Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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ESTABLISHED 1844. The Press and Banner ABBEVILLE, S. C. The Press and Banner Company PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Telephone No. 10. Entered as second-class mail matter at post office in Abbeville, S. C. -? \ Terras of Subscription: i jf - One year $2.00 Six months t 1.00 | Three months .50 FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 1920. I THE HOSPITAL AND THE CITY COUNCIL. J 97 Some twenty-five years ago the people of this H5"y ^ fc, city voted bonds for the purpose of installing a j water-works system in the city. Since that time i other bond issues have been voted for the purpose ??: of public improvements. Under the law when rT'" l bonds for such public improvements are voted, it j becomes the duty of the City Council to levy a tax for the payment of interest, and an additional tax *? for the accumulation of a fund for the ultimate Ii payment of the bonds at maturity. Unfortunately, the law is so framed that the member's of the City Council are the custodians of i the funds so collected for the payment of the bonds. But, nevertheless, they are the custodians I of the funds and none the less the trustees of the [ people who pay the taxes for these funds, and they j hold these funds in trust to retire the bonds at ma- ) turity. As such trustees it is the duty of the mem- j bers of the city council to guard securely the funds thus entrusted to them. They have no right to invest these funds in anything but the safest securi- i ,. ties, and surely they have no right to divert these funds to other purposes directly or indirectly, without being guilty of a breach of trust. It is true that it becomes the duty of the mem"* 1 - : -x ~ -Pi-trx-lo Kllf n<5 Ibers of the council to invest, tllCdC X U 11 WO J WMV v?w | stated the funds should be invested in safe interest , * bearing securities and in such securities as may be realized on upon reasonable notice to the end that ! the money raised for a particular purpose shall be jp applied to that purpose. In the handling of these gv" funds the members of the City Council must act with the utmost good judgment, not to say the ut- j p most good faith. Because they handle other people's money and money in the end which must go to ?? other people. They hold a fund for the retirement |t. of particular debts and it becomes their duty to see that the money is so applied. Some weeks ago certain persons residing on El- j lis Street with the commendable idea of improving ; the surroundings of their residential property, and others with the idea that the city needed a hospital, conceived the idea of buying the old Williams School property and converting it into a hospital. j We had nothing to do with the enterprise and as it | was a private undertaking i^ was none of our busi- i ness that it was located in the most unlikely place \ in the city for a Hospital, surrounded as it was by negro houses, with open garden houses and every j I other thing to make the place unattractive for a j hospital site. But it was selected because, as it : was stated, it was "cheap." It was ever thus. Money was collected from a good many who j c*;. stated, so far as we have heard, that they contri- j Jfcmted as a donation because they never expected j pk" the Hospital to be a paying institution. We be- \ lieve the doctors agree that the hospital will not make money, and that it is not a business enter- j prise in the sense that persons who invest in it I may expect to receive dividends or expect it to be'come more valuable as a money producer. We ftp think the. experience of most places where there are hospitals operated as this one is to be is that j hospitals are a losing proposition so far as the in??" come and outgo are concerned. If we are not correct in this we would like to be corrected. Notwithstanding these facts, we see that the accommodating City Council of the City of Abbeville jfrv has taken eight or ten thousand dollars of the money of the people of Abbeville raised by taxation for the payment of the bonds above referred to, and in their hands impressed with this trust, and has loaned it to this hospital enterprise. Have they acted with good business judgment? We ex? press the opinion that not a member of the City Council would have/loaned his own money to the Hospital in this amount, and on this kind of security. We express the opinion that Dr. L. J. Bristow, Dr. G. A. Neuffer, D. H. Hill and the others interested in securing this loan from the city would not have loaned their individual money in this amount to the hospital enterprise on the same security. We express the opinion that not a hankie ing institution or a private money-lender in Abbeville would have done so. We express the opinion that if Dr. L. J. Bristow had had in his hands the sum of ten thousand dollars of funds of the Baptist |p / Church for investment until a certain time when the money was to be applied to the payment of a particular debt that he would not have loaned these ! ?* * rJ o f a fVia Vinanif ol in AKKovilla ar? fVia c?? m o qp. curity. Have these men then acted as good business men? The gentlemen who went before the City Council and asked that his money impressed with a trust as stated, be loaned to the Hospital authorities have morally endorsed the loan. Will they endorse it in fact? They will not. They know that the hospital building when completed, if it is to be conducted as v. a hosnital. will never nav a cent of this monev back I into the public treasury. They know when this [ money becomes due that the people who now borj row it will raise a great hue and cry if the hospital j|t N building is to be sold in order to get the money of the taxpayers out of it for the retirement of the b?nds. They, therefore, know that the taxpayers of the city, after having contributed this ten thou- . j sand dollars for a particular purpose, and for the j payment of a particular debt, will be called on to pay the debt for the second time, and knowing this we assert that they have done the taxpayers of this city a grievous