A Farmer's Commonwealth.
Around 80 per cent of the popula
tion of South Carolina, according to
the census of 1920, is rural. Four of
every five of our people live in the
country or small villages.
The public institutions of South
Carolina, including the colleges, the
.schocls, the asylums and hospitals,
- receive sons and" daughters or rural
people in proportion to their num
bers, i
Wherever is a city, such as Colum
bia, having conveniences superior to
those of the rural districts, it pays
out of its own pocket for them. City
taxes in Columbia and in Charleston
are 28 and 45 mills. The country peo
ple in Greenville or Spartanburg get
probably $2 from the taxation of city
property to $1 that the city people
)get from the taxation of country
property. If 100 miles of paved roads
he built through Richland county,
about four-fifths of the cost will be
paid by the taxpayers of this city.
Against that we do not complain. It
is expedient and right, but it is just
as well that: the facts be understood.
The constitutional school tax of
three mills is shared more largely by
the rural than by the city schools and
not in proportion to the amount of
payment by city or country.
About one-third of all the proper
ty taxes are paid by railroads, cotton
mills and other corporations.
The country people not only, can
"but do elect the great majority of the
legislators and the legislators fix the j
appropriations and levy the taxes. In
hut two of the 46 counties, Richland
and Charleston, are the city popula
tions large enough to dominate coun
ty affairs. South Carolina always has
been a rural state and it has never
had a leguslature in which the far
mer class was hot predominant. If
the farmers run off after a lawyer
and professional politician to deliver
them from their afflictions, surely it js
.no fault of the cities. In the statute
"books is not a law for which farmers
are not in the main responsible, for
the simple and unescapable reason
that they are three-fourths or four
fifths of all the people. If they have
ever been deceived, the deception
has been practiced by their own rep
resentatives, by the men that they
choose for public office. In The
State's opinion they have, as a rule,
used their power well. In the United
States is no commonwealth in which
less money is wasted, in which gov
ernment is more economical. In
Pennsylvania, for example, the
amount of public revenues wasted
or extravagantly spent, in propor
tion to the amount paid, is $20 to
$1 wasted in South Carolina. In not
. more than a half dozen states is gov
ernment as economical as it is in
South Carolina.
The 'State would have it known
that it raises no objections to reduc
tion of taxes at this time, however
radical it may be. The farmers will
gain nothing by crippling their own
institutions but there is no conces
sion to the discontent and disturbed
' state of mind against which we enter
any project. If the legislature can see
salvation in reducing salaries, if it
can cut down the taxes by $250,000
in that manner, let the legislature
set its3U to the task. From the selfish
standpoint of a taxpayer, this news
paper can certainly endure without
pain as much reduction as the next
institution or citizen.
Above all things, the need of this
commonwealth is for the preserva
; iion of civil order and the -enforce
ment of law. They are more impor
tant even than schools and roads. The
people should have safety if they
"have nothing else. The protection of
-the verdicts of juries and the judg
ments of courts is the first considera
tion and, if that we can have, we can
; afford to go backward'or at least to
..stand still in respect of public educa
tion, hospitals and charities. Good
men could be found to perform the
. duties of public servantsif the
? emergency were great, though no sal
caries whatever were paid-but it
^ould be "a rich man's government."
What The State emphasizes is that
South Carolina is 80 per cent rural.
It is a farmers' commonwealth. They
can do with it what they wish. If
the taxes be not reduced the expla
nation will be that the farmers have
inot taken care of themselves. The
'General Assembly now as ever is a
^farmers' General Assembly. They
elected it Complete control of finan
cial and fiscal affairs is lodged in the
legislature. No governor can control
it or ever has controlled it. A govern
or ont of tune with the legislature is
shorn of power in financial affairs.
Governors who have run counter to
the legislature have accomplished
nothing, less and worse than nothing,
in reforms. That the constitution
makes certain.-The State.
WANTED: Good, sound corn for
milling purposes, fifty *cents paid for
same in shuck or sixty cents shelled.
J. G. ALFORD.
1-25-lOt. .
Prohibition Enforcement.
Federal Prohibition Commissioner
Rey A. Haynes, speaking to five hun
dred clergymen in New York, the
other day, said that if he could have
the voice of the American pulpit and
the pen of the American press for a
short time he could do away with his
force of prohibition enforcement of
ficers. The church people, he said,
had brotight about the dry legislation,
"and it is essential that they shall
stand by the enforcement."
"I have never seen a more re
markable change in the general atti
tude of the press on any subject than
has taken place within the last six
months with reference to law en
forcement work. It only had to be
pointed out to the press that the one
question involved was the loyalty to
Constitution and laws of the land and
it only required that the people let
the press know they wanted facts as
regards the progress being made."
He warns, however, that in the
great Metropolitan centers, there is
an insiduous, clever, false wet prop
aganda under way that has as its ob
ject the delusion of the American
people into the belief that the prohi
bition law was a failure; that.it is
unpopular; that it was "slipped over"
on them and that it was not being en
forced and never could be enforced.
"Today, there are in actual exis
tence thirty paid organizations striv
ing night and day not only to accom
plish the things that I have been tell
ing you about;-to instill into the
minds of the American people these
false doctrines; striving to accom
plish the amendment's nullification,
and to cause the American people to
lower their standard of regard for the
sanctity and majesty of the law."
The commissioner insists that the
prohibition law is being enforced, de
claring that "that there was never a
law enacted in any civilized country
as drastic as this law, which has been
so early and so successfully enforced.
One authority announced some weeks
ago that the dry law was being en
forced 64 per cent. If that be true it
does not require any prophet to know
that in a comparatively short time
the law will be successfully enforced
as any other law on the statute books.
