Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-26
DILLON APPOINTED
Tax Commissionership in
West Virginia Disposed Of.
TERM OF SIX YEARS
REGARDED AS AN IMPORTANT
POLITICAL POSITION.
Contest on Over Appointment of In.
ternal Revenue Collector Gov.
Whites Future Discussed.

WHEELING, w. Va, November 26-Of
the two political appointments which re-
Gently caused foment in West Virginia
politics one has been disposed of. the state
tax commissioner, and C. w. Dillon of Fay
ette county will get the plum He will be
appointed by Governor White within a week
ana peg1n his duties with the first of the
year. The appointment was really named
Dy GoVernor-elect Dawson, who will sue
ceed Gov White in March, but those who
oictated Dillon's selection are reliably said
&c nave been Senators Elkins and Scott.
ihls once pays $1,000 a year, with 81 600
aliowed for travelling expenses and has a
siX-year term, the incumbent not being
ehglDie Tor second term. Warden c. E.
Haooox or the state penitentiary was un-
oerstood to have been slated for the posi-
'ioh' out IL can be stated that he was
never an applicant and that he prefers re-
appointment to his present position. which
ne Will get without opposition
'or some reason the senators d d not loolx
with FAVOR on Haddox. 1t is believed thew
regarded him as either too radical a tax
reiormer, and not regarded in a friendly
nsnl h py certain eorportions which are to
pe Ieckoned with in all political campaigns
or that he has been classed as an jnde,
pendent fellow. so far as the matter of the
return OF both ElkinS and Scott to the
senate was concerned. The two senators
1eit they Should have a say in the appoint-
ment of the new tax commissioner. bel.ey-
ing they would be held responsible in a
large measure for any of the acts he and
ms army OF assistant assessors may do
Little is known of Dillon outside his own
nome territory, and the fact that h s coun-
ty is one of the largest coal mining coun-
Ties IN the state makes ardent tax reform
ers view him with suspicion Dillon's close
hic 1nS,
prosecuting attorney of republican Fayette
was chosen simply because Dillon could not
be made subject to influence and his fight
Tor Dawson delegates and his activity as a
Dawson floor leader in the tumultuous state
convention are alluded to as evidence of his
uncomprising tax reform sincerity
For each of the fifty-fiye counties the
new tax commissioner will appoint one or
more assistant assessors, who under the law
will appraise everything they can discover
In the way Of real and personal property
at Its true and actual value. This will be-
"a machine 70 reckon with, and Will present
the possibilities Of putting the screws on
here and loosening them there. It affords
possibilities to set Senator Elkins thinking
of the fight he has to make in the state two
years hence.
The war is still raging over the vacant
internal revenue collectorship, notwith-
standing the semi-off1cial announcement
that the appointment will be delayed until
after Senator Scott is reelected by the
legislature. The boom of w. E. Glasscock
of MorgantoWn, secretary of the republican
state committee, is becoming formidable.
But the most urgent boom Is in the inter-
ests of Charles F. Teter, the unsuccessful
aspirant for the governorship. Whether
or not to turn him down is the rub. The
appearance of Gov. White as an applicant
presents the complication of the injection
of the state machine into federal politics
and the further fact of complicating the
chances of w. E. White. now the chief
internal revenue deputy. who is brother of
the governor, and himself an applicant.
Governor White is being pushed by his
friends in and out of the state administra-
ton, but he is not an avowed candidate.
His salary as governor has been mere
pittance, his investments have not been
highly remunerative, and the plea for his
transfer to job worth easily $500 a year
is based on his financial circumstances:
The effect of the naming of White and the
turning aside Of Teter may be MAGNETISM
a party which has been seriously injured
by the bitterness resulting from the clash
ing of the Teter-BliZZard and White-Daw-
son factions. The White-Dawson element
is in the saddle and has four years to
straighten it's position. The Teter follow
ing, beaten for control of the state pat
ronage, has to look for the few federal
plums and outside of the second congress
sional district is not numerically strong,
being awakened by a sort of perambulati ton
toward the Dawson band wagon in the clos
ing hours of a peculiar campaign.
Governor White has had lately to report
his denial, often heretofore made, of any
designs on the seats of Elkins or Scott.
The speculation as to his business or po-
litical future has worked the guessers over
time.
John j. Cornwell, the defeated demo-
cratic nominee for governor, comes out In
a pronunciamento insisting on fair and
rigorous enforcement of the new tax laws.
He and other democrats believe that the
full enforcement will stir up dissensions
that will be to their advantage two years
hence, or four years at the best
George Byrne of Charleston, one of the
original white mans party" men, aided
by j. Slidell Brown of Preston county and
Senator William Campbell of Jefferson, de-
clare the issue in 1906 will be the negro,
and on that they expect to carry the legis-
lature This issue is ridiculed by republi-
cans, who point out there are less than
10000 negro voters to over 100000 white
voters.
AS Senator E:kins passive in 1904 his
father-in-law, Henry G.. DAVIS. WI hardly
help his party elect legislature that WI
defeat his son-in-Lw. This is one thing
that has to be figured On