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.

SUPPLEMENT TO ^1 GO??RNOH McSWEENEY'S ! SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. Reviews Conditions in South Carolina and Recommends Legislation Deemed Desirable. THE STATE'S INDDSTBI?L PROGRESS IS HOST NOTABLE FEATURE OF YEAH AU the State Institutions Are Reported in Excellent Con dition and the Treasury Department Has Borrowed No Money-The Cause of the Common Schools is Strongly Urged Upon the Peo ple's Representatives. Gentlemen of the General Assembly : It is gratifying to me to welcome you as the representatives of the people under such favorable conditions. You come as the first Leg islature to assemble in South Carolina in the new century. The Nineteenth century has been one of marked progress and develop ment in all the arts and sciences, and it contains lessons which we may learn with profit to ourselves and which may be of use to us in legislating for the future. Those who constituted the first Legisla- > ture one hundred years ago little dreamed of the advance in all linea of industry and of the discoveries and inventions which havfe signal ized the century just passed into history. We cannot realize or even conceive the advances that will he made during, this -century upon which we are entering. There seems to be almost no limit to the achievements of the human mind. It is for us to contribute our part to make the world better and happier by Our having lived in it and to leave, to our children a goodly heritage and a name untar nished. It is your privilege to meet and to counsel with one another and to consider and enact such laws as will be of benefit not only to the present but to the future growth and development bf this grand old rnmmonwealth. The march of material progress and the development of the State, to which I had the pleasure: to refer one year ago in greeting the members of the Legislature, has kept up with steady and sure step. The business depression through which the people had passed and which was almost unprecedented seems to have been followed by a revival which'is touching all branches of industry. The increased price which our farmers have received for their staple crop makes large amend for the falling off in the yield. Our farmers areMearn ?ttg the importance of diversified farming and in consequence are be coming more independent. You need no better evidence of the progress and prosperity of the State than that presented in the figures contained in the annual report of ike Secretary of State. From this report it will be seen that approximately fifteen million dollars were invested the past year in South Carolina companies ; and while a large proportion of it is in cotton, mill building, yet many smaller manufacturing enterprises and industries have been organized. New manufactories continue to go up and we are no longer simply an agricultural people but are fast becoming as well a manufacturing State. We now lead all Southern States in the manufacture of cot ton goods and are second only to Massachusetts in the number of spindles, and at the present rate of progress will soon lead all the States in the Union in this important branch of industry. It is well to keep this fact in mind as you deliberate. ' J Taxable values have increased $4,245,695 during the past year, as will be seen from the Comptroller -General's report, but the increase is not near as large as it should be or would be if our system of as sessment ?nd taxation were sp revised and amended as to have placed on the tax books all the property of the State now escaping taxation and if that which is assessed were equitably assessed. Peace and good order have characterized our people during the past year. We have not been visited by plague'qr pestilence and no resort to mob violence has m?rred the record or stained the fair name of the State, though in one or two cases the strong arm of the mili tary had to be called into, requisition, but the majesty of the law was maintained and no blood was shed. In one case there was strong provocation for summary justice, but with the assistance of the mil itary the culprits were protected, lawlessness was prevented, and through the ordinary channels of the Courts stern justice will be ad ministered and the penalty paid. You as the chosen representatives of the people should guard with jealous eye their interests and welfare which, have been committed to your keeping, remembering always the responsibility which rests upc* you. * FINANCES. I take pleasure in caiiin? attention tc thc very creditable showing which thc Treasury Department will be able to make as to the finan ?ai transactions that department for the fiscal year closing De-* member 31, 1900, as will appear from the statement of receipts and ^--bursemcnts below.1 The Treasurer, by his strict attention to duty, fr'd(the uniform courtesy with which he has treated all parties hav ing business relations with his department, deserves high cemm?n? dation and I feel quite sure that he will receive in retiring from the office, which he has so*^worthily, filled, the hearty well-done of all thc people of the State. Cash Receipts for year ending pember 31st, 1900. Cash balance, Dec. 31, 1899.... $ 500,875 65 Back x axes.. 1,071 63 General Taxes 1899.... / 606,510 91 General Taxes, 1900.? 