Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

. ISSUED SEMI-WBKgL^ ^r=========^ L k. orist's SONS. Pnbiiiher.. j % Jfautilg Jieirspager: 4(or th$ promotion of thg political, gonial, ^grieutturat and Commercial Interests of tti< Peoptj. | TI"Vi'?'?"*??.iv!,"vitl"ci!^""CI ESTABLISHED 1855. YORKVILLE, S. C^FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1015. N~Q. 21. C^-CAI CIMB0 /?> CHARLES/ WITH ILLUSTRATION! OF SCENES IN THE .1 ?t? > nmriT) V P/>nHnlt?(I LI1A r 1 ?ii\ i\ wiikM.?v.. J Indian summer came again to Mis ery, flaunting woodland banners of , crimson and scarlet orange, but to ( Sally the season brought only heart- ( achy remembrances of last autumn, , when Samson had softened his stoicism as the haze had softened the horizon. He had sent her a few brief 1 letters?not written, but plainly printed. He selected short words?as much like the primer as possibles, for no other messages could she read. There were times in plenty when he wished to pour out to her torrents of feeling, ' and it was such feeling as would have carried comfort to her lonely little 1 heart. He wished to tell frankly of ( what a good friend he had made, and how this friendship made him more able to realize that other feeling?his love for Sally. There was in his mind 1 no suspicion?as yet?that these two ^ girls might ever stand inconflict as to the right-of-way. But the letters he ' wished to write were not the sort he cared to have read to the girl by the evangelist-doctor or the district-school teacher, and alone she could have made nothing of them. However, "I J love you," are easy words?and those he always included. The Widow Miller had been ailing for months, and, though the local physician diagnosed the condition as being "right porely," he knew that ' the specter of tuberculosis which stalks through these badly lighted and ventilated houses was stretching out its Angers to touch her shrunken chest. * ?4 Cl"fnrp. This had meant umi oauj uuu ?*. ~ go the evening hours to study, because of the weariness that followed the day of nursing and household drudgery. Autumn seemed to bring to her mother a slight Improvement, and Sally could again sometimes steal away with her slate and book, to sit alone on the big bowlder, and study. She would not be able to write that Christmas letter. There had been too many interruptions in the self-imparted education, but some day she would write. There would probably be time enough. It would take even Samson a long while to become an artist. One day, as she was walking homeward from her lonely trysting place, she met the battered-looking man who carried medicines in his saddlebags and the Scriptures in his pocket, and who practiced both forms of healing through the hills. The old man drew down his nag, and threw one leg over the pommel. "Evenin*, Sally," he greeted. "Evenin*, Brother Spencer. How air ye ?" "Tol'able, thank ye. Sally." The ( body-and-soul mender studied the girl ( awhile in silence, and then said blunt- ( )y: "Ye've done broke right smart, in the last year. Anything the matter with ye?" ] She shook her head, and laughed. ^ It was an effort to laugh merrily, but j k the ghost of the old instinctive blithe- j ness rippled into it. \ "I've Jest come from old Spicer South's,^ volunteered the doctor. ( U "iie's allin' pretty consid'able. these , Jk days." ^ "What's the matter with Unc' Spi- ] cer?" demanded the girl, in genuine anxiety. Every one along Misery call- ( ed the old man Unc' Spicer. "I can't jest make out." Her informer spoke slowly, and his brow "Don't You Do Hit." corrugated into something like sullenness. "He ain't Jest to say sick. Thet is. his organs seems all right, but he don't 'pear to have no heart fer noth^ in', and his victuals don't tempt him none. He's Jest puny, thet's all." W ^ "I'll go over thar, an' see him," an' nounced the girl. "I'll cook a chicken thet'll tempt him." The girl spent much time after that at the house of old Spicer South, and her coming seemed to waken him into a fitful return of spirits. "I reckon. Unc' Spicer," suggested the girl, on one of her first visits. "I'd better send fer Samson. Mebby hit mout do ye good ter see him." The old man was weakly leaning back on his chair, and his eyes were vacantly listless: but. at the suggestion. he straightened, and the ancient lire came again to his face. "Don't ye do hit." he exclaimed, almost fiercely. "I knows ye mean hit kindly, Sally, but don't meddle in my business." "I?I didn't 'low ter meddle." faltered the girl. "No. little gal." His voice softened at once into gentleness. "I knows ye didn't. I didn't mean ter be shortanswered with ye either, but tl.ar's jest one thing I won't 'low nobody ter do?an' thet's ter send fer Samson. He knows the road home, an' when he wants ter come, he'll find the door HANDS SEVILLE BUOC 5 FRCWV PHOTOGRAPHS PLAY open, but we hain't a-ffoln' ter send I atter him." wjifport Horton found himself that | fall In the position of a man whose lourse lies through rapids, and for the first time in his life his pleasures were giving precedence to business. Horton was the most hated and most admired man in New York, but the men who hated and snubbed him were his own sort, and the men who idmired him were those whom he would never meet, and who knew him jnly through the columns of penny papers. Powerful enemies had ceased to laugh, and began to conspire. He must be silence! How, was a mooted luestion. But, in some fashion, he must be silenced. Society had not :ast him out, but society had shown ' him in many subtle ways that he was 10 longer her favorite. He had taken i plebeian stand with the masses. < Horton had received