The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1912-08-17
Tax Commission is Condemned.
Continued from first page.

Tax Commission is Condemned.
Continued from first page.
oughly that its history is made up
of the epitaphs of all dead En-
pires that are entombed in the
cemeteries of the past. Indirect
taxation is a system of such mag
nitude that it is equal to any and
all enterprises and emergencies
for exploiting and subjugating
families, tribes, races and ma
tons. Nevertheless it is simple.
If, on the contrary, it is the
object and desire of those in au-
thority to legislate for the benefit
of the citizens of the common
wealth, they should make few
notifications of the Constitution,
and then only such as will either
decrease the indirect taxes or in
crease the direct taxes.
In the present situation it will
be difficult to advance any re-
form, for great conflicts are in
preparation between those who
stand for what is right and those
who are now or hope hereafter to
be benefited by upholding wrong.
Even if it is true that our pres
ent system of taxation is not per-
feet, it is, in face of some of the
unspeakably wicked proposals of
the Tax Commission, better that
we bear the ills we have than fly
to others that we know not of. /"
The proposal to segregate or
separate the sources of revenue
for the State from the sources of
revenue for the Parishes is, of
course, in violation of the princi-
pie of Home Rule. Upon the
people who live in the Parishes
every dollar of the value
of the corporations whose prop
erty, franchises and privileges
are located and operated in the
Parishes. The people are the
patrons of the corporations.
They use the corporations and
pay for the use. They feel and
believe that the property of the
corporations and the men who
compose the corporations are in
no real way different from other
and other men. If the
men and the property of the cor
porations are treated on terms of
with all the other men
and property in the Parishes,
what reason is there to justify
the proposed severance? Many
corporations in the State have
been more than generously treat
ed, both by the State and by the
Parishes. The Constitution of
1898 provided for the exemption
Of newly constructed railroads
from both State and Parish taxes
for ten years. Later amend
nents to the Constitution provid-
ed for the exemption of such
newly constructed roads as were
not provided for in 1898. More
over, many Parishes have voted
money supplies by special taxes
n gratuitPus aid of railroads.
The people in the Parishes and
heir representatives in the Con-
'titutional Convention and in the
legislature have all been good to |
he corporations. They have
helped them. This aid and this
lelp, however, has never been
given with the idea in view that
he Parishes and the people in
he Parishes would later cease to |
lave any interest in the corpora
ions. because, forsooth. by the |
severance the corpora
ions would in reality cease to be
my part or parcel of the local es-
Adjustment the Parish. The
of the corporation is
o be metaphor, its history is to
re allegory, and its dominion is
o be the goth Universal Empire.
The old Lottery scheme was a
'ungling, half-baked effort to at
ain power. The late affair of
he Baby Bonds was a modest
title trick involving less than two
Million dollars. Nothing half as
ad as these ambitious proposals
f the Tax Commission has LOOM
d on the Louisiana horizon with
4 memory.
1t is up to the people of LOUISE
ma to meet these proposals. to