Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-12-15
orr NEIGHBOR CORRECTED.

OUR NEIGHBOR CORRECTED
When the esteemed Register is Obliged
to go back more than quarter OF ecu
fury in the effort to offset coInpdI iso 81
the Intelligencer made of two state az
ministrations' business methods IN TINS
day and generation, it is hard up Ior cap
ital.-Intelligencer.
Pardon, neighbor, but you are wrong
again. We do not need to go further
back than the last session OF the late
scandalous Legislature for the purpose
mentioned; while the matter or the
disappearance of the Governors con-
tingent fund is even now current
scandal in the State press.
II has been charged that the Gov
ernor has wasted this fund by charging
I'D against it the expenses of himself
and his respondent and gold-bespan-
gled staff-of which, by the way, the
editor of our esteemed neighbOr, the
Inteligencer. has the distinguished
honor of being a member-on junketlng
trips, of which they have made some
quite expensive ones. This fund was
HOl CIedleu LII Jndt Pun Po0S, o"e ~ PN'
certain charges connected with the ex-
ecutive administration Of the govern
ment, for which no direct appropriation
is made, such, for example, as the ex-
penses for the extradition of criminals,
which, in fact, has always been the
main charge against this fund. Our
Governor, however, had misunder-
standing with the Auditor on this point
and is reported to have made the as
founding declaration that he would is
sue no more acquisitions for criminals
who had escaped to other States If the
charges were to come out of his con-
tingent fund which was exhausted. 1t
was an astounding declaration for the
chief executive of the State to make,
for, if carried out, it meant simply the
throwing open wide of the door to
crime in West Virginia.
This contingent fund Of S12,000-or
$1,000 more than Governor Atkinson's
predecessor was allowed-has been ex-
hausted thus early and the fact has been
the matter of much gossip and scandal
in the State press. This talk is not
creditable to the Governor and it is
bound to go on and to grow unless the
Governor makes public what the people
have right to know, namely, how this
contingent fund has been expended.
To quiet this criticism and to end a
growing scandal the Register has called
upon the Governor to make an itemized
statement of the uses to which this
fund has been put. But the Governor
has declined. There is certainly moth
ing partisan in this request, although
the administration organ says there is
and that the Governor is right in re-
fusing so plain and reasonable request
for information which the people have
a right to demand. The Governors or
gan says: His stewardship, no doubt,
will be accounted for to the people Of
the State in the proper way and at the
proper time, as is becoming to the dig
nifty of his high Office" This is mere
evasion. Where and at what proper
time will the Governor make this dis
closure? Why is the present not the
most proper time? And is it "becom-
ing to the dignity of his high office" to
disregard the demands of those who
chose him as a servant? Verify. upon
what meat doth this, our Caesar feed
that his dignity hath grown so great
and his office so high as to render him
unaccountable to the people at all
times?