warnings of ac- < :ual personal danger. But at these he I lad laughed, and no hint of them ' Pad reached Ardrienne's ears. i One evening, wnen ousmess unu lorced the postponement of a dinner i engagement with Miss Lescott, he legged her over the telephone to ride i .vith him the following morning. i "I know you are usually asleep when I'm out and galloping," he | aughed, "but you pitched me neck tnd crop into this hurly-burly, and ] I shouldn't have to lose everything. ( Don't have your horse brought I want you to try out a new one of nine." "I think," she answered, "that ?arly morning is the best time to ride. I'll meet you at seven at the Plaza en:rance." They had turned the upper end of :he reservoir before Horton drew his nount to a walk, and allowed the eins to hang. They had t-een gallopng hard, and converse had been m practicable. "I suppose experience nould have ;aught me," began Horton, slowly, 'that the most asinine thing in the world is to try to lecture you, Dren- 1 lie. But there are times when one nust even risk your delight at one's liscomflture." "I'm not going to tease you this norning," she answered, docilely. "I ike the horse too well?and, to be [rank, I like you too well!" "Thank you," smiled Horton. "As 1 jsual, you disarm me on the verge ( -?f mmhat T had nerved mvself for you. He nas causeu ciuo kussip, which may easily be twisted and misconstrued." "Do you fancy that Samson South could have taken me to the Wigwam road-house if I had not cared to go with him?" The man shook his head. "Certainly not! But the fact that you did care to go with him indicates an influence over you which is new. You have not sought the bohemian and unconventional phases of life with your other friends. There is no price under heaven I would not pay for your regard. None the less, I repeat that, at the present moment, I can see only two definitions for this mountaineer. Either he is a bounder, or else he is so densely ignorant and churlish that he is unfit to associate with you." "I make no apologies for Mr. South." she said, "because none are needed. He is a stranger in New York, who knows nothing, and cares nothing about the conventionalities. If I chose to waive them, I think it was my right and my responsibility." Horton said nothing, and, in a moment Adrienne Lescott's manner changed. She spoke more gently: "Wilfred, I'm sorry you chose to take this prejudice against the boy. You could have done a great deal to help him. I wanted you to be friends." "Thank you!" His manner was stiff. "I hardly think we'd hit it off together." "I believe you are jealous!" she j? nnminppd. "Of course, I'm Jealous," he replied, without evasion. "Possibly, I might have saved time in the first place by avowing my jealousy. I hasten now to make amends. I'm green-eyed." She laid her gloved fingers lightly on his bridle hand. "Don't be," she advised; I'm not in love with him. If I were, it wouldn't matter. He has " 'A neater, sweeter maiden, " 'In a greener, cleaner land.' He's told me all about her." Horton shook his head, dubiously. J "I wish to the good Lord, he'd go back to her," he said. i (To be continued.) GENERAL NEWS NOTES. Items of Interest Gathered From All I Around the World. Railways of Nebraska are preparing to give work to 10,000 unemployed men. as section hands, repair gangs, etc. The Chinese government has extended for a period of 99 years the Japanese lease of the ports of Dalny and Port Arthur. More than 15,000 miners of the New River, W. Va., coal fields are threatening to go on a strike, over a question of a scale of wages. Major Benjamin F. Rittenhouse, U. S. A., retired, committed suicide in . Philadelphia, last Saturday, and was ' buried at Arlington Wednesday. Building contractors of Chicago, are , threatening to suspend all work in that city in case the lathers strike, ( following their demand for 16 a day. The total prison population of New ] York state for the year ending Sep tember 30, 1914, was 16,678, an in- i crease over the previous year of 1,817. ( The total number of commitments { during 1914, was 118,027. < General Goethals, at a recent dinner 1 idlcule." 1 "What have I done now?" inquired < :he girl, with an innocence which 'nrthnr Hioarmpri him. j "The queen can do no wrong. But i ?ven the queen, perhaps more pardcularly the queen, must give thought i :o what the people are saying." i "What are people saying?" I "The usual unjust things that are ;ald about women in society. You are seing constantly seen with an uncouth , freak who is scarcely a gentleman, however much he may be a man. And malicious tongues are wagging." The girl stiffened. "I won't spar with you. I know that you are alluding to Samson South, though the description is a dander. I never thought it would be necessary to say such a thing to you, Wilfred, but you are talking like a :ad." The young man flushed. "I laid myself open to that," he said, slowly, "and I suppose I should have expected it. God knows I hate cads and snobs. Mr. South is simply, as yet. uncivilized. Otherwise, he would hardly take you unchaperoned, to?well, let us say to ultra-bohemian resorts, where you are seen by such gossip-mongers as William Farbish." "So, that's the specific charge, is it?" "Yes, that's the specific charge. Mr. South may be a man of unusual talent and strength. But?he has done what no other man has done?with at Panama, announced that he had asked the war department to relieve him from his work on the canal, that It might be turned over to a younger man. The political complexion of the next congress will be as follows: Democrats. 