The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1882-02-22

IT that has yet been heard from the
opposition. In expressing this opin
ion, ! merely voice the Judgment o.
some of the most capable critics in
the State.
Some public men never improve
Their first year is a fair type of all
succeeding ones. They learn just Sc
much of parliamentary law as enable
them to get local bill through, and
there they stop-willing to go on in
sort of quiet slip-shod fashion the
fbalapce.of their legislative existence.
Senator Wooafloes not belong to
l'that class 0nss be other iiasl ass
continually improving, makinghim-
self, year after year and week after
week, by dint Of study and watchful.
ness, more and more efficient. He is
a growing man, in the intellectual
sense of the term.
Entering the political arena, years
after the war, he is fortunate in hav-
ing no old fogy prejudices to over
come. He is Democrat, but a pro
gressive Democrat, fully alive to the
spirit of the times. Liberal in all
of his views, there is no danger Of
his ever becoming a moral fanatic or
a political bigot,
He is ambitious-but not conceit-
ed. He works for cause like a
bearer, but does it without making
himself conspicuously oflicious. l
predict for him a useful and success
ful pubic career-the less brilliant,
bec><se useful and successful.
Like all young men of talent, he is
ardent and enthusiastic in his friend
ships.
Like his colleague, he cannot be
seduced from watching the rights
and interests of the people, by the
honeyed words of the lobbyists, or
the Establishments of the selfish cap
italist. This was never more strik-
ingly shown by both, than last week
in the Senate, when a bill to revise
the charter of the city of Wheeling,
came up for consideration.
This bill sought to take from the
people of Wheeling, without their
consent, the right, which they had
long enjoyed, of choosing by election
the heads of certain important de-
partments, such as the Water Works,
streets, &c, and confer the same
upon the City Council. The only
apology offered for such an innova.
ton on the rights Of the people, was
the bad condition Of the streets and
water works under the present man
agement; but no assurance was, or Of
course could be given, that any i'm
provement under The new plan, ex-
cept mere conjectures of what might
be, or could be. In fact, it appeared
that these departments were already
under the supervising direction and
management of committees appoint
ed by Council, and, therefore, were
not likely to be bettered by taking
from the people the right to choose
superintendents, working under the
direction Of council committees, and
handing over the whole thing to the
Council. The whole plan, when
studied, seemed to be nothing more
than desperate effort, to run a city
at the cost of the consumers of gas,
water and the other necessaries of
life, to the saving Of large property
holders, by throwing q heavier bur-
den of taxation upon the tenant
than upon the landlord. The curl
Gus thing about the plan, was, that
even should it result in running the
water works more economically than
at present, the saving was to go, not
to the reduction of the water tax, but
to The bettering of the streets, &C.
Under the present charter, property
can only be taxed fifty cents on the
one hundred dollars-a sum INSULT
cient to run any city of size properly.
One would naturally think that, if
the people of Wheeling, really desir,
ed to better the condition of their
streets, public buildings, &C., they
would seek to have their charter SO
revised as to raise the maximum
limit Of taxation. But this didn't
suit the very wealthy, so that class
readily favored the revision, spoken
of above-hoping, thereby, without