The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-02

make m interest when the DoHucu iu- debtedness shall have been refunded at Q much lower rate. than we now pay. win produce sufficient revenue to ans wer all the demands of our people. Now. MT. President, do not have much objection to that objection; 1t states the views of the committee pretty clearly, but l would only add this. that whether we have an increase in revenue, whether we have aft iB- increase in taxable values or not. if we do not have an increase in taxable values, and do not have and increase in disbursements. then with the reve- nue from other sources we will have revenue enough and to spare to meet the demands of our State. But suppose disaster should come, and suppose tax able values should recede little, can not we as easily and effectively meet any disaster by an increase in the tax able values an increase in the assess able values of our property, as well as by raising the rate of taxation? would not ono plan be just as effective as the other? Wouldn't 1t amount to the same thing? Wouldn't it bring the same results7 That is the way l see it. Mir. President. Now 1t Is true that if our people were conscious of the fact that they had to return their prop erty for assessment at it's full value. the assessable value, they would feel we were practicing an injustice upon them. but Mir. President, my observa- tion is that very few people return their property for taxation at anything like the value they set upon 1t when they put it upon the market for sale. We are not so poor as we think we are. and we are never SO poor as when we are being interviewed by the Tax As- sessor. MT. President. would state here today that 1t is my conviction that if J. Pierpont Morgan syndicate with capital of $500. .o0o. .Q09 should be formed for the purpose of buying out the State of Alabama the company would have to increase its capital stock before 1t would have money enough to pay for and get a title to the $266 .000. 600 of assessable values re- turned by the people of Alabama. the present year. and then. Mir. President. there is another ever present and al- ways practical remedy at hand for hard times or short receipts: It is ale ways practicable to use it. though there are some people who do not like to have this remedy prescribed. and they do not like to practice, it and its name Is retrenchment of expenses; but, MT. President. 1t Is great safety valve that will nearly always regulate and restore the equilibrium to financial af- fairs. and it is a good thing to prac- tice. whether we are financially sick or not: 1t broadens our sympathies. 1t prepares us to meet and grapple With adverse circumstances If they should come. and it helps us in the practice of self-denial. Now. Mir. President. with thsse remedies so potent and so power full always at hand. do not see that there is any use hesitating any. longer about voting, for members of this Con- vention to cast their vote to reduce from 1-2 mills to 1-2 mills. We want the people of Alabama to understand that we are their friends. and that we want tD frame a government that will not be . burden to them. It may be. that some members upon this floor do think that the committee is inclined to take too rosy a view of the future. bEt. sir. how can we be otherwise when we remember that Alabama. great and rich as she Is in her fields, in her for ests. in her soil, in her climate, in her manufactures. in her mines. in her commerce, and richest and greatest in her splendid and patriotic citizenship, has been put to the test and gone through ordeals heretofore and has been equal to any emergency that has ever been brought upon her, how can we help when ws consider afl this, be- ing otherwise than hopeful? Why. sir. in the perils of war from 1861 to 1865. in the difficulties of property and carpet baggers from 1868 to 1874, when she raisea in her might. in the majesty of her strength and wrath and took back from worthless hands the government Of her fathers again, since then she has haaF 0rnuyfna in nrnanArffV and in inc development of her great natural re- sources until in the last twenty-five years her taxable values have increas- ed double, and yet we are told that she Is yet in her infancy. We enter upon the threshold of this Twentieth century full of hope and full of pride and ex- pectation of great possibilities. Her past is secure, though cneckered. tt IS glorious. and we are proud of 1t. We are proud of her achievements. and, sir. we are here this day as delegates representing the sovereign people os the great State of Alabama in Conven- ton assembled; we have abundant rea- son to thank God for the past, and to take courage for the future. I am proud of Alabama. ana I would be the last 'uan upon this floor that would put an obstruction in her onward and upward march to progress. Let us then, MT. President and Gentlemen of this Con- vention, remove the obstacle of high taxation from our Constitution; let us reduce it to the lowest limit, 1-2 mills. as recommended by the committee, and let us make our great State as inviting as she Is to capital. still more inviting; let us fix our rate in keeping with the rate of our neighboring sister States, SD that with our great resources ahove all others. we shall be more inviting q field for them to come to. Now, MT. President. I want to say in conclusion. for the bene- fit of the distinguished gentlemen from Montgomery. who have so earn
 estly and eloquently plead for some
 Constitutional provisions to secure an
 enlargement of these grounds and this
 capitol building itself, that I am in
 hearty accord with the spirit that
 moves them. and that I differ with
 them only as to the source whence the
 money shall come According to the
 figures submitted by our Committee on
 the 1st day of October, 1902, we win
 have a net balance in the treasury of
 about $347 .000. Out of this the next
 Leg islature can, and no doubt will,
 make the necessary appropriation to
 meet this necessary expenditure. l be- IIeVe that these improvements ought
 to be made, and that they ought to be made within the next year or two, ahd would remind the distinguished gentleman from Montgomery that pride in the State Capitol is not confined to Montgomery alone. The scenes that were enacted here in 1861 when new nation was born. and that makes this