232; Republicans, 194; Progressives, 7; Independent, 1; Socialist, 1. A dispatch received at Boston, from the captain of the American steamer Pacific, cotton laden, from Galveston, held up last week at Deal, England, says the ship has been released and is proceeding to Rotterdam. The Countess Szechenyi, formerly Miss Gladys Vanderbilt of New York, is ill in a Budapest hospital with smallpox, having contracted the disease while acting as a nurse in a hospital for Hungarian soldiers. The French liner La Touraine, from New York on Feb. 27, arrived at Havre, France, Monday, after sending out a distress signal on account of a fire on board while 1,000 miles at sea. Several ships responded to the call for help, but were not needed. The Holland-American line steamship Ryndam left New York Wednesday for England, carrying malls. The Ryndam is the only passenger carrying vessel sailing from New York to England this week, and was sent on the trip especially to carry the mails. The national banks of the United States on December 31st reported surplus reserves $423,000,000 larger than on October 31. This enormous gain in surplus reserves is said to be one of the results of the mew Federal reserve banking laws. Rev. Billy Sunday preached two sermons to Princeton university students at Princeton, Monday, despite the fact that President Hibben refused to invite the evangelist there because he didn't like his style and language. Nearly 1,000 undergraduates "hit the trail." Carl Ruroede, a German-American, and four German reservists, plead guilty in the Federal court in New York, Monday, to charges of fraudulently obtaining passports. Ruroede was given a sentence of three years in the Atlanta prison. The others were fined $200 each. Rev. Billy Sunday has agreed to extend his revival campaign in Phiadelphia until March 21st, In order to give his assistance to the campaign being waged throughout the state for a local option law. Mr. Sunday will speak from the same platform with William J. Bryan and Andrew Carnegie on March 15. Because of the cutting off of the export trade by the European blockade, wholesale prices of beef in Chicago, have declined one-half to three cents a pound. The price of the retailers to the consumers have remained sta- , tionary. It Is estimated that $8,000- ( 000 worth of beef Intended for export, ( is held up in Chicago. A belated letter leceived in Boston i a few days ago from a. missionary in Mexico, tells of a railroad catastro- i phe that occurred on January 18, on < the line between Colima and Guadala- , Jara. A special train of twenty cars, loaded to capacity, inside and out, plunged down a steep incline and off into an abyss. Six hundred persons were killed outright, 300 injured and i only six were unhurt. I President Wilson has set May 10 us ] the date for a conference between ( leading bankers of the United States, and finance ministers and leading , bankers of Central and South Ameri? ? m ? * 111 KA V* Q 1 rl in Let. lilt* tuuici CIIVC Will Ut uwtu *? Washington and its purpose is to de- < velop more cordial business relations ( between the United States and the nations to the south, of us. The visitors will be entertained by the government. i National leaders of both political parties can see little or no chance for escape from fights to a finish over the . liquor question on the floors of the presidential nominating conventions ( in 1916. In an open letter Senator Clapp says: "If business is good in , 1916, prohibition will be a most important factor in the 1916 campaign. The question has become an economic issue and the saloon has become generally recognized as a menace both by employers and workers." , Hudson Maxim, the inventor, said at a dinner in New York, Monday: "The dove of peace is a stool pigeon." Continuing, he said: "Peace experts speak of our tremendous navy. That is funny. Once our navy ranked second. Now it is a bad fifth. The time to build a navy is before we are whipped. In our present condition it would take at least two years to pre- : pare for war. An enemy could do, and would do, to us what the Germans did to Belgium, only we would not to be able to give as good an account of ourselves as the brave Belgians i did. They were better prepared than < we are or could be on short notice, i We would become a nation of hoboes at once just as the Belgians have become/' MONARCHY OF KING COTTON Must Be Limited for the Sake of Safety. OVERPRODUCTION MEANS WEAKNESS. Great Crop of the South Basis of the Financial Strength of the Union?80 Long aa the Yield is Small the Sell* ing Price is Great; But When the Crop is Great, the Throne of the King Becomes Shaky. Following; Is the text of address delivered by W. P. G. Harding of the Federal reserve board, before the Baltimore chapter, American Institute of Banking: Manufacturer's Record. Events of the past seven months have demonstrated in a forcible way the importance of cotton as a factor In local, national and international trade and finance. The cotton belt of the United States extends across the continent from the Imperial Valley in California through parts of Arizona and New Mexico to Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, and thence eastward through the gulf and south Atlantic states to the southern tier of counties in Virginia. About >ne-tlfth of the entire population of the country is resident in the cotton Pelt, and is either directly engaged or :losely concerned in the production ind marketing of the crop. It may be interesting to consider for a moment some of the elements that enter the production of cotton from planting time until the staple is ready for conversion into finished proluct. The preparation of the ground pefore planting stimulates