The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-01-31
.0tne1uteHiqenrer
RATES OF SURsCRIPTION.
RATES OF ADVERTISING
The Existing Ferries Across the Ohio
River---who has the Power TO Estab-
nr.s. n-A..En.nsa q u

AlSh sew OhGc ~ - ~
Editors nteLLigencer:-Wem may welt
saw of flnost of the established ferries in
our State, including those across the
Ohio river, "they have come down to
us from former generation" Those
across the Ohio River are coeval with
the earliest settlemehtsj have gradually
grown up with the country and the
ed through many, hands, and in many
instances upon the payment of large
considerations. 90
The mother ateauthorized the coun-
ty courts to establish and regulate, in
Guiding the fixingithe rates of ferriage,
these franchises. Tho 11th section, chap
ter "a, OF the code of $50, reads thus
"Every ferry established and not dis
continued before the commencement of
this act, duly 1st, 1850, s.may continue
10 be 'kep6pt Sheiagain reiterates this
language through her Legislature in
the code of 1860. In the code of 1919,
she announces in effect the same intent,
and has no where made provisions for
uses or neglect to Keep them IN re-
pair and properly discharge the
duties, due TO Z The fttbEic. so long
as these duties should be faithfully per-
formed, it was therefore the intention
of the mother State to assure the rights
and franchises to the respective owners.
tablish new ferries, but in no case with
in a half a mile of one already legally
established, imposing all necessary re-
strictions and duties with pena lties for
their neglect, but gave no power to an
null, supercede orr discontinue any es-
tablished ferry soslong as it performed
its duties to the public. The CoIlStitu-
tion of West Virginia transferred this
poweFof the county courts over ferries
TO the boards of supervisors Of the SeU-
erdE counties, With SecluSiUe poI1eT to eS-
EdbLSSh, regulate and fE the rate Of JeTTt-
age, but with no power to discontinue
or impair so long as they discharged
their duties to the public. Article 4,
section 4, of the constitution, confers this
excltLsive power as to ferries, Landings, DC.
y We see d petition vas presented a few
days since to the Legislature for an act
incorporating Ferry Company to ply
betweenlthe town of3Guyandotte and
the opposite shore in Ohio, and the
grant of the public landing at Guyan-
dotte for the purpose, thereby to super
cede one 0f. these old ferries that have
been legally established for over half
century, We are informed the present
ferry. Ia. we'll Kept and tho .pubic
faithfully accommodated, and that the
present business is hardly sufficient to
support the existing ferry. The object
therefore appears to be to destroy the
present ferry and deprive the owner Of
his franchise, and be an entering wedge
to destroy all the established ferries
across the Ohio river from the mouth; of
Sandy to the Pennsylvania line. Can
the Legislature exercise, q power which
the C6nstiLtttton has vested exclusively
in the Supervisors, or under the pre-
tence of granting a charter for Internal
improvements. override this plain pro-
vision of the Constitution and accom-
plish by indirect action what it is for
hidden to do directly. In the fate of
this ferry at Guyandotte is to be involv-
ed the fate of all others upon the Ohio
riverand throughout the State. Wetrust
our Legislature will nip such gross
wrong and injustice in the bud, and as
question Of policy merely, are not the
existing ferries under wholesome regu-
lations and restrictions and duties al
ready incumbent upon them, far pre-
ferable and far more likely to meet the
public wants than a system of unre-
strained competition, which will most
likely bankrupt all concerned, and
leave the public without reliable means
of accommodation.
80 THE CONSTITUTION INvIo1ATE.