Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-06-19
AN Ep,ro.IAL rnvssrraArIos.


the Legislature the editor Of the Intef-
Rqeneer, after having exhausted every
ether source of attack among the instr
sntions Of West Virginia, turned MS AZ
tention to the University with a view
of also modifying and reforming IL %
suit his own peculiar notions OF how an
educational institution should be run.
He wanted an investigation of the
University. He sounded loud the hew-
gag, beat the tom-toms in and about
the Legislative halls, and called lusti-
" for a Legislative Committee to
fall in line and march upon the Uni
versity for an investigation.
1--WE must investigate! we must III
ycstigate! or we must perish" was the
unfortunate battle cry with which the
atmosphere about the HteQigencer
Office was disturbed with each recur-
ring lit of this University nightmare.
The Legislature looked into the mat
ter very considerably, and determined
that it was not worth the while nor the
money for a legislative committee to
journey to the University for the sole
purpose of ~aseertaining whether or not
the biography of CHARLES SUMNER
was contained in the University library
that being the gTavamen Otthe charge.
The Legislature having disagreed
with the editor of the hteHigencer as to
the necessity or propriety of any formal
investigation of this institution, that
editor proceeded to make one for him.
self. He has journeyed out to the seat
of the University in person. He
has made lis investigation
and his report in person.
1t ought therefore to be reliable. 1t
certainly ought to contain everything
of an adverse character that could be
said about the University. We find
the report published over the initials Of
the editor. We presume that it is gen.
uiue. We presume that it is also COM
plete. We have read it carefully and
CONSIDERABLY, and although it covers a
column and a half Of that paper, We
defy any critical reader to extract any
thing more or less from it than Is on
tanned in the following paragraph,
which may be properly call
ed the text of the report:
AS | sat in the Chapel Hall, listening
TO the young men delivering their ora
tons, the Regents were in full view.
They might we'll have been taken for
a Democratic caucus. Not a Republi-
can among them almost without eX-
ception Democratic politicians. There
are thirteen of these functiOnaries. II
occurred to me that at least one Re-
publican would have been a pleasing
variation of that oppressive mOnOtony.
\ Democrat, who believes that the par
tisan administration of the University
is hurtful 10 the University and to the
party, said, "There ought 10 be a. least
five Republicans out of thirteen Re-
gents
This paragraph, We say, is the germ
and gist of the report of this editorial
investigation. 1t is turned Eel and
wei and put in various aspects in order
to strike the prejudiees ola variety of
readers, but that paragraph is the re.
port.
Now, we are at at a loss to determine
whether the investigation damages the
institution as much as it damages the
investigation. We had supposed that
there might De i'm the con-
duct Of the institution that would open
up to the eye Of AN investigator whose
purpose ws.s to stab it, something
which he would not hesitate to
use to its injury. But if
the critical eye of the editorial inves-
tigstor has discovered nothing more
than that one o fthe institutions OF the
State for which a Democratic admins
tration is made responsible is being
managed and governed III large part
by party friends of that administra-
ton, and-in the absence,ofany proofto
the cOntrary-presumptively we'll man
aged and governed, We think tn pub
lie will be satisfied with the investigl-
tion, if not with the spirit and purpose
of the investigator. His purpose APP
pears to be no other than to destroy the
patronage and usefulness Of one of
the States institutions unless
it can be restored to the exclusive con-
troll and management of his party
friends and followers, as it once was;
but the public, We opine, will be slo to
appreciate or concur in a scheme which
proposes, as a means of reform, the pol
icy of "rule or ruin'-which proposes
only as a corrective o fthe complaint of
partisan management, that its manage
ment be transferred from one political
rarty to another; and that, in short, it
be Republican party management IN
stead of Democratic management.
In all csndOr We say to the ambitious
ed tor Of the htsVigeRccr that as au
investigator of the public institutions of
does not pan out. We would be glad
to assist him in any substantial re-
forms that might be suggested for the
University or any other n of the pub
lie institutions, but We are opposed to
~suhjecting these institutions, and es-
p~eeially the University, to the damag-
ing and disastrous influences and effects
ola political scramble for mere party
control, which he is seeking to inaugu-
rate.
A FORMIDABLE REVENUE MEAS