raising of livestock, as the motive power drawing the plow is either a horse, or a mule, or an ox. Plow points, trace :hains and cotton ties connect the farmer with the metal trades, while the plow handles, made of hardwood, ire contributed by a branch of the lumber industry. Fertilizer, generally used throughout the belt east of Texis, is the product of a highly specialized manufacturing industry, which In assembling, its raw material and in marketing its output employs thousands of men and furnishes a vast imount of tonnage for transportation ine8. In most cases the food and clothing of the cotton farmer and his family, from the time his crop Is planted until it is marketed, is sought on credit, as well as the fertilizer with which he enriches the soil. The outbreak of the war In Europe pccurred just as the Southern States ivere about to gather and market ivhat has proved to be the largest :otton crop ever grown. Prices for several seasons immediately preceding the last had been high, and had stimulated the production of cotton, is shown by the increased acreage md larger use of fertilizer. Investigations made last fall by chambers >f commerce in several southern cities indicated that the average of all idvances made against the growing :rop in several of the states was aetween 8 and 9 cents per pound, or ibout $42.50 per bale. About 40 per :ent of our cotton crop is consumed in normal times by the mills of the United States and Canada, and the remaining 60 per cent goes to foreign rountries, principally to Great Brltian. Germany, France, Russia, Italy, Japan, Austria-Hungary, Belgium uid Spain. Cotton for domestic consumption comes chiefly from the Uarolinas, Georgia, Alabama and Vllssissippi, while the crop grown west Df the Mississippi River is nearly all exported. Texas, with about 40 per rent of the total crop, exports about J5 per cent of her product. On the first of last September, when the new cotton year began, it was evident that a crop of over 16,000,900 bales was about to come in sight, igainst which there were debts already incurred and charges pending for picking and baling of probably ibout $560,000,000. Just before the outbreak of war the market price had been 12 cents per pound, or $60 per bale. The closing of the exchanges, the derangement of shipping facilities, the panic which seized upon the rommerclal world and the financial ehaos that immediately followed the beginning of hostilities destroyed the market for cotton and reduced the demand for it to the daily needs of such mills as actually required it to supply their spindles. Every purchser, actual and potential, was overwhelmed with offerings, and while the prices asked were admitted to be far below intrinsic value and cost of production, it was found by buyers that purchases on a given day were followed on the next by offerings at lower figures. Each mill owner was afraid to buy freely, even where he was able to finance himself, lest his competitor could by holding off secure his supply of cotton on a much lower basis. N'ot only were the merchants and bankers of the cotton-growing sections embarrassed by the inability of the farmers to convert their product into money, but the transportation lines, accustomed at that season to the heavy tonnage created by the movement of cotton to market, suffered so serious a loss of business and so great a reduction in earnings that they were forced to adopt drastic economies, such as annulment of trains and abandonment of improvements und repairs, with consequent stoppage of purchases of supplies. This necessary action threw much of their own labor out of employment, besides demoralizing the market for coal, iron und steel products and lumber. The 1 entire suspension or curtailment of operations on the part of coal mines. furnaces, steel plants and sawmills greatly augmented the ranks of the unemployed and aggravated the general distress. Obligations to fertilizer companies, to jobbers and to banks, both in the south and in the north, were maturing, and bankruptcy seemed imminent throughout the cotton sections, although nature had been most bountiful and had rewarded the toil of the tillers of the soil with the largest crop ever produced. Exports fell to less than one-tenth of normal, and foreign countries, mostly belligerents, that held maturing obligations of American merchants and bankers for large sums, aggregating probably more than $400,000,000, were calling for settlement. Our gold reserves were threatened, and the extremely sluggish movement of a great commodity that had been counted upon to produce <500,000,000 of foreign exchange, affected the finances of the world. The greatest financial leaders in the country were at a loss to find a remedy, although expedients of all sorts were proposed, among them the "buy-a-bale" plan, which resulted in the sale of a limited amount of cotton at $50 per bale by a comparatively small number of producers, which merely shifted the ownership of the cotton involved without increasing its consumption or adding to its market price, and which also tended to give holders wrong ideas as to actual values. Various other schemes were agitated looking to the purchase of cotton at a fixed price by the National Government by the states, but no legislative action resulted except the enactment of an excellent wharehouse law in the Btate of South Carolina. The city of St. Louis, the commercial gateway to the Southwest, and a great distributing center for the entire south, was perhaps, more directly affected by the distress prevailing throughout the cotton States than any other financial center, and to a banker of that city, Mr. Festus