Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1898-12-11
TnE TOLL QUESTION.

Does the city ring think they
can fool the free toll people OF the city
OF Wheeling with the report made By
one OF them In your issue Of the aboya
date? II they do they. are OF their
eggs. The citizens of Wheeling won I
have II that way. They are not count
ing the cost and trouble in this mat
ter. as the ring wants to make it APP
pear, but they intend to do what is
right towards the residents and tax
payers of the Seventh ward and also
the citizens of this community who
may want to visit any of their friends
who reside on the Island Seventh
ward) by making the bridge or bridges
as you choose to style 1t, free to horse,
mare or gelding. We as citizens have
no fight to make with the bridge COM
panieS, but we want the privilege to
pass from ward to ward without pay
ing toll, as the people of the Seventh
ward are compelled to do, to get to
and from their homes. We respectfully
ask the citizens of the city of Wheel
ing, when they go to the polls in jan
uary next, to so cast their vote that
they pledge their Councilmen to vote
first, last and all the time to give every
citizen, whether he be rich or poor, the
right to pass from one ward to another
without being stopped by a toll-taker.
How would you. citizens of the Fifth,
Sixth and Eighth wards, feel if. when
you came up to the creek bridge, you
would be stopped and some one would
say toll here; and likewise the cit
liens of the First, Second. Third and
Fourth wards, should any of their citi-
zens going to the Fifth ward market
when they would get to the creek
bridges, some one would say, "Toll
here!" and it would be in the power
of the Seventh ward to take the toll
takers off of those bridges? What
would you think of the citizens of the
Island should they refuse? Think of
the injustice now being done to the
citizens of the Island, who have to pay
taxes just in proportion as every other
part of the city, and Just think once
more, should all the creek bridges wash
away, the taxpayers Of the Seventh
ward would have to pay in proportion
to put them back. Why shouldn't the
city of Wheeling provide the Island
Seventh ward) citizens the same
rights and privileges as other wards In
said city, as they all pay taxes alike or
should?
From the report of the City Solic-
itor one would infer that the city Coun-
Gil could not grant her citizens any
relief, the laws all being against the
people, but they Fcan find laws and
plenty of them that will allow the city
fathers to give away the rights and
property of their citizens to the street
railway and other corporations. For
instance, not so long ago that every
one who reads the daily papers knows
the city's property was given to
the La Belle Tin Plate Company, which
corporation is now idle, taking stock
which will include the property given
them by the City Council of Wheeling
poration will receive and divide quite
a sum of money for the aforesaid
property, for which they did not pay
the taxpayers one cent. The present
City Solicitor drew that ordinance, and
you can bet it will hold water, for il
rs against the taxpayers. And by the
way, it may never turn a wheel again
as the United States Glass Company
did; but the Tin Trust will sell il
back to the city OF Wheeling If they
can get their price and don't want tC
hold it any longer, having reduced
their wage-earners to the lowest ebt
possible.
The City Solicitor goes on with a
long harangue about what we. can,
do and winds up by saying
think. it will be clear thai
it is beyond the power OF munic'
ipal CORPORATIONS, and particularly. the
city of Wheeling. Therefore u order
to obtain this power it would be neces,
sary to obtain legislative grant, ant
then says the Legislature has no such
authority (being restrained by the
constitution to grant to the city o.
Wheeling a right ito erect such bridge
If toll is to be charged for vehicles
crossing the same Does the City So
people who are asking for free toll are
expecting to pay toll foot or on horse.
back? If he does he is sadly mistaken
| here repeat what | said earlier In
thi4article We, as citizens of Wheel
ing. want to go from ward to ware
without any one paying toll whether
they are in vehicles or otherwise.
want to say to the people
all of them, you were fooled
by former City Solicitors in the free
toll business on the railroad bridge al
the upper end of the city, and by the
promise of a curb and pavement by the
Rittsburg, Wheeling and Kentucky
Railroad Company, along their retain
ing wall to the ferry landing. In bott
cases the ordinances were drawn by
the City Solicitor, and were so drawn
that neither corporation was compelled
to make good their promises to the
peple. The present City Solicitor, In
his report to the subcommittee or
free bridge, harangues you in lengthy
article, but if you will read it care
fully you will find you are getting
just what former City Solicitors gave
you-nothing. In dealing with the
people, City Solicitors, wheeling City
Solicitors, put me in mind of the
story that is told of the white man
and the Indian who went hunting
When they went to divide the game