Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1924-06-26
EPHRIAM r. MORGAN
A MODEST MAN
Continued from page three)

The Sunday school is to west W.
ginia what the saloon used to be, and
the movies still are to other States
the peoples rendezvous, the poor
mans club, and the rich mans too.
Sunfay-sdhool work amounts to a
dissipation. One fourth of the entire
population is engaged in it. The bar
Der at the Kanawha Hotel said: eyes
know Governor Morgan. He be-
longs to my sunday school class"
He said it just as naturally as you
might say that man was French
or Republican or white.
'Im one of the assistant teachers
of my. class" said the Governor with
more personal pride than he had
show over any of his political honors;
"but l get out of teaching all l can
like to sit back.
"You can't sit back and be Gov
ernor ~ / ventured.
That's one thing / don't like a.
bout this governor business. Pm al
ways standing up and telling other
people what to do-just as if knew
more than they did. And | don'tp'
Ephraim Morgan is that rare thing
in politics-a modest man. About
his first judeship he had said: II had
to be induced" And now l realized
that he had to be induced" to run
for every Office he had ever held.
"But / was glad | took it," he con-
tinued; "the salary wasn't much, on
ly two thousand dollars, but there
was lot Of spare time, and used it
to perfect myself in the law / rec
kon | needed it, all right"
| But if the Governor thinks very
little of himself, he thinks a whole
lot of West Virginia. II wish you'd
go out inc the mining country and
see what has been accomplished out
there. We had strikes and riots and
marches during my first year, but
that was due chiefly to our National
Guard being shot to pieces by the
war. Now, we've built up the Guard
again and we don't need it."
rallied the Governor about a
great State Like West Va. having
gas logs in the fireplaces of its Exc
cutive Mansion; but he had an an
swer. "You forget" he said, "that
West Virginia is one of the largest
producing States in the Union"
He had the figures down handsome
thing like two hundred billion feet
|of gas annually. "That's where we
get good part Of our State revenue
out of gas and oil and coal. We
have what we call gross sales tax
in this State-the only one of its
kind, SO far as | know-by which the
State collects one fifth of one percent
of the business of all other manu-
facturers and merchants, and two
fifths of one per cent on the three
natural products l have mentioned"
Doesn't that make the coal, oil
and gas men sore?"
"Any kind of tax makes everyone
sore," he said, "but there is some
justice in this one. The coal, oil and
gas that goes out of the State is de-
pleting the States resources. It's
fair that these things should stand
depletion tax"
aren't you afraid you'll exhaust
the supply of these products, espec-
tally coal?"
mot during my. term!" laughed
His Excellency. "The State is min
ing right now more than half as
much again as was mined in the
whole country in 1880; yet, at the
rate she's going, it'll take two thous-
and years to use up the supply. Be-
Sides" he continued, "West Virginia
has lot of other things besides
coal You think of Kentucky as the
Blue Grass State, but we have more
blue grass acreage than Kentucky or
any other commonwealth. Moreover
we rank at the very top in the per-
centage of our farms that are free
from debt-something like seventy
three percent,I think And" he con-
cluded with an eloquent gesture, "we
produce sixty-fve per cent of the
worlds supply of jelly glasses!"
How about education?"
The Governors face took on a sud
den gravity. West Virginia is still
in the lower half of the list of States
when it comes to this important mat
ter but it is rising fast; and l was
interested to know what a teacher
governor and teacher governors
wife would have to say about it. Mrs.
Morgan is frankly not satisfed7-as
a teacher or as mother. She ques-
toned me closely about the Horace