J. Wade, is due the credit for the initation of a relief measure whose evolution into a great cotton loan fund was undoubtedly instrumental in ending the cotton panic. Qut of a total sum of 1101,036,000, subscribed by and through banks in the north, east and west, New York subscribed 152,000,000, Chlcage S12.045.600, St. Louis $12,004,600, Philadelphia $6.170,000, Baltimore $2,451,000, Boston $2,085,000, Clncinatti $2,000,000, Cleveland $2,000,000, Pittsburgh $2,000,000, and several other cities more than $1,000,000 each. Altogether there were 689 subscribers in 64 cities situated in 19 states and the District of Columbia. While the funds provided were barely touched, the total loans having been only $28,000, the plan was nevertheless effective in creating the mental attitude necessary as a foundation for the restoration of orderly methods and normal conditions, yet while the funds was being subscribed much opposition was manifested and the idea condemned in some quarters as illegal, economically unsound, dangerous and visionary. The essential feature of the plan adopted, however, was co-operation between banks of the south, who as a rule, already had a large equity in the cotton crop by virtue of advances made while it was being grown, and banks in other sections, whose interests were remote and whose participation was due to a patriotic public spirit. The members of the Federal reserve hoard, in their individual capacities, consented to act as a central committee in general charge of the management of the fund. A loan committee was appointed, composed of two members of the Federal reserve board and of six well-known bankers representing the cash subscribers. Th) South was to subscribe as needed a total of $35,000,000, and Southern banks were allowed to pay their subscriptions in notes secured by cotton collateral, and loan committees were appointed in each of the cotton-growing states, who, in turn, selected a large number of local committees throughout their respective states. The plan provided, in effect, for a moderate valorization of cotton, as loans were to be made upon the usual margin, on a basis of 6 cents per pound. The prominent part taken by the secretary in the formation of the fund, to whose unflagging efforts its accomplishment was due, the attempts of its opponents to defeat the plan, the interest taken in the matter by the president, who requested the attorney general of the TT?ctdao ?/-> n n finlninn as UlllLUU kjicttwo w m*. to its legality, which opinion held that it was not in contravention of any of the anti-trust laws?all served to give this measure of relief the widest possible publicity, not only throughout the United States, but abioad as well. As soon as spinners throughout the world were impressed with the fact that cotton, after all, had a tangible value, but holders could aecure loans upon It on the basis of 6 cents per pound, they began to buy. Other circumstances about this time tended to broaden the demand, the Federal reserve banks were opened, money rate began to drop, Great Britlan announced that cotton would not be regarded by her as contraband of war, a well-defined movement to Germany ensued, sales of the cotton in the south liquidated pressing .'ndebtedness, ond in a short time the whole situation was sensibly relieved. Despite our limited shipping facilities, handicapped further by vessels having to pass through miue-infesteil seas, exports of cotton for the past two months have been without parallel. The war risk insurance provided by the government last fall has been most effctive, and has facilitated a movement of cotton which otherwise would have been impossible. With occasional fluctuations, prices have advanced to more than 8 rents per pound, and the general bankruptcy that threatened the South when the situation lookel darkest has been averted. The $100,000,000 gold pool which was formed last fall for the purpose of reducing the price of foreign exchange so as to render possible the liquidation of our indebtedness abroad has been dissolved, the first installment only having been called, and much of that unused. Cotton exchanges have been reopened, stock exchanges are again doing business in a normal manner, our foreign indebtedness has been liquidated by exports of cotton, wheat and other commodities, and we have shown an ability to absorb without Inconvenience the securities offered for foreign account. Quotations for sterling exchange, which were more than $5 per pound when the gold pool was formed, have sunk below normal, and the record low figure of $4.79 was reached a few days ago. Foreign countries have come to recognize the United States as the financial Gibraltar of the world, and if newspaper reporters are correct, agents of many governments are now seeking loans direct and indirect in our leading financial centers. History records no war conducted on a scale so gigantic as that which is now devastating Europe, and nowhere in the story of American finance can be found a commercial and banking situation so serious as that which developed almost over night during the closing days of last July, nor has there been a crisis throughout which a secretary of the treasury displayed better generalship or handled matters more promptly, skillfully and fearlessly, and never before has there been so rapid a transition from an acute situation of the utmost gravity to one of comparative ease and assured safety. In the Southern States, where cotton Is king, his power and glory mean always prosperity to his subjects, and his weakness or dethronement Is followed by their impoverishment. His influence extends far beyond his own domains