Year: 1873

rerourceh haNc Detn '"'
necessary expenses OF the State Government The ar
rangemeut for resunng payment with her creditors,
made two years ago. and known the Funding BILL has
been successfully thwarted by the Legislature TO this
time. But IL has been pronounced binding by the
Court OF Appeals and coupons will hereafter be received


in payment OF state taxes The effect will be to compel
payment of the entire interest the funded debt
else financial chaos.


II Will require about s35OoOo0 to pay interest and meet
the ordinary expenses Of the State Government, and
s20OO for all local purposes, making aggregate OF
$500 900 be raised by taxation from 100000 people,
being 30 per head, or u per cent ON the value
OF all the property the State, real and personal Land
IN Yirgnia-she having mines manufactures which
command a foreign markets. the ultimate basis OF
revenue and its productive capacity Is the test OF en-
durable taxation The land Of the State is assessed mt
$fOOOOnoO The yield in the crops which the basis
OF rental value about s5OOOOOo and, as the rent Is
usually onefourth the crop. it follows that the rental
value the farming land in Virginia is about 100000
or per the assessed value. This leaves net
rental value on Of II per cent TO the owner
but there Is good deal OF land that will not rent for the
taxes when increased TO the extent above suggested
The total value OF farm products of all kinds
is about double those taken as the basis OF
rental yaue-beng by the returns 6 "a per acre
of improved land or about forty dollars per head for the
whole population This is poorer show than is made by
other Southern State except FloridaSouth Carolina
producing SEQ per head, Georgia, 0 &c The reason ior
it lies in the that the grown in Virginia do not
afford sufficient employment for her labornS popuation
whereas the other States in addition TO growing large
portion OF the grain crops necessary for their own con-
sumption have their large cotton sugar and rice crops
which yield cash income and afford employment all
the year round. In other days virgnas money crop
laborers raised TO supply the cotton ana sugar
planting States When that market ceased TO exist she
left with surplus hand which IL slowly though
surely consuming her ytals The proof is seen in the
appeal for reduction in the assessed value
OF land and it's steady decline In selling price.


The negro a taxpayer, is nota success He affords
aid in sucn an emergency the present. In fact he
is burden YEARLY borne by the class who formerly
hyed from the sweat OF his brow. He pays perhaps half
the cost OF schooling his children and his share OF the
cost of courts asylums &c. may be safely put at 100000
Az a slave the him would have been s4O0OOO,
making difference OF s7OOOoO in the Treasury balance
sheet, and throwing that additional burden upon the
scanty yielding land


We have very able man in the Governors chair II
his advice had followed the ship of state would
be sailing in calm waters instead OF wrestling with
the stormy sea that surrounds her, and with the
OF distant breakers the lee shore But he. un-
fortunately is OF Northern birth and the Virginians
equal the Spaniards in their unwnRness TO be advised
led by those not born their SOIL and in their ina
biy 10 form my conception that valuable ideas may





ture is wholly unequal to the occasion 1t will neither
lead drive. There is dearth OF financial ability
want Of recognized leaders, and, in fact, scarcity OF
all the virtues needed in such crisis. AS Wellington
said OF the spanards in the Peninsula war, their pro-
jects always inopportune, their measures always
inadequate Yet they intoerant of advice or assist
ance. more unhappy combination OF obstlnacy ana
incompetency could not be imagined"


1t is plain enough, from the foregoing figures,
that Virginia Is the least able OF all the states to bear
heavy taxation especially Of that kind which will he ex-
pended in cash beyond her own limits, she not having
an export crop adequate to maintain the balance OF
trade. Yet last year saw her Conservative members
OF Congress against liberal national appropriation
the State school fund.- and this session we see them
defeat handsome endowment TO OF their own pow
ertystricken coleges Verify II there Is anything in-
herently hopeless, il is an attempt TO aid community
afflicted at once with inherited poverty and pride.


YorktOcn, Va, Dee 80, lS72 LOCKER On.