wrong. Will they or any of them i personally guarantee these taxpayers against loss? The outcome of the whole transaction will be i either that as soon as the ten thousand dollars is J exhausted, the hospital will go into the hands of a receiver, and the property be sold to somebody for practically nothing, and the debt of the city will be destroyed, or the city itself will be forced to buy the property, and then hold it, and operate it, getting by the undertaking a beautiful white elephant on its hands. This money loaned by the members of the City Council of Abbeville WILL NEVER BE REPAID INTO THE PUBLIC TREASURY OF THE CITY OF ABBEVILLE FOR THE PURPOSE FOR WHICH IT WAS RAISED. THE MEN WHO ASKED FOR THE LOAN SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THIS TO BE A FACT WHEN THEY ASKED FOR IT, AND THE MEN \^HO VOTED FOR THE LOAN SHOULD HAVE KNOWN IT. If the city is to go into the Hospital business there is a legal way to put it in this business. The statute law of South Carolina provides the way. The freeholders of the city are first required to sign a petition asking for an election on a bond issue for this purpose, and the voters then have a say as to whether they wish taxes levied for this purpose. But the City Council of Abbeville ciri-i ?"" fV,Q Tipnnlp and without any cumvents me win notice to anybody and without regard to the rights of the taxpayers of the city boldly in effect appropriates money intended and raised for one purpose to a purpose which the people have not passed on. What has become of the people who were to clean out the undesirable surroundings at the hospital site? We notice that Mr. D. H. Hill was before the council as petitioner for this loan, seeking the assistance of the City Council in this matter. The property of Mr. Hill and of other residents of Ellis street will be enhanced many thousands of dollars by the building of the hospital, even when it fails, if perchance the surroundings are to be cleaned up. Did these residents have this in mind when they undertook to get the Hospital at its present site? What has Mr. Hill, or his associates in the Hospital work, done to make the site a suitable place for a hospital. Does he expect, and do they expect, that |' the money of the city will be used for this purpose, or do they expect that when the hospital is built other people in other sections of the city will come in and put up the money to improve their property, or do they expect to do anything themselves? Not only is the city lending the money to build the hosJ pital, but it cheerfully obligates itself to build a paved road to the hospital, the road being the street in nf t.he houses of these gentlemen. Nobody objects to their having the good street, but what we would like to know is what they are paying for all the special benefits they are to acquire at the hands of the city? It was stated when the Hospital work commenced J that it could be built for the ten thousand dollars subscribed . Now that it is not half finished, the ten thousand gone and the city is loaning another ten thousand dollars, does it not seem the part of wisdom to see that the additional ten thousand is spent by somebody who will see that another miscalculation is not made, otherwise we may find a [ hole for another ten thousand. ABBEVILLE IN SPARTANBURG. If you had only seen Professor John G. Clinkscales greet "Mrs. Carry Chapman Catt" on his recent arrival in "The City of Success," you would have witnessed the finest exhibition of true chivalric courtesy ever made in these parts. It was all so natural and so characteristic of the old-time manners taught in the Level Land region of Abbeville County when we were living in the golden age and women did not want to vote.?Spartanburg Journal. i ? I Mrs. Kirby, formerly of Abbeville, was at uie organ, which she handles with the master's touch, and the two Rogerses, and Roy France and Mr. Kirby were all there, and they made music that would have tickled all the spheres and was well worth a good deal more than the price of admission; that is to say, the amount of the contributions made on at least one side of the house. And we are sure that there was more tjian room enough left to ac commodate the overflow from Dr. rrazers meeting a little farther up the street. But this is none of cur business. We admit it.?Spartanburg Journal. THREATENING WITH A STRIPPED CLUB. . Te integrity of the political independence of South Carolina is above the interest of the national Democratic party and all other parties but let us suppose, for discussion's sake, this case by way of illustration?though it is beyond reasonable supposition: In Kansas, Oregon or other states are 100,000 women who have the ballot and call themselves Democrats but, because the people of South Carolina refuse to ratify the Anthony amendment, would vote the Republican ticket. How much reliance is to be placed on Democrats, male or female, whose Democratic allegiance vanishes when the people of another commonwealth choose to limit and define their electorate in their own way??The State. Is! v' Z< ih z< Just to Start I Year's Bu s v I We will make some espe< i|i fers, to-wit: One of the very best houses : S. A. L. Shops, now owned b going at $5,500.00. I One acre of land immedis \> above, at a very low figure. !j We have 108 Acres of lan ville cheap, for immediate sa 122 Acres in good comim; churches, R. R. Station, at We also have some choice districts. | If your Wants are "REAI | and sell Real Estate. Piedmont Land j{; . s ( / ^ IlllHlllllilli I All ReadyI GOING | Practically : | This offer is ven | and you cannot m | by buying this sea 1 and materials at i I price. | No goods charged or sent 1 these pri 1X M. Anderso | , Dry Goods ./ c 11! t ;!; the New J isiness 5> | | cially attractive of- i! 3 in the city, near the i y Mr. Aleck Graves,. j itely in front of the d right in Lowndesile. , | inity, near school, ill $30.00 Per Acre. t property in colored | r V see us. We buy | Company < Ill 1111 to-Wear AT i rk n L-z rnce | f, very, unusual | aKe a misia^c ? son's best styles | practically 1 -2 | out on approval at ces | m r Antnnmr I HI LUiujjam | Store 1