to every section of this country and to the uttermost parts of the earth. His fall and partial restoration, however, convey a lesson that we should ponder over and take to heart, which is, that he should never again be permitted to become an absolute monarch, but that his sovereignty should be a limited one. It is probable that the present demand for cotton is due to an appreciation of the fact that it can be had for less than its average cost of production. Foreign and domestic spinners are laying in supplies, with an eye to the future, in excess of their imemdlate needs. At the close of the present cotton year there will be probably a surplus of 5,000,000 bales. The war still rages with unabated vlolance, and the danger to shipping increases dally. Cotton may at any time be declared contraband, and an effort to produce another large crop this season would be supreme folly, and such a result might be attained with grave consequences. The mercantile and financial Interests of the entire country and the farmers of the South should work together now as never before for the cause of crop diversification. Cotton acerage this spring should be greatly reduced and every possible acre planted in foodstuffs for man and beast. The 11,000, 000-bale crop in 1910 sold for more money than did the 16,000,000-bale crop of 1911, and not only is it certain that 10,000,000 bales produced in 1915 would bring a greater cash return than would 15,000,000 bales, but it is evident also that the large yield may mean disaster, while the smaller, if the land released be properly utilized for food crops, would witness the restoration of King Cotton to this throne and would permit his subjects once more to trip along the primrose path of prosperity. ^ ' HAPPENINQ8 IN THE 8TATE Items of Interest from All Sections of 8outh Carolina. The State Teachers' association meets in Florence March 24. During the month of February, 569 persons were tried In the Columbia city court. Fines collected amounted to $1,413.75. James M. Baker, secretary of the United States senate, Is spending a few days with relatives in Lowndesvllle, his native town. Will Sherard, a negro, killed Irene Washington, a negrcss, near Ware Shoals last Saturday, by severing her Jugular vein with a pocket knife. B. C. Trippett who shot W. L. Jones in Suipter last Friday night, Inflicting wounds from which Jones died Saturday, has been released on a $2,000 bond. A report from Spartanburg Is to the effect that J. Broadus McKnight, for fifteen years secretary to Senator Tillmen, is to be appointed as clerk of the Western district of South Carolina. A large barn on the plantation of R. H. Aman near Bishopville, was destroyed by flre Monday, together with 78 bales of cotton, 1,500 bushelB of corn, and roughness valued at $500. The cotton was insured. As a result of the primary election for municipal officers of the city of Greenwood, which was h"id Tuesday, A. S. Hartzog and E. R. Goodwyn will have to make a second race for mayor. The vote for mayoralty candidates was as follows: Hartzog, 280; Goodwyn, 211; P. W. DeVore, 190, and F. S. Evans, 118. F ire in Sumter late Tuesday night, destroyed two large frame buildings occupied by the Harby-Epperson stables, together with a quantity of eed and some score of mules and horses. The total loss is about $15,000. Mrs. Ellen Lowell of Zoar, Chesterfield county, died Thursday from the 'fects of a poison tablet she took by mistake last Sunday. Citizens of Ea3tover have preferred charges with the Richland county ispensary board against W. H. Thompson, dispenser at that place. Among other things, Thompson is charged with being perniciously ictive in politics and it is also alleged lhat he has been receipting each month for the salary of a porter when no porter has been employed. S. Curtis Armstrong, master mechanic of the Orr cotton mills, of Anderson, Tuesday night shot and instantly killed W. C. Green, an itinerant mill operative, who broke into the former's house, after members of the family had retired and who acted as though he was drawing a pistol from his pocket when Mr. Armstrong discovered him in the house and called on him in vain for an explanation as to his presence there. A Preacher Judge.?The Rev. J. H. J. Rice, who has been acting as police Judge for the last nine months, has "made good," in the Judgment of some of his enemies who were at first skeptical, says an Emporia, Kan., dispatch. Here are some of the things which have been noted especially in the conduct of the Emporia police court: The police are instructed to make arrests only when absolutely neces sary. Use preventive and educational methods instead of penal. Only six times in nine months have lawyers appeared before the court for the accused. The prosecutor is in reality attorney for both sides. It is strictly a court of fact, not of suspicion. Paroles are given to a large percentage of prisoners. Not one case has been taken on appeal to a higher court. Only three persons have been before the court more than once. MERCY IN PARDONING POWER Tremendous Responsibility Imposed by State Constitution. RECOGNITION OF DEMANDS OF MERCY Notable Article by Ex-Governor Cole L. Blease, Discussing the Motives and Impulses in the Exercise of Clemency?Feels that the Down trod- I den and Abused Convict is Entitled J to a Fair 8how in the Interest of Right and Humanity. ?Ed. Case and Comment.] [This notable article , reached us after the pages of this number were printed. It Is so In harmony with the subject and spirit of this issue of Case and Comment that we delayed the appearance of the magazine In order that the article might be inserted with special