The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-12-08
WHEEJING w. VA TUESDAY MORNING. DECEMBER 8. 1863

but there il no such cost in handling
your State bonds.
And here is another commentary on
this article of the Constitution, made
by legislature, many of whose MEM
bers were the same men that made the
Constitution. The sessions acts OF
1864, page %, prescribe that insurance
and express companies shall pay into
the State Treasury three per cent. on
their receipts, not on their capital
stock. Now, this sanctions the very
principle that l advocate for rail-
roads, for you will recollect
that this 8 per cent. was paid into the
State Treasury. And as this is charged
to be all for the Baltimore & Ohio road,
/ shall take that road as an illustration.
Now SOC on the Sl00, at S35, 900 per mile,
at par value, would pay into the State
treasury $4,000 year, but that road
runs through sixteen counties, and it is
not extravagant to say it goes through
two townships in each of these counties,
where they levy SOC on the 500, for
each township, which altogether would
be $3.50, 900 a year. But you say, in an
swer to this, 1--WE have the road, and
it can't help itself" But suppose you
didn't have the road, l ask you, under
this principle, could you ever get itl
Now your policy is bad one because
it discoursges the building of railroads,
and consequently the improvement of
the State. The taxes levied on road
is not all that the road pays into the
| treasury. Let US take seven counties,
our best, lying along the line of the
Chesakeake and Ohio road, aud you will
find that they contain 1858 600 acres,
valued at S4 per acre; and take seven
counties lying along the line of the
Baltimore aud Ohio road, you will find
that they contain 1,796,O00 acres, and
are valued atrS7 .12a per acre.
Now would like to see any man who
has travelled through these two sections
who will say the counties along the
Baltimore and Ohio road bear any
comparison in real value to the seven
counties along the otter line. Why,
sir, give US that road, and our lands
will be assessed at $40 per acre. Why,
Just take the county of Kanawhs, with
her rich soil, her salt, her slate, her iron
ore aud her various qualities and mex
haustible quantities of coal, and give us
that road, and instead of 81 per acre,
she could pay tax on five times that
much; aud this seven counties, instead of
S45, 900, could pay 100000.
The seven counties on the Baltimore
and Ohio road have reached their high
est capacity for paying taxes, but our
section can be made three, yes, ten times
it's present capacity.
We have the finest timber in the
world for ship building and for every
purpose, all to be made valuable by a
policy encouraging internal improve
ment.
Then gentlemen may say what they
please This Legislature has a perfect
right to say that this road shall be taxed
for State and not for county purposes.
The Baltimore and Ohio railroad offered
the State of Virginia, to let them build
the Chesapeake and Ohio road, fifty
cents on every passenger, and they
would not do it, and made them build
it here.
Mr.. WEIGH thought it his duty to
say something for his constituents upon
the important question of taxation.
He did not believe, as insinuated by the
gentleman from Cabell, that it was the
purpose or intention of this Legislature
to impose onerous burdens upon or pur-
sue "vicious course to ards the b. &
O. r. R." or any other corporation in or
out of the State; but that il was legis
lating only for the public veal. He ad
mitted that railroads, together with all
other public improvements, are needed
to develop the resources of the State.
He could not, however, support the
proposition to take from the counties
through which the railroads passed
their right to collect taxes from such
railroad any more than he would sup
port a proposition to take from them
their unQuestioned right to tax any
other species of property held, used and
enjoyed bv other corporations located
therein. He thought that the people
whom he had the honor to represent
paid well flor all the accommodation that
thew obtaiaed from the railroad, and if
their lands were enhanced in valne
thereby. they were taxed accordingly.
1t was not, in his Judgment, proper to
tax railroads upon the actual cost of
their construction, and the Legislature
should adopt system that would be in
telligible as well as practicable, so as to
avoid any discrepancies in the assess
ments of Railroads. Pro bono publicO
should be the object of all legislation.
| This question of taxation was one that.
always should command the utmost
care and attention of the legis-
lator who had to act upon
its solution. The people demand, as is
their sovereign right, that equality and
impartiality shall govern their Legis-
lature in disposing OF this subject. He
would never vote for the enactment in
to law of such an unequal scheme as
that proposed in the pending motion
to amend, made by the gentleman from
. Cabell.
! Mr.. STEERE said, that although the
gentleman from Cabell frswned upon
all who, out of a sense of their duty
to the public, deigned to confront and
oppose his peculiar measures, yet he
(STEERE), a junior member of the
| Ho.se, with due Difference TO the older
and more experienced, proposed to
speak to the question under cons dera-
ton, however crude or Objectionable
| to hat wonderfully sagacious gentleman
Referring to the development of the
resources of the State, he said that he
had observed something Of the conduct
of this great corporation, the BaltimO e
& Ohio railroad, in dealing with the
people of West Virginia, and he was
we'll warranted in asserting that it was
one continuous discrimination against
the development of the resources of
that part of the State through which 1t
passes.
In its magnanimi'y (O it only charged
the Wheeling merchant and manufac
turer the same fr'ights on fourth class
shipments from Eastern cities as the
Cincinnati shipper paid on the same
class from the same points, although
the distance was more thsn 2U0 miles
greater to the latter city! The gentle
man from Cabell had made many propo-
sitious that we're glaringly absurd to
any person who understood the man
agement AID policy of this road, but
very few logical deductions. He had
placed himself in a singular position
before this House, by asserting that he
would not favor the plan of taxation
proposed if he was not Interested, and
that he wished members to know that
in taking this road they taxed his road.
Mr. EITREITSON N(interrnntinoN asksd