Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1882-12-17

be was made member Of the Special Com.
mittee on Transportation Routes to the
Seaboard.
Naturally, the duties and inquiries Of
that Committee were entirely congenial to
him, because it brought him to the practi-
cal consideration OF grave national prob
lem with which his active career before he
entered upon politics had made him famil-
lar. In the long series of inquiries made
by that committee, in New York, Philadel-
phia, Chicago and other cities, he had a
leading part, and he impressed the mer-
chants, financiers and railroad men of the
nation with the fact that he was entirely
aware of the gravity of the subject with
which he was dealing. Indeed, py common
consent Of the members of the committee
and the public, he was placed second to none
charged with this important investigation
in the efficiency of the service rendered. The
report on the files Of the Senate shows, IN
its conclusions, the marks Of his work, al
though he did not write it. The sound
judgment and practical knowledge of Mr..
Davis had much to do in leading the com.
mittee to its conclusions, and II is there
fore natural that these are based upon no
fayoritism to any sectional or especial
business interest, but upon the best at
tainable improvements of the means of
transportation for the good of the whole
people. No subject that has been before
Congress in recent years, has been more
important than this, and it well that
Mr.. Davis was called to give it his
practical business knowledge, his
honesty of purpose, and his strict
impartiality between conflicting interests
and schemes that were constantly knock.
ing at the door of the committee, demand
ing recognition and Government assist
ance. The service of Mr.. DAVIS was so con-
spicuous that it gained him, at the very
threshold Of his career in the Senate, the
friendship and respect of such leading
characters as Thurman, Conkling, Bsyard,
WIndon and other prominent men of both
political parties, a regard that has since
grown with every association. / refer to
this valuable work of Senator Davis, be-
cause it was the first important demand
that was made upon him after his elevation
to the highest legislative honors in the
Nation, and because it fixed his position
among his associates, and gave another ev-
idence Of the fact that he is one Of those
naturally gifted men whom each duty of
life educates to its fulfillment. This type
Of man more than balances in the scale OF
life the educated theorist, who often gets
weak, rather than strong, under the strains
of every day practical experience,
The services o. NJ NJ Davis on the COM
mittee on Transportation Routes to the
Seaboard were not only valuable in fixing
his position with the leading men OF the
nation, but they we're profitable to his
State; for it gave him the prestige to ap.
peal with greater force and success for
legislation in which it had direct interest.
1t first bore its most profitable fruit in the
aid to the Great Kanawha, and think it is
the judgment of all fair-minded people that
his influence with the men who shaped the
action of the two Houses of Congress in
those days secured to the waterways of
West Virginia many of the ample sppro-
priations that were granted for their i'm
provement.