072 TOWNS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 



Tlie rate of taxes for 1880 was two and one-half per cent., and for the 

 following two years it was two and one-quarter per cent. In this period 

 the taxable values in the city had advanced two and one-half millions of 

 dollars, or nearly twelve per cent. At the same time it was found by 

 comparison of the sums actually realised on the sale of a number of 

 pieces of property, with their assessment valuations, that the actual 

 value was considerably in advance of the assessed value. In 1881 this 

 advance was stated at twenty -two and one-half per cent., and in 1882 it 

 was still greater, being thirty-four per cent. 



CITY DEBT. 



There has been no growth in America greater or more remarkable than 

 the growth of town and city debts. Previous to 18G0 the entire muni- 

 cipal indebtedness of the country aggregated only $51,222,558, being about 

 $10 per capita for the urban population. In 1870 these debts had reach- 

 ed $211,119,688, and stood at $26 per capita. In 1880, the enormous in- 

 debtedness of $710,555,924 is attained, exceeding $51 for each citizen ; 

 in twenty -two cities it exceeds $85 per capita, and reaches a maximum of 

 $216 per capita. The history of the debt of Charleston is in some degree 

 similar. Prior to 1850 this debt amounted to only $388,252, or about $9 

 per capita. By 1856, however, it had reached $3,161,695, and was $78 

 per capita. Its maximum was reached between 1872 and 1880, and 

 amounted to $5,643,534, being $115 per capita. Alarmed at this rapid 

 growth, and at the almost unlimited power granted by the city charter 

 to the Council for contracting debts, the city government elected in De- 

 cember, 1879, obtained from the State Legislature the passage of an Act 

 restraining the exercise of this dangerous power. By this Act the City 

 Council was prohibited from creating or endorsing any obligation be- 

 yond the municipal income of the current year, except when a proposi- 

 tion, specifying the object and amount of the indebtedness it was pro- 

 posed to incur, should, by a two-thirds vote of the Council, have been 

 submitted to a vote of the citizens, and having received the votes of two- 

 thirds of the ciualified voters voting at the preceding municipal election, 

 should then have been submitted to and approved by the State Legisla- 

 ture. The spirit of economy thus expressed has made itself practically 

 manifest by a reduction of the city debt to the amount of nearly one and 

 one-half millions of dollars, as Avill be seen from the following statement : 



