Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-03-24
HOW MUCH AND How WEST vIR-
CHINA WILL PAY.

CHINA WILL RA1.
We ask the REGISTER whether 1t Is
willing to advocate the payment by
West Virginia of even ene-tenth Of the
debt Of the two States as 1t existed at
the time of their partition? We don't
want that sterotyped answer, "We are
willing to pay all that we justly owe"
That has been repeated in the hearing
Of the northern people for yeara. 10
means "nothing"-literally nothing, as
we understand it. Now, will our
friend of the REGISTER please tell US
how many millions West Virginia
owes-how many millions he Is willing
to advocate the payment of?-whether,
in fact, he is willing to come out for
paying even five millions OF the debt OF
the two States as 1t existed in lS7l?-
Richmond Dispatch.
The financial methods Of Virginia are
peculiar, and the above interrogatory
oft Dispatch Is in keeping with the
eccentric character Of these character
istie methods.
To illustrate, the situation is this: A.
and B. have been partners in business.
They dissolve partnership, leaving the
accounts between them unsettled. b.
acknowledges that he is probably in
debted to A, and desires settlement
of accounts. He says to A: desire
to ascertain what owe you, and am
"willing to pay all justly owe" let US
settle up our business. A. refuses to
confer with B. about 8 settlement. He
even refuses to allow him access to the
books of the firm to ascertain for him.
self the amount of his Indebtedness.
B. insists, and repeatedly urges settle
ment; pursues his partner with profers
Off friendly adjustment of their ac-
counts; sends his agents to effect the
same end; to all of which A. turns
deaf ear, and diseourteously refuses to
have any conference, to consider any
proposition, or TO ALLOW any statement
of accounts to be made between them.
This continues to be the situation for
a number of years, when A, being head
over ears in debt, issues and distributes
to mis- creditors, about fifteen or twenty
millions, more or less, of orders drawn
on his partner B., purporting to repre-
sent the amount of b. Indebtedness to
the late firm.
AS B. has never been permitted to
have access to the books and papers Of
the firm, and their business had extend
ed through long series OF years, and
involves large amounts of money, he
very naturally rejects this one sided
mode of adjusting their liabilities, re-
jects also the bogus orders issued against
him as primG tdcie proof of AS dis
honesty and desire to defraud him, as
well as to defraud the creditors of the
firm, and very properly, as well as from
necessity, remains passive while await
ing AS disposition to accord a business
like settlement, and continuing be-
times to remind him that B. is now, al
ways has been, and always will be
ready ito pay all he justly owes"
Now comes the Dispatch, after some
twenty years of delay and refusal on
the part of A. to enter into settle
ment, and speaking for A, makes this
singular concession :-"Virginia "arbi-
trarily saddled" one-third of the debt
Of the two States upon West Virginia.
The portion was, We cOncede, too large.
1t ought to have been. about one-fifth,
ornine millions of dollars in 1871. This
sum, with interest, would by this time
amounted to over fifteen millions of
dollars" Andt the Dispatch, still speak
ing for -Virginia-wants b. to say
now, whether he is willing to come out
and acknowledge that he owes "eyen
five millions of dOllarsw
Well, under the circumstances, we
would say, that B. would be fool if he
did. He would be a fool if he admitted
any Indebtedness without an eXamina-
ton of the books. He would be fool
if he did not perceive and nccept as
conclusive the fact that AS refusal to
settle by the books was adHliberate, de-
termined and desperate attempt to de-
fraud him. He would be a fool if he
made any concessions, compromises or
conditions of any kind that did not in
clude and require an accurate, careful
and businesslike exploration of the
books Of the firm, and a settlement
based on the most precise business and
legal principles-and until A. has con-
coded that much b. will stand before
the world free from any just suspicion
%. nhnrrrn nithnr Of dnht mr. Aishnnnr