page numbering. No advocate of humanltarlanism which is the essence 6f the "New Penology" has done more than Ex-Governor Blease to demonstrate his faith hy his works. ?Ed. Note and Comment.] It Is not my purpose to discuss, from a legal standpoint, the pardoning power of a state's chief executive. What I phall have to say must be understood as applying solely to the view which I held of my duty, as governor of South Carolina, under the constitution and statute laws of my state. The constitution of South Carolina provides that the governor "shall have power to grant reprieves, commutations and pardons after conviction (except in cases of Impeachment), in such manner, on such terms, and under such restrictions as he shall think proper," etc. It also provides: "He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed In mercy." During my four years as governor, I obeyed that mandate of the constitution as the Supreme Ruler of the Universe gave me the light to see the right. It has been said, with great force, that "the pardoning power has too often been permitted to He dormant." When I took the oath of office as chief executive of my state, in January, 1911, I began a personal investigation of the penal Institutions of South Carolina. I made a personal Investigation of the penitentiary. I did not hesitate, when I was in the neighborhood of a county chaingang, to visit it. I found what I conceived to be most appalling conditions?and these conditions were the rule, and not the exception. I found men serving life sentences who had been convicted of offenses niara tiHirlol a a mmnflrpH with miivii ?V1 v **** ?? -r l offenses committed by men who had served or were only serving a short term. I found a negro In the state penitentiary who had already served twenty-two years for stealing a watch valued at *27. I found another negro who had served eleven years for stealing *9. But, even worse than these in-1 stances which I have cited, I found In operation, within the walls of the I state penitentiary, a hosiery mill, operated by contractors to whom the convicts were leased, which was a sure and rapid breeder of tuberculosis. I immediately inaugurated a pardon and parole system, and began a fight for the abolition of this hosiery mill. The general assembly of my state was politically opposed to me. Factional politics In South Carolina had been, and are yet, bitter. But when I the facts in regard to this hosiery mill were brought out, the sentiment of the people was so strong that even a hostile legislature was forced to take notice. I wrote message after message to the legislature, and demanded that the state of South Carolina cease to condemn her unfortunate I wards to a slow death by the most dreaded and dreadful disease?that she cease to commit legal murder by j conducting a "tuberculosis incubator." After one of the most stubborn fights ever waged in this state, the bill to abolish this hosiery mill passed the house of representatives by a good I majority, and when it went to a hos-1 tile senate, it received every vote except one?and that one was the senator from Newberry county. If I had accomplished nothing else, I in my four years as governor except I the destruction of this hosiery mill. I would be satisfied, because I feel that It was a service to humanity, and that I it wiped a black spot from the escutcheon of one of th?f proudest states In the American Union. I pardoned some convictes who ought not to have been convicted, and some others who were guilty, but who ought to have been pardoned long ago. 1 Inaugurated a parole system, I and granted hundreds of paroles. I was as vigorously condemned on thel one hand, and as heartily praised on the other,, for nearly every decision I reached upon each individual case, as I any man who has ever been In publlcl life In the history of this country. I cared not for the condemnation or the praise. I was seeking to do my duty under the constitution, to exe-1 cute the laws faithfully In mercy, and striving to do the right, and to give I human beings who had made mistakes a chance to correct them and to do their part for the benefit of society. I have always entertained the view I that the object of Imprisonment should not be to make men suffer, and there- 1 by make hardened criminals, but that J it should be to correct. If a young boy gets into bad company, and is Induced to steal $20. the offense in this state is grand larceny, for which the I punishment Is severe. A jury, under their oaths, must convict him, and properly so. But when he has been taught his lesson, and has repented, why not give him a chance to make I good and do something worth while in the world Not punishment, but the protection of society, was the principle upon which I acted. I I have stated that I made a personal invoctitratinn nf tho npnnl institutions. I This matter of personal investigation was consistently carried out by me during my term of office. Thousands of petitions were presented. My secretaries were kept busy handling them. Each petition was acted upon by me, ( and me alone. There were convicts in this state deserving clemency who ' could not draw a petition of their own, who had no friends, and no means to have a petition drawn for them. They would write tue letters, many of them hard to decipher, and those letters received as careful attention as a voluminous petition drawn by the most competent lawyer and signed by hundreds of citizens of the community. The state house grounds were kept up by convict labor?"squads" sent from the state penitentiary. In several instances, when these convicts would be working on the grounds, or when they would be