Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1885-04-09
How Water Rents Should be Paid.

Az Ns @NFS y wv 49,
SrR-In your Sunday issue, you editor,
tally suggest the propriety and necessity OF
Council providing by ordinance for the col
lection Of water rents from those who W
the property, instead of the tenant, who
may chance to occupy it. Some years ago
| made this suggestion to Council in the
columns of the REGISTER. | laid down the
proposition, and | believe that seventy-fve
ont of every hundred of the citizens Of
Wheeling will accept it as q rational and
Just one, that no citizen should be specially
texed, separate and apart from other city
axes, with the water he consumes. 1t l
am correctly informed, two dollars and fifty
cents is the rental value now levied on every
consumer whose house rents for one hun.
dred dollars, or more annually, and then an
additional fifty cents on each member OF the
family.
Whilst it is true, hat the poor live in
cheaper tenements than the rich. and pay
less water rents on property, yet it is equal
" true, that more than two thirds of our
population are made up Of mechanics and
laborers, and consequently pay more water
taxes in this way than those who live in
$500 and $500 houses. | think the water
tax books will show this fact. If this be
true, it follows that the poor pay more water
taxes than the rich, and are therefore en-
titled to redress at the hands OF Council.
The question raised by these premises is,
how shall the needed relief be secured?
There are two remedies. The first is:
Abolish the water tax entirely, as a separ.
.azl 49, ,nl oo1loot &C tha rao1 and nar-
sonal property of all, both rich and poor
alike, fund necessary to maintain an ELI.
cient condition OF the water department.
THE would relieve the poor to a great ex.
tent, and compel those who W real
estate to pay a tax they don't pay now.
This plan would be making taxation uni.
form and just, as provided in the State
constitution.
As already intimated, the poor man, in
his monthly ten dollars shsnty, hardly fit
for q human to live in, with his eight, ten
or dozen children, pays his Sc or So water
taxes, while there are property owners with
no family at all, pays no water rent, or if
any, but a dollar or two. Ny own judge.
ment is that w should pay no water taxes
at all, but that the water we use should be
as free as the air we breath, as the Creator
intended it. Let US tax something else,
but not the water we drink and use for the
indispensable purposes Of life. The Creator
made light, air and water free for all his
creatures, and they are ready for use Just as
they come from the hands Of Him who
created them. Not so with anything else
in the world. Man should not be taxed
with the water he drinks, the air he breaths,
nor the sunlight he enjoys. (Air is the
only thing he is not taxed with
Another remedy is the one proposed by
you, to-wit: Tax the real estate with the
water rents and let the landlords add it in
their rents.
While this would secure the city, and, if
we have to pay for the water we use in our
homes, why, l agree with you that. in order
to make the city secure, landlords should
pay the water taxes, and this is the only
way to reach it.
This should have been done long ago by
Council, but the Council of our city moves
slowly, like all great bodies, and after a
thing is out of its grasp, it then begins to
make a move for it. The people of this
city pay too much for the water they use,
and if we have to pay for it at all, dispense
With the taxing of men, women aud chill
dren, and take the real estate, as it is done
in other cities. Free water, free air aud
free sunlight o rall, is my idea exactly.
FREE WATER.