Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-10-06

; try, and as destructive to foreign COM
merce under our.national flag. The de-
cay OF our carrying trade, ship building
and fisheries, asEell as our loss of the
prestige on the ocean, is the result OF
the high taxation, direct and indirect,
which mistakes policy has loaded on
much revenue b raised. and that the
weight OF LIBERALIZATION falls unequally
on the laboring snd middle interests OF
the country. Further, that
Tonnage Duties Imposed Upon American
Vessels
should be abolished. The drawback
law for ship building, now imperative
for useful purposes, should be remodeled
to give practical felief against the wrong.
ful depression Of ship building by taxa
ton which it CONDEMNS. We reiterate
our faith in the ability of American ship
masters and sailor and ship builders to
compete with skheir mates of any
nation in the carrying trade wherever
the load OF local nd federal taxation
shall be removed from the men and
ships that float odr flag. We ask not
bounties, but We do demand that Con-
gressshaIl give our commerce living
chance upon the ocean.
We declare our fixed purpose, so
soon as the Democrats shall have con-
trolling power in the national admins
tration, that the civil service be simpli.
fed and reduced from its present over
grown and corrupting proportions, that
appointments be regulated by law and
removed as far from personal favoritism
and political patronage as possible, and
that subordinate civil officers shall
know and feel that during their prescrib-
ed tsrm Of service they owe all to their
country and nothing TO party chiefs,
while they shall also know ana feel that
they cannot any more than Senators
and Representatives, fasten themselves
as permanent
Life Burdens on the Body Politic.
We concede that the disorders pro-
duced by the excessive use of alcoholic
stlmulants are Of character properly
cognizible by the Government,
but in our judgment the rad
ical remedy by statute prohibit.
ing the manufacture, importation or
commerce in spiritous and malt liquors
is beyond the legitimate reach Of Ioliti-
cal jurisdiction and a trespass on per-
sonal freedom, and condemned as futile
in policy. By decisive tests OF expert.
ence prohibition in its twenty years trial
in this commonwealth, not only failed
to mitigate the vice it attempted to
destroy, but was the parent OF evils
pernicious to good morals. We favor
the regulation OF the conduct OF the
liquor traffic by efficient laws enforced
with vigor. Such laws should be
reasonable in their provisions,
and while not designed merely
to harrsss and injure abiding persons
engaged in the business, yet stringent
enough to effect the supp ession OF the
public vice.
We make no indiscriminate assault
upon corporate capital, the utility OF
which our commercial history Indicates,
but corporate privileges imply correla
tive corporate duties owed by the cor
poration to the public, ths performance
of which il Is the right OF the State to
compel. We believe the Legislature, in
the interest Of the public, should exer-
else vicilant surveillance over corpora.
tons to
Prevent and Reform the Abuse of Their
FIanohises,
and to secure to the people the benefits
contemplated in their incorporation,
and the subject Of Railroad fares and
freights is of intimate concern to all the
people, and is a proper one for inveeti-
CATION and regulation by legislative au-
thority.
We advocate the abolition OF the poll
tax as a prerequisite OF the right to vote
in the commonwealth. We impeach the
Republican Legislature for placing
obstacles in the way of free suffrage and
imposing complicated, troublesome and
time.consuming prerequisites on the
right to vote, Onorous and unjust to
the two hundred thousand working.
men of the State, Intentionally adooted
to encourage officials to neglect their
duty.
After the adoption OF resolutions ex-
pressive of grief at the death OF Gen.
Garfield, the conyention adjourned.