The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1897-02-10
CnAn1EsroN- Feh ath. 1897,

EIeaSanC aCno 1ar udy. VI.
CHAR1EsroN, Feb 9Th. 1897.
The bill to establish a State Ag,
ricultural Society, has been defeat
ed, and the farmers pet measure is
no more. The politicians killed
the measure.
The man in the Legislature who
does what one:doesnt believe in, is
a fraud and a delusion; but if he
does what one advocates oneself,
he is statesman.
BY virtue of bill passed by the
Legislature the Both of May will
be public holiday, and the sale of
liquor will be suspended on that
occasion.
While we believe that white men
should do the legislation for this
State, yet we are bound to say that
the negro delegate Payne from
Fayette county, is the brightest
man, intellectually on the Repub-
lican side of the House, and would
be the leader of the party if it were
not for his color. He has but lit
tie chance to display himself for
his colleagues do all they can to
keep him in the background.
Saturday the time of the Legis-
lature was taken up in discussing
the bill forming the new county of
Augusta. The chances are that
the bill will be defeated.
The House has built kind of
trocha, something after the fash
ion of Weyler, in Cuba, but not on
SO large scale, and is "a "dead-
line" that lobbyists must not cross;
but like the Cubans they step
through it anyhow, and several are
now soon to be court-martialed
and deprived of the privileges of
the floor and galleries.
Advocates of the valued fire in
surance policy bill, are very much
put out at the action of the SEN
ate Committee in turning the bill
down, but it is dead, dead, and there
is no resurrection for it during this
session.
The question of anchoring the
Supreme Court permanently at the
State Capitol is again before the
Legislature. 1t has been before
many preceding sessions, but the
friends of Wheeling and Charles
town, where sessions of the court
are held under the present-law,
have been able heretofore to bring
sufficient influence to bear on the
Legislature to defeat it. AT this
session the friends of the measure
seem to be more confident than
ever of getting the bill through.
The Legislature will not be able
to dispose of third of the business
before it, before the constitutional
time of forty-five days arrives.
IF the Legislature really wants
to do something to distinguish
itself acknowledgements it to pass
a bill which shall exempt from tax
alton all real estate that is al
ready mortgaged to its full value
and in stead put the tax upon
the mortgage. In that way
the burden of taxation would
fall where it properly belongs, upon
the man who practically owns the
property.
The perfunctory manner in
which = our Legislators discharge
their responsibilities receives a
striking illustration in the passage
of bill through both houses, of
the provisions of which it isabund-
antly evident those who gave it
complete endorsement are totally
ignorant. The measure in ques-
ton was introduced in the Senate
by Senator Fast and ostensibly
aims only at a regulation of the
liquor traffic and word cigarette is
not even mentioned init, yet itspas-
sage clearly carries with it the
repeal of the tax on cigarettes. 1t
must be supposed that is notthe OBJ
ject of our sapient lawmakers, and