West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1914-10-22

aroused the concern of Voter /
Co in the welfare of the taxpay
erS is the building of new roa
from Masontown 81, miles to tn
community known as Hackelbar
ney. This road Is an outlet to sew
cral farmers besides a direct rout
to town and railroad for a large ter
ritory. And these people CLAIM
they have been trying To get thi
road for 10 years, but always hac
to face the expense of, and opposi
tion to, getting TIN ough the McMil
Ian farm, then owned by T.. Nj
Hartley. All the balance of TIA,
right-of-way was donated and mucl
of 1T fenced by the land owners
while the road cuts 40 foot diago.
nal route ur-fifths of mile LONG
through the Mcmillan farm, McMil.
Ian furnishing the fencing material
at cost of about $4,000. MANY
of the farmers and citizens inter
csted donated sufficient labor to
build the first mile and the road
now has almost sS much traffic as
some of our pixies.
But now let us turn our attention
to the audit as authorized bv the
court. This is the one sin for which
Voter u Co." cannot forgive us.
For once Voter" gets his figures
about correct, that is, as to the cost
of the audit. But when he tells
you that it netted the county moth
ing he shows dense ignorance on
the subject or wilfully tells false
hood, and knowing him to bc an in
telligent, well-posted man, we have
to accept the latter conclusion. In
round numbers the receipts from the
State Auditor, Charles Spindler
and T. C. Everly on account of the
audit was S6,60o00; deduct from
that the cost and the county is now
S3 100000 to the good, beside there
are now pending in the Circuit
Court suits against other audited
officials TO the amount of about
100000. Voter" tells you this
will not amount to a cent. Has he
any advanced information upon the
subject
WHY DID THE COURT AU-
THORIIE AN INDEPENDENT
AUDIT? Because in 1909 ex-
Sheriff VIM. NJ. Schaeffer was au-
dited by the State Department and
came up and settled his shortage to
the cent except the then unsettled
item of interest which has been
since decided against the shcriffs by
our Supreme Court. Then, it was
not fair to ex-Sherlf SchaefTcr to
let all others go who were just as
susceptible of errors, neither was it
fair to the county. Hence after
the court tried for FIFTEEN
months to get the State Tax Com
missioner to authorize an audit of
all county officials and failed, we
took the "buIl by the horns and
authorized an Independent audit,
which the court has perfect right
to do. The correspondence between
the audit committee and the Tax
Commissioner would make rather
interesting reading i'm view of the
fact that as soon as suits were start
ed TO enforce the Steele audit the
State Department sent Mr.. Mat
thews and Mr.. Scherr TO Preston
county to make Gnothcr audit at
cost of 81 10000, so Voter" says.
Mr. Steele audited five officials
and ex-oficials, but whom did
Schcrr and Matthews audit? The
court paid these gentlemen and
have repeatedly asked for a report
of their work bat have received
nothing but promises from Mr..
Scherr. Any politics in this whole
proceeding? The truth is that with
Senator Jas. w. Flynn and cx-
Sheriff Lcnhart Zone of the officials
audited by Steele but not by
Scherr), at this end, and J. 5. La
kin at Charleston, Democratic
official has pretty rough sailing
As TO Brother Joc's" salary, hc
was appointed By the court at the
request of Prosecuting Attorney
Hughes, but never accepted the EN-
ploymcnt, and the suits show hc is
not an attorney in them, he has no
bill and will have no bill against
the county in regard to them.
Now, as to the "cxtravagancc' ia
general of the present court Mr..
Taxpayer, look over your tax re-
ceipts for tho last three years and
sec how much Of the money you pay
is levied and expended by the
County Court. School expenses
have increased enormously, like
wise Circuit Court cxpcnscs-ju jurors
alone costing $5,2OOOO last year.
Many charges arc now paid by the
counties that were formerly paid by
the State. If We paid the higher
county tax we were to be free from
paying State taxes, was the promise
Of tho Dawson tex laws. I'm 1912,
the State tax was one cent, in 1913,
it was six cents, and in 1917 it Is
ten cents In order not Co raise
taxes this year The County Court
had TO cut down road and bridge
lcvics. In The face Of all this The
court is now under maudamus COM
pclling us to build OF repair the jail
by building an addition 90 tho old
one, or draw fine and imprison-
mcnt