The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-01-13
JUDGE MELTON FOR
 AN ISSUE OF BONDS
Gathers From Weakley Argument
 That Taxes In Smaller Counties Are to Be Raised


 AS a citizen of one of the small coun- 1 ties of Alabama, I wish to ask Hon.
 John B. Weal1ley If 1t is his plan to
 vote the bond issue down and then raise
 the taxes of the citizens in the small
 counties to pay the deficit in the state s
 finances? After reading and rereading his letter in Sundays Age-Herald I can
 reach no other conclusion than that he,
 as member of the finance commit tee of the last legislature, undertook /, to fix a system of tax equalization, so- | called, having for it's object the raising 1 of the taxes in the small counties to ! make up this deficit.
 1 As one of the persons charged with
 the duty under the old law of equalizing l the taxes in my county, I wish to reg | ister my protest against such an un- dertaking, and to this end I urge every voter in the IS counties that he names as receiving more money from the state than they pay into it, to vote for the i bond issue, and thus avoid the neces- sity of having their taxes raised as suggested by MT. Weakley. l also wish l to urge all fair minded voters in those counties which pay into the state more than they receive to vote for the bond issue and thus avoid the charge that they wish to escape their just burdens of taxation.
 Almost every dollar received from the state by the small counties is for schools and pensions, and the number of children to be educated and the num- Der of pensioners in a county has but little to do with the values of property therein The fertility of the soil, the mileage of railroads the capital em- plnVp6 n "a inc in eral resources, the factories, and such like are to be considered when you go to fix the value on property. That the Almighty has not placed this wealth in each county in proportion to the
 number of children to educate and the | number of old soldiers and their wid ows to support should not be blamed upon us. We would be glad to pay tho taxes if we but had the wealth.
 | Just a few days ago the writer list ened to a speech by Senator Lusk in which he was very emphatic in urging the citizens of this country to vote the nefarious bond issue down and gave as reason therefor the undervaluation of the property of the wealthy corpora tions, and the extravaganza and prodi- gality of the state administration These opponents of the bond issue are not agreed among themselves. While one breaches to the small farmers and business men in the small counties that l it is the big fellow who is escaping taxation, the other, in a metropolitan paper supposed to be read largely by the wealthy class, urges that it is the | little fellow in the small counties Of the state that is shirking his just taxes, and that the system of equalization in- augurated by his committee will shortly cure the state of it's financial | ills by raising this little fellows taxes.
 I hold no brief for the defense of the | tion, but l do insist that it is the duty of every voter in the AS small coun- ties to vote for the bond issue, because, forsooth, MT. Weakley says the state has been so very liberal to them that | it has appropriated large sums to them in excess of the amounts paid into the state treasury by them.
 The money that is returned to Blount county from the state is used for roads. schools, pensioners, etc. Who would take one penny of these appropriations from us? We now receive $100 per
 annum for rural school houses; $2000 per annum for roads: $3000 for the county high school; $45O0 for the dis trict agricultural school at Blountsville; ; approximately $25,000 per annum for public schools; $15,000 for confederate soldiers and their widows This very handsome sum of money is largely in excess of the state taxes paid into the state by this county. Is it not req sonable to conclude that the deficit in the state treasury is brought about largely by this class of appropriations? If the answer is in the affirmative, I urge that the voters in the small coun- ties like this should vote for the bond issue and thereby make the state able I to pay back the money borrowed by 1t l to pay the appropriations made by the state for these noble institutions. JOHN F. MELTON. Oneonta, January 10, 1916.