Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-02-11

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CHARLESTON, w. Va, February 10.
Only eleven working days remain of
the legislative session, and it seems i'm
possible that anything approaching the
necessary business can be transacted
in that time. Yet while there is some
talk of an extended session, it seems to
it off al the end of the constitutional
period, leaving undone what has not
by that time been completed, no matter
of what Importance. The appropria-
ton bills have not yet been made up,
and there seems to be no definite time
set for them to be brought in. The fact
is the appropriation bills are the
stumbling block-or more properly
speaking, the question of raising reve-
nue. to meet the appropriation bills, for
that is what is causing the leaders Of
the G. o. p. their days of anxiety and
nights of unrest They know they are
going to have just about so much ap-
preparation to make-that the faithful
from the various communities in which
the several State institutions are locat
ed are going to demand so much, and
tnat If so much is not there in an
swer, trouble will occur. therefore,
they have been engaged in looking
about them for every object that might
by any kind OF trick be made to con-
tribute more than it now contributes,
that these overgrown, but none the less
insistent, demands may be met.
There is going to be
Disappointment and Lots of 1t
in respect of the amount that will be
brought into the State treasury by the
operations of the Dawson corporation
bill, when it becomes law. 1t would
be easy to take the number Of corpora
tions now doing business under West
Virginia charters and figure out what
they will contrIouJe under the new law,
nut for one thing, and that is that no.
body can tell what the capital stock
Oh these various corporations will be
by the time they shave themselves
down to business basis under the new
conditions that will be laid upon them.
Very many corporations never pay in
the full amount of the capital stock
subscribed-many, in fact, never pay in
more than the ten per cent required to
be paid in as a condition precedent to
securing their charters. When these
corporations see the graduated tax
scheme staring them in the face they
will simply take out new charters, put
ting their capital stock at the amount
actually paid in, and getting the adj
vantage of the lower rate of taxation.
Wnere the revenue hunters have been
fondly hoping they would have the
pleasure and the State the profit of
taxing corporations on five hundred
thousand and million dollar capitals,
they will find that there is only one
hundred thousand and fifty thousand
mere is where the disappointment is
going to come in.
There is one Individual, however,
Who VIII Not Suffer
from disappointment on account of the
pinching of these capitalizations. Col.
William NJ. o. Dawson, Secretary of
State, and aide-de-camp, will not care
if all that have been chartered take out
new charters for the purpose of getting
the lowest possible tax rate. Each new
charter issued will mean to him from
seven to twenty-five dollars, and the
Colonel can get along with a big wad
of money, no matter if the State does
go broke.
That is nice little scheme, tipped off
in these dispatches the other night. to
make money by taking out lot of new
charters while they are cheap and hold
ing them until. under the operation of
the Dawson law, they become more
valuable. 1t will require the temper
airy Investment of quite a bunch of
money to pay the fees, but the profit
will be large and comparatively imme-
date.
The Republicans are striving hard
20 create wrong impression in the
minds of the people concerning the tao
ties employed by the majority to delay
the passage OF certain measures. and
the papers of that persuasion have had
much to say regarding the dilatory
tactics pursued. Especially has the
criticism of the daily fight over the
correction of the journal been severe
There have even been some Democrats
VINO hav INDUCED in these animated
adversions upon the members of the
minority. These criticisms are en-
tIrely unjust. The minority has not
INDUCED in dilatory tactics except in
the case OF measures attempted to be
railroaded through in the most out
Tageously highhanded manner. The
course pursued by the majority in the
matter of the Dawson bill would have
stirred any manly man on cath to re-
sentiment. Aside from the fact that it
was such perversion of the funda-
mental principles as to make it the
duty of every man who holds to the
tenets Of the fathers to oppose it to
the last, and to fall fighting against it.
The journal is daily
Loaded Down With Errors.
which the majority refuses to allow to
be corrected, and therefore the minor
ity puts itself on record each day as
voting against recorded lie. What
else could an honest man do? The
Democrats have demanded nothing at
any time but their constitutional rights
and those of their fellows who have
been their critics have criticised them
for doing what they could to preservk
the liberties of the people from tho
who would dispel them; for enteri
the only kind Of protest that -