846 



WEST VIEGINIA. 



of teachers is conferred upon the district boards 

 of education, instead of being intrusted to the 

 trustees of the sub-districts as formerly. The 

 salary of the county superintendent is reduced 

 to a mere nominal sum. The classification of 

 teachers is altered, making three instead of five 

 grades. Graduates of the normal schools may 

 be required to undergo an examination. A 

 school-book bill provides that the retail prices 

 of school-books, not to exceed the present 

 wholesale rates, shall be printed on the covers 

 of the books and posted on the walls of the 

 school-rooms, and requires the publishers to 

 deal with the school authorities in the sale of 

 their books. 



A proposal for a constitutional amendment 

 reforming the judiciary system was adopted. 

 The amendment is to be submitted to the vote of 

 the people in 1880. Its object is to transfer the 

 functions of the county courts to the circuit 

 courts. The number of the latter is to be in- 

 creased. The jurisdiction of the county court, 

 which will consist of three commissioners, is 

 to be confined to police and fiscal matters. 

 The amendment proposes also to increase the 

 judicial functions of justices, revoking the right 

 of a defendant in a case involving more than 

 twenty dollars to remove it on his simple mo- 

 tion to the county court. The ability of jus- 

 tices to hear jury cases is extended. Their 

 jurisdiction is extended to cases involving not 

 above three hundred dollars. The amendment 

 provides for the establishment of courts of lim- 

 ited jurisdiction in any incorporated town. The 

 number of the circuits is to be increased from 

 nine, each with one judge, to thirteen, with 

 fourteen judges. 



The committees of inquiry into the freight- 

 rates of the Baltimore and Ohio Eailroad made 

 their reports to the Senate and House on Jan- 

 uary 15th. The reports accused the company 

 of making unjust and unauthorized discrimina- 

 tions in its freight schedule in favor of througli 

 traffic and against way traffic. In view of the 

 fact that the road had made material reduc- 

 tions in its charges for transportation within 

 the State since the appointment of the com- 

 mittees of investigation, no action was taken 

 on the reports by the Legislature. Johnson N. 

 Camden was summoned before the bar of the 

 Senate to answer charges of contempt in re- 

 fusing to declare to the Committee on Eailroad 

 Freights the amount of the rebates allowed by 

 the Baltimore and Ohio Eailroad Company to 

 the Camden Consolidated Oil Company in the 

 transportation of oil. Projects of laws regu- 

 lating the freight-rates on the Baltimore and 

 Ohio Eailroad were introduced by the commit- 

 tee and others, and discussed with much heat. 

 By a joint resolution a new joint committee of 

 five was appointed to confer with the man- 

 agers of the road and ascertain what reductions 

 of freight-charges should be carried out, and 

 whether the company conformed to the pro- 

 visions of its charter and the laws, and to re- 

 port any contravention of the same to the At- 



torney-General, who should institute proceed- 

 ings against the railroad to compel the forfeit- 

 ure of its charter, by means of a writ of quo war* 

 ranto or otherwise. 



The following account of the present condi- 

 tion of the State was communicated by Gov- 

 ernor Matthews to a newspaper reporter: 



The present population of the State is estimated at 

 500,000, a gain of about 60,000 since 1870, chiefly a 

 natural increase, there having been very little immigra- 

 tion. The salt-works interest in the Kanawha Valley, 

 which has been much depressed, is now picking up 

 rapidly. The oil industry is not making much head- 

 way, and the business has lost its speculative charac- 

 ter. The glass-works at Wheeling are prosperous, 

 and new discoveries of valuable iron deposits are re- 

 ported on New River, on the line between Virginia 

 and West Virginia. The coal-tields are being worked 

 to a much greater extent than formerly since the open- 

 ing of the Chesapeake and Ohio Eailroad, and West 

 Virginia has more coal, and a much greater variety, 

 too, in proportion to territorial extent, than any State 

 in the Union. The State goveniment is economically 

 administered. The cost ot feeding penitentiary con- 

 victs is only 6i cents per day. and the entire cost of 

 food, clothing, guards, and salaries of officials is only 

 25 cents per day for each convict ; while the cost of 

 maintaining each inmate of the Insane Asylum, in- 

 cluding all expenses, is only $2.33 per week. Govern- 

 or Matthews says there is no State debt, and the peo- 

 ple are willing to settle with Virginia by allowing West 

 Virginia to be charged with all public improvements 

 within her borders, and with her proportion of the 

 current expenses of the State government s4nce 1824, 

 and to be credited with all taxes paid into the State 

 Treasury by the counties of which she is composed 

 since that date. Upon that basis. Governor Matthews 

 eays, it has been estimated that Virginia would be in- 

 debted to the new State about $500,000. The public 

 schools are in good condition and improving, and the 

 rate of State taxation is 20 cents on the $100 for State 

 purposes, and 10 cents for the school fund. There are 

 only 17,000 colored people in the State, not enough to 

 form an important element of its population. 



The railroad facilities are being so extended 

 as to promise a speedy development of the nat- 

 ural resources of the State, which, though lit- 

 tle exploited, are counted not inferior to those 

 of scarcely any State in the Union. The Weston 

 and Clarksburg Eailroad has been completed. 

 The Bellaire and Southwestern has also com- 

 pleted its track. The Pittsburgh Southern 

 Eailroad is being carried through the central 

 part of the State. A company has been formed 

 for the construction of a narrow-gauge road 

 between Wheeling and Parkersburg, traversing 

 one of the finest iron-ore fields on the conti- 

 nent. 



A band of law-defying characters in Wetzel 

 County, called the Eed Men, who had terror- 

 ized the community for years by their arbitrary 

 and violent deeds, taking vengeance upon all 

 who refused to submit to their rule, and not 

 shrinking from the most desperate and bloody 

 acts, were proceeded against by the authorities. 

 Seven of them, named John Ullom, George 

 Ullom, Amos Hemeleck, John Steward, John 

 Hostaller, Eloy Butcher, and John Lough, were 

 arrested in the beginning of June. The or- 

 ganization originated in an act of Lynch jus- 

 tice perpetrated in 1870 on John Jennings, who 

 had collected a band of desperate characters 



