The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-02-12

ike IL passes an incentive Will De pre-
scented to all holders of available per-
soual property to convert it into Govern
msnt bonds. in order to escape, along
with the railroad, from the present OPP
pressive rate of taxation.
In proportion as personal property |
thus converts itself into a non-taIable !
shape, must real property sustain an
increased weight OF taxation, for the
revenues OF the State must be raised, if |
not from one source then from another, |
and If not from two sources then |
from one alone.
Our present rate of taxation is all
that we can sbear. It is oppressive.
What will it be when we come to as
sumo our share of the debt of the old
State, say ten millions OF dollars ?
Calculate the interest, and count out
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroads
share of it, and see what is TO be the
consequence to the balance of the tax
payers OF the State.
This thing may be matter of COM
parative indifference TO those who own
little or no property to-day, or to coun-
ties that are paying but little, but it
will come home to them by and by, for
the consequences will not pass away
to-day or tomorrow, this year or the
next, but will remain with US forever,
AS long as taxes are levied for the sup
port OF government in our midst, and
for the payment of an immense yearly
interest on the old debt.
The Agricultural interests will soon
feel the full weight of the blow nov
aimed at them. Nobody will want to
come into a State where lands are so
heavily taxed, and those who already
hold them will embrace every opportu-
nifty to sell out and remove to other
States.
II the bill passes it is irrepealable.
The great wrong which it will work
can never be uudone. The company
will acquire perpetual vested right
under it, which no future legislation
can tamPer with This is the poignant
arrow that will pierce the very hearts
OF the people when they come to see
what has been done.
Every species Of real and personal
property in this State, with the exoep-
tons named in the Constitution, is tax
ed according to its value, no difference
whether the owner derives revenue or
not from it, and no difference what his
InisfoTtuues may be as the holder of it.
He must pay the memorable 10 cents on
the hundred dollars. But a great cor
Poration, the richest and most powerful
in the State, dividing and accumu-
lsting revenues almost, If not altogeth-
er, unprecedented in railroad history,
is to be freed, practically, from taxa
ton, thus verifying that portion of
Scripture which says that ito him who
hath more shall be given, but from him
that hath, not shall be taken away,even
that which he hath"
VIII not every corporation in the
state be fully justified in declining to
make return to the assessor of taxes
after this bill passes2 BY what show
OF equity are the balance of them to be
taxed afler the Baltimore road has been
exempted? Either it will be all right
Tor them to refuse, or else it's all wrong
for the road TO be exempted. One horn
or the other of the dilemma we must
take We cannot make hesh of one
corporation, and fish of another.
We submit to the legislature whether
il is craftsmanship to demoralize the
whole public sentiment OF the State
with such an example OF discrimina-
ton. And we say to the members now,
that though their motives may be as
immaculate as the driven snow itself.
in passing that Odious bill, yet the peO-
Lle of the State will never believe it,
and never believing will never forgive.
twill be regarded, if not a crime, as
one of those blunders "worse than
crimes" The public feeling is not
going to subside with the passage of
the bill. 1t will only have fairly COM
menced when the full extent and far
reaching consequences OF its oppres-
sive provisions are generally under
stood.
The accumulated fund of the Balti-
more road is now not less than fifteen
millions of dollars, exclusive OF an
manipulated claim against the govern
ment of perhaps two millions. \ very
considerable portion of this immense
surplus, perhaps more than one third
OF it, was accumulated during the war
and that too Notwithstanding the heavy
and almost incessant losses, and pro-
tracted interruptions, experienced by
the company. If the road could thus
earn during three years OF the war an
average net profit on its whole capital
stock OF tt0enty-three per cent, notwith-
standing all the disasters to which IL
was subjected, what may we not ex-
pect its profits to be within the next
ten years? Its shares gutOe to-day at
lis, several per cent. higher than those
OF the Pennsylvania Central, and verv
considerably above that of the New
York Central, the most mammoth con-
Germ in the country.
The road asks everything from the
State and grants comparatively
nothing. 1t demands and receives pro-
lection in our courts for every infringe
ment, and at the expense too, of the
public treasury. Should mob of la
borers at any time assail it, the mob
must be quelled at an expense, per-
haPs, of the whole $4,000, which the
road proposes to pay the State each
year. It may cost the State that sum
in any year to prosecute and subsist
criminals guilty of fraud or force upon
the Company. Not only is the balance
thus heavily against the State in the
way OF liability, but see how unequal
ly, also, it is against the people direct
ly. The local rates charged are high.
and yery considerably highar than tha