The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1905-07-05
TAE FLouNpERINe rIMgs.

Ieasily compressed in a space two inch,
les square set in great primer type the
:lpeef witted Times attempts TO answer
lthe criticism made by your CORE.
iIspondent ON lis lucid comments upon
Ithe article taken from the wheeling
News.
The funny part about II rs there was
a little riisnrint or typographical er.
lror in the News whereby 1t got fig-
lure -an before the A5' and made ii
rsad .t25 per cent" instead OF % per
Cent. that was apparent to every
body outside the realms Of dul1doms
and the Times, Unconscious of its stu.
pidity, burst soEth with wonderful ecIat
and made It the text Of one OF its
donble,header editorials.
II reminds us Of PickwIelt purchas-
ing the Bill Stumps inscription, and
then tries to lay the whole thing on the
injured News.
The Times then proceeds to illu.
mine It's readers by arguing that the
council or the court may disregard all
laws and proceed in the teeth of the
statute to lay its levies beyond the
statutory warrant and the people may
be driven 10 the necessity OF going to
the expense of resorting to the courts
to prevent abuses along this line.
A wonderful ideai and 1t ia strange
II never occurred to us before. But
'ttc ~ mt posaft,ta that +ta tt,sat+. t..
lposed by the old laws or any laws that
might be enacted might be transcend.
ed ana the people forced to go into
courts to prevent abuses and to. con.
fine taxing bodies within their proper
limits? We hope the Times will reflect
on this last proposition day or so and
give us the result of It's cogitations.
The Times proceeds In its own con.
vincing and inlmiiable way 10 assert
that some of the best lawyers in West
Virginia hold that the Legislature mas
no constitutional authority to limit
the tax levying power OF co,anty courts
land other tax raising bodies We are
Isurprised Mt the assertion, for 1t seems
for once the Times has given us an
Ioriginal idea.
Certainly NO lawyer ever advanced
such an ABSURD proposition and con.
sequently the ides must be the
product of the Times own fertile i'm.
lagt.iation.
| nc We would like to ask what lintita.
SItionsl the constitution has placed on
1.-THE taxing power of municipalities
Perhaps the Times can enlighten us
on this ubiect.
We incline to the opinion, until .he
Times can .how our error. that mu-
|nicipelities derive their whole taxing
power from the Legislature, and that
the Legislature can enlarge or abridge
at will, and until the Times will name
some of its best West Virginia law.
yers as authority we hold that the
constitutional limitation on county
courts to the effect that they shall
not levy taxes to exceed ninety.five
cents on the one hundred dollars val.
uation does not prohibit the Legisla.
ture from imposing further restraints.
| The following paragraph is so pro.
found and impressive that we copy it
in full:
They, meaning the Legislature,
might have provided that the members
lof the county courts violating them
should be indicted, tried and punished
for such violation, and such trial
would have tested the constitutional
lily of the law once for all, but with its
usual blindness the Legislature failed
Ito do this and SO the matter is still
lone of discretion with the tax levying
authority, and apt to be settled by 1t
in many cases in accordance with the
pressing needs for revenue.
| What pity the Legislature was de-
MED the assistance of the illumined
mind of the Times editor! And lit.
tie further down the Times says that
many other counties have at times
exceeded the levy allowed by the con.
Istitution without let or hindrance from
the taxpayers; and how does it come
that the Times editor failed to point
out the defect of the old laws and
have the Legislature to correct them?
In view of the vacillating, slip.shod
policy of the Times, it seems to be i'm
|pervions to all reason and argument.
During the last campaign 1t was con-
stantly carping because the Legisla.
ture had fixed no limitations to the
tax-laying powers of county courts
and municipalities and when the
Legislature undertook to correct these
defects, if such they were, then it
raised the cry that these Limitations