Year: 1873

"To the rioters Of Placer County:


You are called upon to vote your assistance


in the construction of the Pacific Railroad, ant


the company in this manner desire to present tc
you some of the resons why you should render


such assistance


This work, when completed, will be the great


est of any age country-the great highway OF


the richest commerce and most extensive travel


of the world. And, citizens of Placer, nearly one


hundred miles of it will be within your county,


and will pass directly through your county seat.


In the construction of the road there will be ex-
pended in your county not much II any less
than nine millions of dollars. and about ttco
million of it within the trading and traffic DIS
tance of your county seat. The whole of this
vast sum, when expended, will Immediately en-
ter into all the transactions of business conduct
ed within the county, and into the permanent
| and substantial wealth of the country, and will
then be subject and liable TO tardtion in the
same manner as other accumulated wealth, and
| in addition to that the Railroad itself rs it is
constructed, frcm year to year, is subject to the
same haation as all other property.


| You are asked to assist us to the extent of
$3.50, 000-let us ma1eHpa an account of the cost
| of such assistance. You give $780, 900 in bonds,
at eight per cent. interest for twenty years.
You will then have to provide 800, 900 yearly to
meet interest and to meet principal at the end of
that time. Your rate of taxation for county
purposes this year is unusually small, thirty
cents on the one hundred dollars"


Yes, we were then out of debt, and had $40, 900
in gold in our County Treasury, and taxes were
only three dollars on the thousand, but our tax
payers have paid from fifteen to thirty ever
since and will until the ring and railroad pow
ers are whipped at the polls.


Suppose the railroad alone, without
adding any increased value of other property,
or adding any.property accumulated from the
expenditures of building the road, were taxed at
the rate. $50 000, 900 at thirtyfve cents per one
hundred this will yield an income of S31, 800,
or S11 800 per year more than the interest you
will have to pay-this annual surplus at the end
of twenty years being nearly sufficient to pay
the original bonds. Your whole taxable proper
ty for the last current year was only the sum of
| So. COO 600 with the road completed it will be
! $l2 900, 600"


Here they pledged the company to pay taxes
in this county ON nine millions of dollars, and
now if you talk of taxing at even one million
the whole Company, from its President down to
! its lowest menial, is in arms and ready to swear
it is not worth even half that sum. 1t pays
them to have ring officials that can save the
| 800, coo year taxes, and they have managed to
do it so far, and it is for you to say if the ring
is to be continued in power.


"It is the history of every raiload enterprise
| that along its line and in its neighborhood, pop


aton is very largely increased, and it is reason
able calculation that when the road is completed
the population of your county will be quadru-
pied


This road has been finished the whole length
of the county for five years; and has it paid
taxes according to the above stipulation on So
600 600 each year? Had it done so, you would
yet have retained in your pockets two-thirds of
all the taxes you have paid in these five years.
How did they escape paying taxes on this So
900, 600 through all these years? Through the
weakness or corruption of Placer County Off
cals, is the only answer mat c;tn be si',". Thv
monster evidently found it cheaper to ovemeoch
mentally or corrupt your ring officials than to
pay their just taxes Charity leads us to hope
il mental wea1t'less and nothing muIe that
caused all this but to your property and money
the result was the same.


Do You doubt but that the railroad COM
pany will labor hard and spend much money
to keep these ring officers or those they name
and control in power-as well doubt the exist
ence of yourselves. These ring leeches will be
all violent anti-monopolists this Fall, and the
company will tell them to promise, and even
swear, to do everything the people want and
when the election is over will shrive aId make


it all ri9htNyith them out of taxes saved and
enormous fares and freights collected.


Remember, voters of Placer, that while the
railroad is refusing to pay one dollar out of
twenty of its just taxes, it is charging you three
prices for every pound of freight it carries for
you, and three prices for every mile you ride on
its cars and that your officers and representa-
tives for the last six years, the Auburn Ring,
have covered to connived with this monster
and dared not or would not speak a,word in
your favor while this, your cold premeditated
swindling, was gong on.


Your County affairs are under the control of a
secret ring, and no can tell the extent of the
rottenness and corruption that exists and has
existed for the last six years in this regard 1t is
a matter of public notoriety that the spols 60 to
favOrites, and that no man, not creature of the
ring can do or supply anything for the county.
When this ring condescends to receive bids for
printing or for hospital services it lets the
tracts to the highest bidders Even the supplying
of the charity institution for of the poor sick
is made to do duty in aid of the rings perpetuaton
in power and the institution its elf to cost thrib
bic what it ought. In a word, they fix your
taxes, force you to pay. and divide your money
| among themselves and their creatures. And
now may we openly tell you the only mode
by which you may escape the further p,under,
robbery and tyranny of this monster and its aid
ers in Placer county the Auburn ring. To start
you must have some of the nerve, grit, selfde-
NAL and manhood that threw the tea overheard
in Boston harbor in 1775. You must discard
every organization in power, every man who has
been the alder and apoogist for the ring or rail-
road monopoly, and every man that has been the
lobbyist, electioneerer or willing dupe of these
parties. Your associates in the great local
form should be men over whom the ring or rail-
road hold no power. National and sectional
| nnnstinns shnnld NOT entar your cnuncils for