady decrease in appraisement by l the state and county authorities of real | estate values in the city, and sought to l impress the necessity of taking some acton | looking to an equitable adjustment of this l difficulty. The auditors report shows that since 1894, three years, the property tax has decreased 39 per cent, while under | stress of circumstances the privilege tax | has increased 69 per cent. And this, too, notwithstanding the increased amount of substantial building and other improve ments made in the city during the past | three years. This unequal distribution of | the burden of governmental expense IS manifestly unjust, and must have ten l dency to discourage those who are taxed to the utmost for the privilege of doing busi- l ness here.
 | A Peculiar Case.
 My attention has been called by prop | erty holder to one piece of residence prop l erty which was assessed in 1891 at $3,5OO and | in 1897 at $1 ,250 with no perceptible deprecfa- tion in actual vaue This is only one ex- ample among many. Your city is certainly increasing rapidly it's actual values, but decreasing it's taxable values. This is an anomaly.
 "Upon a total bonded debt of $1 ,000 your annual interest amounts to $95,1O0 equa]ing s260.54 per day, or $10S5 per hour. As you are aware, $52 500 of this interest is | being withheld annually by the bondhold- | CTS. The amount of these withheld cou- l pons drawing interest at per cent is now | $13S. .7S5 and the amount is increasing at the rate of nearly $5,0O0 per month.
 Proposed Tax Amendment. | "As you know under the provisions of the l organic laws of your state, to which organ ism you and I bow in submission, the power of taxation by municipal corpora 1 tionS is limited. l yield to no man in ap- precation of the importance of institutional | charters; nor do I consider their lmita- tions as letters, nor forget that constituent l part of civil liberty and self-goyernment | which relates to the "being governed, l we'll as that part which consists in "gov- | erning" I am not here to sound the cry | of demagogue-"take power, bear down limitation" but to show you a picture of the conditions which confront us and op- portunities now presented to your muni- cipality, and to warn you to look diligently at both sides of the picture and see where lies the best results. | At the last session of the general assem- bly of Alabama your representatives, ap- l preciating the pecuniary needs of your city | in their wisdom and foresight and acting | under the provisions of the constitution of | the state for amending the said constitu- | tion, passed by unanimous vote, an act | to submit to the people of the state, at the | general election to be held on the first Mon- day in August 1898, for representatives, for | their consideration, an amendment to Sec | ton ', Article II of the constitution, pro- l viding a special tax of one-half of i per centum for the city of Birmingham, to be | applied to the payment of the interest on the bonds of said city and for a sinking | fund to pay off said bonds at the maturity | thereof.
 Birmingham's Wonderful Growth.
 "Birmingham's growth within the past l fifteen years has been marvelous-a truth ! not too often repeated. This growth has | not been alone in material progress and l development, but in that modern adjunct to | material development harshly called debt. ! As one intimately and closely indentified 1 with your city government during long | period I hazard nothing in telling you that in no single year of the fifteen just l passed have the revenues derived from ad | valorem taxes and the monotonous drag | net license schedules, met the necessary | expenses of your growing schools, police, | fire and health departments, public im- provement budget and interest account 1 and that each year has gone out with an | increased debt, over the preceding years. | That fifteen years ago your bonded debt | was less than 50000, with an annual inter-
 est to pay of less than s40O0; and that to- day you have a bonded debt of $1 ,610, ,0O0
 with annual interest to pay of $95, 100,
 which is s10 for each hour that you
 breath whether awake asleep or at your
 
 increase of burden, you or your representa-
 tive city administrations have had no | power to increase your tax rate, and aside | from the enhancement of values, in the | material advancement of your property, under most unwise and lax system of as- sessment, and a system of oppression known as ''privilege or license tax" you
 have leaned upon promise to pay, promises to be fulfilled by the succeeding generation
 your children
 ''This state of affairs was foreseen some
 years ago by some of your predecessors,
 and the general assembly wisely submitted a similar amendment to the one now under
 consideration to the voters of the state the simble question in its analysis being, May
 we, Birmingham, tax ourselves for self government" and the verdict of the people of the state came, "No." I can attribute this verdict to no other cause than a lack of knowledge or appreciation of our desires and needs, when remember the unanimity with which our own people, our tax payers, voted in the affirmative, as no other section of the state outside of our corporation Him.