"Some people expected a miracle
to happen when the prohibition law
became operative. It was not to be
expected. All great movements are
revolutionary. The idea of the men
who enacted the prohibition law was
not that it should become an estab
lished fact in a moment. It would
have been an,upheaval indeed that
would have swept away in one fell
swoop an evil so strongly intrenched
in the social, political and financial
life of our day as was the liquor traf
fic. The progress is 'nsistent, definite
and sure and decrees the final doom
of the illegal liquor traffic."
He is positive that if the pulpit and
the press will do their part, enforce
ment will be approximately complete
within a year or two.-^-Augusta
Chronicle.
Tobacco Grading Bill.
The Tobacco Grading Bill has at
last passed the South Carolina Legis
lature and become a law. There has
been ?; hard fight over this bill for
the past ten years, but at this meet
ing of the legislature all opposition
practically disappeared.
Most.of "the best farmers for some
time have been "culling" or "pick
ing' their tobacco before marketing
it. This, for all practical purposes, is
the same as grading. To meet the re
quirements of this bill, the only ad
ditional work will 'be the tieing.
Since the boll weevil has made its ap
pearanceand the cotton acreage has
been so greatly reduced, all of the
tobacco growers will have ample time
in which to put their tobacco in a
more marketable condition. They will
also be able to use their seed cotton
houses for pack houses. However, it
will be well for every tobacco planter
to begin to figure now on a storage
place for his 1922 crop. A splendid
pack house can be cheaply construct
ed. A pole house, daubed like his cur
ing house and with a double floor
and ceiled overhead makes an ideal
arrangement. The floor should be 18
inches or two feet from the ground.
Rough boards can be converted into
a desriable pack house, with but little
cost. It is to be hoped that the day
of handling tobacco in South Caro
lina like shucks is past. The farmer
realized that he was losing money by
taking his tobacco direct from the
curing house to the warehouse for
sale, but could not help himself.
All of the tobacco handled by the
Cooperative Marketing Association
would have been graded and tied any
way. A good many farmers who re
mained out of the association on ac
count of this feature, will now doubt
less sign up at the first opportunity.
One of the most prominent features
of all Cooperative Marketing is to
put the commodity in the most pre
sentable form before offering for;
BETTER
ROADS j
DEVICE TO MAINTAIN ROADS
King Split-Log Drag Wa3 the Inven
tion of a Missouri Man-Its
Construction Explained.
The King split-log drag Is a good
drag made of a split log. and originat
ed by Mr. D. Ward King of Maitland,
Mo. Mr. King explains the construc
tion as follows: "Take the two halves
of a spilt log, ten or twelve inches
thick and seven to nine feet long. Set
the halves flat sides to the front,
fasten 30 Inches apart with strong
stakes, the ends of which are wedged
in two-inch auger . holes bored
through the slabs. Put a solid plut
I tie King Split-Log Drag.
Torra on the stakes for the driver to
stand on. The hitch ls made*of strong
svire or chain, the long end fastened
lo stake over the top of the front
?lab, the short end put through a hole
In center of the slab and near the
?nd to prevent the back slab tilting
forward. Face four or five feet of
Ihe ditch end of the front slab with
?ron. An old wagon tire, worn share
of road grader, or any piece of flat
?teel, will answer for this purpose."
HARD ROADS SAVE GASOLINE
They Also Result in Much Less
Wear and Tear on Tires, Springs
and General Comfort
In tests recently made at Cleveland,
D., a five-ton truck carrying a fall load
averaged 11.78 miles per gallon of
gasoline over a concrete road and but
5.78 miles per gallon over an earth
road in average condition.
The truck was tested over seven
different kinds of highway. On the
earth road the mileage per gallon of
gasoline was as?above noted, 5.7S. On
fair gravel, 7,19 miles per gallon; on
good gravel, 9.39 miles; on fair ma
cadam, 9.48 miles; on fair brick, 9.S8
miles ; on good brick, 11.44 miles, and
on concrete, 11.78 miles per gallon of
gasoline.
According to the above figures, for a
man who drives his auto 8.000 miles
during the year and assuming that 4,
000 miles of tlie total will be over me
dium to poor roads, the balance over
fair to good roads, the cost of gasoline
would be $40 to $30 In excess of what
lt would be If all of the road was
made of concrete.
Besides the extra expense for fuel,
there would be a big saving on tires,
springs, general wear and tear and
comfort.
HAULING ON COUNTRY ROADS
Yearly Average From 1915 to 1919
Amounted to 86,500,000 Tons
Illinois in Lead.
Eleven principal crops afforded 86,
500.000 tons for hauling on country
roads in the yearly average of 1915 to
1919, or 27 tons per 100 acres har
vested. Among the results of compu
tations made by the bureau of crop
estimates, United States Department
of Agriculture, Illinois is far in the
lead of states in providing crop haul
uge. and Its fraction of the United
States total Is one-tenth, or 8,855,000
tons. Iowu has 6.590,000 tons, and
Kansas somewhat more than one-half
of the Illinois tonnage hauled, with
4,862.000 tons. Following In order :ire
Nebraska, Indiana, Ohio and Texas,
with 4,Of>0.000 tons In the lust-named
state. The difference between high
and low costs of hauling due to poor
or good condition of roads reaches a
large figure In the hauling of this
great tonnage, or a large fraction
thereof.
Last Toll Road.
The last toll road In New Jersey
passed Into history when the state
highway commission purchased a four
and one-half-mile stretch near Cam
den for $70,000. The road was con
structed In 1S50.
Motor Trucks Overweight
During the last year highway Inspec
tors In Fennsylvuuia weighed 4,076
moto. Clucks lu various sections of the
stute und fouud 1,156 to ba over?
weight.
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