The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-08-08

CONSTITUTION WHICH TequlTtS III laAatioh
to be "equal and uniform" The fact
that we have as many paid officers in
Ohio county as in any other, does not
prove that in other counties they are
paid no more than here. On the score
of honesty, there is q trifing difference
between Democratic and Radical off,
GERS, in favor of the former, which the
IRteIligencer has entirely overlooked.
The account of FITZGERALD, a Radical
Supervisors clerk for Mason county,
published in q recent number of the
REGISTER, is an illustration in point.
He charged and received about eleven
hundred dollars for about thirty days
service-a bit of dishonest extIava-
gance to which Democratic officials are
not addicted. Hence it is, that in Rad
cal counties, taxation does not "stand
on the same footing as in onr own"
Our cotemporary further contends
that because the rate of taxation is the
same as before the war, therefore the
amount of taxation is no greater. His
own article refutes this idea. He states
broadly that property generally has
been greatly appreciated by the snbsti-
tuition of paper for gold.' If this be
true, then the property which before
the war was worth one hundred dollars
and paid forty cents tax, and is
now worth two hundred dollars, must
even under the old rate now pay eighty
cents tax. The following extract from
the Weston Erpositor illustrates the
case:
The average value of lands i'll Gil.
mer county, under the assessment OF
1856 was 81 80 per acre; under the as
sessment of 1866 it is - 81 per acre.
1t will hardly be denied that under
the old rate Gilmer county's State tax
will be materially greater than before
the war
As the InteIligencer well knows, the
State TAX does not form the only source
of woe to the Taxpayers. There are
hundreds and thousands of petty Off
cials who must all be supported, and
these men are consuming the first and
best fruits of the peoples earnings.
Since our contemporary desires 20 know
by what process Democracy would de-
crease our taxation We will inform
him. The Democracy would abolish
nipe-tenths of the offices in West Vir-
ginia and put honest men in the bal
ance. They would do away especially
with the Boards of Registration and all
their deputies, and thus save thousands
annually To the State. They would
abolish the useless office OF County
Treasurer-an office which in single
wear cost this State about seventy thou
sand dollars. They would give no Gov
ernor forty or fifty thousand dollars as
Contingent Fund, to be used at his irre-
sponsible discretion. They would pay
no extra and unlawful salaries like
those which FOREMAN and the rest of the
State officials have been in the habit OF
receiving in the shape of "rent' and
other polite disguises for plunder. They
would pass no bills of relief for delin-
quent loyalty" they would release no
Union" sheriffs and in this way they
would improve upon Radicalism and
save the taxpayers large amounts an
nually. They would employ no incapa-
bles like the planners of the Penitenti-
airy; if they started an enterprise to cost
S16S, ,OO0 they would not cxpend upon
it 81 100000. They would tolerate no
corruptionists like those who are perpe-
trating the Asylum frauds; they would
not waste $4,000 in commencing n
work, that 100000 ought to
have finished. In short. they
would avoid all the fIauds, follies
and extravagances of Radicalism, and
conduct our affairs upon the now un-
familiar principles of economy, prudence
and honesty. This is the process