The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1913-08-02
Reasons for Voting the Parish Wide
Tax.
Verda, La, July %. 1913

tax for schools.
Wards one and six did nobly in voting
the good roads tax. and | hope they
will do as well in voting the tax for
schools. Surely the schools come first
in Importance. But these two wards
have no school tax on them now, hence
they are letting the Edenborn railroad
and other big public property go scott
free of school tax, while every school
in those wards is in debt and cannot
open this fall unless this tax is carried.
RED Neck" is little mistaken about
the rate of assessment on bottom lands
as compared with hill lands. 1t is only
about six or seven times instead of
eight or ten times as great. Then the
timbered lands in the hills goes at $40
to SIT per acre, and it is reported that
it will be raised this year to $50. and |
hope it will, as the owners have refused
in some instances 500 per acre for it.
Now, some of the hill districts have
voted and paid 10 mills on their pro-
pCIty lol c(llOOiS, diiQ lndb 10 tuC cOiC
reason why they have, as rule, bet
ter schools than the bottoms; and most
of these districts will have 10 mills
when they vote the parish wide tax;
and it does seem that the bottoms could
afford to vote and pay mills on their
rich land, when the hills can and do
pay 10 mills on their poor lands.
Why, "Red Neck" your lands rent
for more each year than the hills would
sell for on the average. if put on the
market
But the tax will bear on all alike.
The man who has the most property
will pay the most tax, and is by the
same token the best able to pay. No
fairer method of bearing a just and
necessary burden could be devised,
and when we remember that about
THREE fourths of this and all other
taxes in Grant parish are paid by non
residents, ard that the average amount
paid by resident voter runs from so
cents to So. 90 on mill school tax, it
does seem that the voter would run to
the polls to vote for it, especially when
he knows that it gives him the best
school system in Louisiana or any ad-
joining State to send his children to.
If we had to pay for these schools by
tuition in the old way, it would cost at
least So per scholar per month, or $24
per child each year. Who could educate
family of or children at this rate
of expense?
At such an expense, dear friends. a
college graduate in Grant would be a
public curiosity. as he was in the old
daxs, when .sRed Neck" and | were
trying to get an education and failed.
1t was the ambition of my boyhood
and younger manhood to go to college,
but the craving of my heart went un-
satisfied. The aching void remains
with me to-day, and worse, many doors
of pleasant and profitable employment
are forever closed to "Red Neck" and
to me, because of this lack of technical
training.
But under the present system | have
graduated three children. and have the
fourth and last entering the second
year of high school work. The three
graduates are in demand everywhere
at good wages. and had dozen chill
dreu the cost would be no more-a
mill tax and part of the time 10 mills.
Who could oppose this? Surely none
but the most sordidly selfish, or igno-
rant. There is hope for the ignorant.
Let's vote down the selfish.
know there is some misunderstood
ing of details, but this has been put
out. and is being fostered by the cum
ming and crafty capitalists, who have
secured most of our property, and re-
side elsewhere, sending their children
to public schools where they live, leav-
ing you and to care for our children
the best we can. Well, We have NIGH
ty good way of caring for them by vot-
ing this tax. Have We got sense
enough to care for them? | think We
have.
Read the petition and ordinance pub
lished in the Chronicle calling this cleo
ton, and you will get all the details,
and this is the fundamental law govern
ing the tax. and the Supreme Court
could not change it. According to the
petition and ordinance, 95 per cent of
the proceeds Of the tax. which viii be
about $4,000, will be pro rated to the