scouring the floors of the State House, they had come to me and stated their case. After investigation, some of them were pardoned or paroled. The grounds at the governor's mansion were also Kept up Dy convict laDor, ana irequently convicts there would have an opportunity to state their case to roe, and some of them received clemency. The parole system which I inaugurated was entirely succeesful. Out of the hundreds of paroles granted, very few of those receiving this clemency failed to lead good lives. They were given another chance in life, and they took andvantage of their opportunity. I firmly believe that this parole system will eventually be adopted by every state in the Union. In each case in which I exercised clemency, a report of my reasons was sent to the state senate, as a matter of record. In my first letter of transmittal of these reasons, I stated to the senate: "Nothing has given me more genuine pleasure than the privilege of exercising the power of forgiveness and of saying to down-trodden humanity, 'Arise, cast off your shackles, look up. remember that there is a God, and that there is a future; remember that you are made in the image of that God: remember that you have a soul to save which was given you by that God; I propose to give you another chance in life; I propose to give you another opportunity to make a man of yourself, to make a good citizen for your state, and, above all, the opportunity to save the soul which your God has given you.'" That stated my position then, and outlined the course which I followed during the four years I had the honor to serve my state as governor. The constitution required that I report to the general assembly only my reasons for pardons; but I wanted the record complete, and the reports included pardons, commutations, paroles, reprieves and all executive clemency exercised by me. In this connection it is but Justice to myself to state that, while I am proud of my record of having exercised clemency in more cases than any other governor South Carolina has ever had, and probably more cases than any other governor in the Union, I have been misrepresented by the press in regard to this matter. The reprieve of a man under sentence of death, in order to give me time to investigate his case, was heralded to the world as a pardon. It was so with commutations of sentences, parolee and every other act of clemency. As matter of fact, a large number of cases in which I took action involved only the transferrin? of the prisoners from the state penitentiary to their county chalngangs, where they could be placed at work on the public roads ?Improvement of the public roads of South Carolina being one of the most Important questions which confronts us at this timet. The law formerly In South Carolina was that a prisoner receiving a sentence of more than ten years must serve his sentence in the state penitentiary?that he could not be held on the county chaingang, used for the purpose of keeping up the roads of the county. This law was subsequently repealed, and it was made optional with the county authorities as to whether a long-term prisoner should serve in the penitentiary or be held by the county. However, there were many prisoners in the penitentiary, sentenced under the former law, who had terms of more than ten years, and when the counties desired the return of these prisoners, I commuted their sentences to serve on their respective chaingangs. Each time it was heralded by the newspapers that I had pardoned somebody. That, however, did not worry me. I wish I had had more deserving cases in which I could have exercised clemency. The legislature finally took the view that I was right in commuting these prisoners from the penitentiary to the chaingang, and they enacted a law allowing the supervisor of the county to make requisition upon the penitentiary for the return of prisoners from that county held by the penitentiary. A few days before I retired from the governor's office, I stated, in a message to the senate: "I may have erred, but if I have, it has been upon the side of mercy, and I thank God for it." Hundreds of prisoners were released from bondage by me. I told the people of South Carolina that I had no apologies for my actions. I was doing what I thought was right, and I have only thanks to God that I had the opportunity and the privilege. The impression has been created by the press that I granted pardons and paroles promiscuously, without investigation. In hundreds of cases in which petitions were presented to me, I felt it my duty to refuse clemency, and I did refuse. Time after time when a woman was pleading for her husband, and I could not see my way clear to give him back to her, and at the same time be true to my oath of office, I have felt that the responsibility was too great for any man to bear. Human suffering and human misery were before my eyes every hour of every day, and frequently a good many hours of the night. I am proud that I have a sympathetic heart, but I believe that when I had to refuse the plea of a mnth?p nr a wife or A child. that I suffered as much, if possible, as they did. But the exercise of true mercy involved the doing of duty, and many cases had to be refused. The constitution of South Carolina provides for a board of pardons, to whom the governor may refer petitions for clemency. It is optional ( with the governor as to whether he shall refer any petition, and when a petition is referred to the board its recommendation is simply a recommendation, and may or may not be adopted by the governor. I referred a great many petitions to the board of pardons. Some I acted (Continued on Page Four.)