100 Years Ago: "All This Hue and Cry About Education . . ."

 Hmmm . . . sounds sort of familiar . . .

The Voice of the People

Against Higher School Taxes.

To the Editor of The Times-Dispatch:

 Sir.- Since the two proposed tax bills seem so defective, why can't the present method be improved. If the counties draw too much why can't the State limit their drafts? In all these pauper counties the people are almost taxed to death, while schools are allowed to raid their treasuries. New Kent has always been in this list. In 1904 her tax rate jumped from $1.15 to $1.55 and has hovered around $1.45 ever since. The two assessments add each. The two railroads, telephone and telegraph lines pay about $7,000, it is said. I suppose conditions are about tho same in the other counties.

If schools are to get all they want, a confiscation will not suffice. All this hue and cry about education comes from those who live by the system. Paying little or nothing them selves, they care not what a burden taxation becomes. Half the land in the State produces income. It is like a vacant house in town. At the last census hardly a county showed any gain to brag about, while thirty declined. When riding on the cars, I wonder if our legislators ever think how it is possible to live on much or the land passed. To squeeze the last cent from the taxpayer seems their only thought.

Last year a rate of 20 cents per $100 on bank deposits was thought ample. Now the same men would give the State officials unlimited power regarding such deposits. A criminal can't he made to testify, but a depositor is to be forced to do so, while bank clerks are to become spies- a fund having been provided to pay for such work. In 1900 just such a bill slipped through. It was denounced everywhere and soon declared unconstitutional on account of some little technicality.
                H.T. FAUNT LE ROY
        New Kent, Va., February 3, 1915.

-Richmond Times-Dispatch, February 05, 1915