The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-12-09
aoaNHEFILNG, EST VA. .WEDNEsDAy MORNING, DE

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no reason for exenptfng one and no
the other. He held that the Virginia
construction ofie'sednal and uniform
taxation" on. property, viz: that thert
should be no taxation on property by
counties because some laid heRVie
lsvies than others, could not prevail
under our Constitution, because oul
counties b had an pndo doubted right tota1
property within their limits. There
RSSuldi GO, be noquestign about theirright
1he question was as TO the expedi iehcy
he had once thought that Ii. might bt
ipjudicious to lay county taxes, but
under our system 1t was bothsright anC
necessary, for a great many ,officefl
whose salaries used TO be paid by the
State, are now paid from the county
treasury, and the treasury has TO bt
supplied. He was in favor of retaining
the law of 1853, and assessing railroad
property according TO Ills value. The
fixed value proposed By The Committee
might be too. great for someJ roads land
too small for others. If IL should be
found after a fair trial that the present
law had, J, as claimed, the effect TO dis.
courage railroad enterprise. 1t would be
time enough to change it when thatfacl
had been shown. AS yet he considered
1t had not beenshown.
MR!RiDDuR faV ored the ptOpositiOn OF
the COMMITTEES, except that 5ila would
strike out all taxation for counties, ias
Mr.. Ferguson proposed, aud distribute
about one-fifth OF the tax received to
the counties through which the road
passes, for the support of schools. The
present law had been in existence five
years and had not produced the State
one dollar. This was proof thai the Hw
was impolitic, incorrect and unjust. II
the sticklerA for the Constitution had
their way. they would have to otta <
the farmers young stock and gothcr
things now not assessed. BE thought
the Legislature had power 10 fix a
standard OF Ealuet audit ought toi- <
such a one as could be carried into eff.
feet. There was "policy in war" and.
ought to be in law He had no constitu-
tfonal difficulty in this matter. Il the
Baltimore d Ohio Railroad were to be
taxed, they would add jusS that much
moteto their charges ,and the people of
the, State would thus have 1t to opay.
MIR. HERvEY observed that the whole
discussion had been carried on as If
there were but one road in The State.
the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He
reminded themithefe were Others, but
he did not know that any OF them were
here pressing this proposed change OF
law. he wanted to know Ifthe Balti-
more & Ohio Railroad had an agent in
the House, and II SO, who it was, and
ill!u6 WAS &ubnUElGful ~ 6HrhEA .AoAl bh6b
company 3 He tho ught thereiwas none.
Then why were pleas in Its behalf so
persIstentlY pressed on the House. The
question was, shonld the Legislature
grant exemptions to RAILROAD nPFoPerty
they would notgranstogo others9i Every
man who owned e dollar or an7acre of
ground had a direct interest in The 30
1ntion of the question, Were they pre-
pared osdeclare the1afirmatiYsh He
IgasInot. "A railroad company WAS a
great bugaboo oson1e persons. "A rail-
road com pahy wAs simply an ipc9rpo-
rated association for business, just like
any other corporations ItswaH the crsa-
tuTe oflawj it was not aud dneyer should
be the master of the law ma klng power.
Itshould have just The same rights, and
no others, accorded TO. any other prop
erty owners. Gentlemen say railroads
are public beneiactors. They do what
they dofor theirown benefit. They cons
struct roads to make money, and for
no other purpose, and do make money.
All business enterprises are Of pnblio
benefit, bal must they, therefore be eS-,
empt from taxatIon2 sR DO ssEcI5ilEJ i
The hour of adjournment arrived be
fore MIR. HeiYey had concluded his re-
marks, and he gave way tor an ad-
iOuTnment,