The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1872-12-14
GheQ1tte4i9eteHr:
Tho Printing Committees Report.

We have not vexed the readers Of our
columns. with any discussions Of the
Printing Frauds" since the appointment
Of the Committee by the last Legislature
TO investigate them. Wopropose nothing
more than o brief allusion to them now.
When the present Printer was detected
last winter in his work Of wholesale
plunder, we furnished Ia our columns
some specimens oil his operations as ex.
posed in the Legislature. His revenge
was to charge his predecessors with
offences in the same line greater than his
own, he even being at the pains to tele.
graph his monstrOus lies all over the
country. We declined to handy epithets
with the dirty villain, and proposed 10
await the investigation and report Of the
committee, That report we lay before
our readers, having received an authentic
copy only yesterday. Since it was made
to the Legislature, WALLER, while dc.
laying its appearance, has been busy un.
der the guise of correspondent in the
Register, writing over another persons
initials, trying to impeach the motives Of
the committee and break the force OF
their conclusions, lying most outrageously
all the while as 10 the report, the deIibcr-
stions OF the committee, the amount Of
work done by him, and in all other direc.
tions where he thought it possible to
throw an anchor TO windward.
So far Ls the investigation is concerned,
Mr.. WALKERS predecessor did not at any
time trouble himself about it. lie did not
attend any sitting Of the committee or
send a witness or expert before ii; nor
communicate with the committee; nor, in
word, have anything to do with it di-
rect or remote. The committee weRt on
in their own way as completely without
interference or suggestion from him as if
he had no concern in their deliberations.
We mention this because Mr.. WALKER
takes elaborate pains to charge the CON-
mittee with constantly discriminating in
favor Of Mr.. FREw against himself. Why
should they do so? Four of the five were
Mr. WALKERS political friends, and four
Of them were appointed at his own sug.
geslion, and they were constantly subject
to his opportunities during the investiga.
lion. 1t would be strange if they did not
10 him justice.
1t appears from the Committees report
hat Mr.. FREw in an incumbeucy of five
icars, having in that tine executed work
or the State aggregating nearly one hun.
lrcd thousand dollars in value, made ap.
parent overcharges amounting to $4l2. |
But the Committee fiud numerous un-
lcrcharges, and they seems to have
been in doubt, whether, if the mat
Ter Of undcrcharges had come within the
scope Of their investigation, the balance
would bot have been in his favor, and
exoneratO him from any intent
Of fraud.
In the accounts Of Mr.. WALKER for less
than year the committee find charges
in excess Of the lawful rates amounting
to nine thousand three hundred dollars
This in a single year is too much to ad.
nit Of any theory Of error or Inadvcrt.
ence, Mr.. WALKER asserts that the work
on which these overchsrges occur amount.
cd to $4,000. We are confident that at
the lawful prices it is q good deal less
than half that; but il Mr.. Walker is cor.
rect in this, it is worth noting that it cost
Tho State more for printing in less than
one year under his management than 1t
did in two years and "a half under his
predecessor, including the Code.