2592,47665 Railroad Assessments for R. R. Commis sioners.i. 10,381 64 Income Tax.............. 1,660 07 Annual Insurance License Fee.13,100 00 Graduated insurance License Fees. n$77 99 Fees, Office Secretary State... ... 9,450 22 State Penitentiary. 10,000 00 Privilege Fertilizer Tax. 75.214 34 Commissioners Sinking Fund. 44,029 00 Sinking Fund for Reduction Brown 4J4 per cents : Loans returned...$91,241 50 Interest on loans and deposits. 17,995 84 Phosphate royalty.23,475 pi Permanent State School Fund : Interest account .,. 2,225 99 Principal (escheats). 277 32 132712 35 2,503 31 Special State School Fui?d (Dispensary). 100,000 00 Morrill Fund from U. S. Government.... 25,000 00 Insurance Sinking Fund (public build ings).. 73 75 Incorporation Fees. 60 00 Dispensary, S. C.......... 1,913,069 76 Refunds-sundry accounts ... 2,384 70 $3?7?o,452 01 Cash Payments for Year Ending December 31, 1900. Salaries.7,.. $ .148,731 50 Legislative Expenses .... J. 40,895 77 Education, Charitable and Penal Institu tions ........ . 274,606 23 Pensions.. 100,815 71 State Special School Fund. 100,684 51 Interest on Bonds and Stock.,. 273,456 59 Sinking Fund for Reduction Brown t%y2 per cents :-?Loans.> 0,600 00 Commissioners Sinking Fun<??.... 42,04818 Clemson College : y Privilege Fertilizer Tax.$70,114 51 Interest Land Scrip and Per manent Fund .......... 9,266 36 Morrill Fund . ? 12,50000 State Col. Nor., Ind., Agr. and Mech. Col- ' lege: Morrill Fund. 12,866 23 Interest Land Scrip..... 5?754 00 91,880 87 18,620 23 Public Printing. 11,258 62 Election Expenses.. 19,248 88 Quarantining State. 10,234 11 Erecting Monument at Chickamauga.... . 5*392 15 Permanent State School Fund. 2,320 00 Direct Tax Proceeds-Act of 1884...... 1,116 90 Miscellaneous Accounts. 43.470 82 Dispensary, S. C.. Account proper.$1,779,631 9c Transferred to School Fund 100,000 00 - 1,879,631 98 Cash Balance, December 31, 1900........ 625,438 96 $3,760,452 ot The claims of the United States Government against the State of South Carolina for the payment of which at one time the State was seriously pressed and notice of suit given, are now in abeyance for want of authority to prosecute said claims in the Courts. And it hoped that an equitable adjustment and settlement of the counter claims between this State and the United States will be effected by appropriate Congressional legislation which will be final, without the payment of any moneys by the State. The State of South Carolina holds United States 4 per cent, bonds with interest payable quarterly io che amount of seventeen hundred dollars, which mature on July ist, 1907. The State Treasurer re ceived a circular letter from the Treasury Department at Washing ton, D. C., calling attention to Section 11 of an Act of Congress passed and approved March 14th, 1900, proposing to exchange these and similar bonds for two per cent, gold bonds. The Treasurer does not think that he has authority of law to surrender and exchange the bonds now held by the State. If the General Assembly should deem it advisable to make such exchange it would be necessary for special legislative authority to be given him. At the close of each fiscal year, it is always a matter of anxiety and doubt to the Treasurer as to whether he will have at command funds to meet the January interest on the public debt and the current ex penses of thc State government? This state of affairs arises from the delay in collecting the State taxes under existing law. If the tax books were made to close on the 15th of December instead of the 31st of December, as is and has been the case for the last few years, this doubt and uncertainty would be removed and no one bc oppressed thereby. It is well known that those most able to pay their taxes arc generally the last to do so. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, we have been able to meet all demands against the Treasury without re course to borrowing or over-drafts upon banks. In my Annual Message to the ?a&t Generai Assembly I asked their attention to the condition of certain bonds to which mine had been called by the Treasurer^ to wit: thirty-seven (37) bonds of $1,000 each, issued by the State in $59 in aid of the Blue Ridge Railroad, and *.vhicU ?ave heretofore been carried on the Treasurer's hooks as "Old Bonds ;Fundable," but wh?ch can now no longer be so carried. These bovids among others, it has been established in the Courts, Wcreplundeve?! ur/ trifled from one of the old banks of this State known as the State Bank-by Sherman's army in its march through thc State in 1865. Notice was immediately given of thc loss of the bonds to the Treasurer, and that officer was cautioned nut to recog nize any one presenting" then, as the owner. Under the Act of 1869 requiring thc old banks to resumo business or go into liquidation* the Attorney General of the State had this bank put into thc hands of a receiver, and *o the winding vip ot its affairs has been from that time under thc direction of tho Au unev General. Upon his motion in 1870 an injunction was issued c .join ing the Treasurer from paying any of these bonds wit lieut the sanc tion of the Courts. All but the said thirty-seven bonds, or thirty eight, for there seems to be some questior us to one, have boen from time to time recovered and funded, and the proceeds distributed urder the direction of ?he Courts. There have been several applications to the Legislature for leave to fund thc said thirty-seven or thirty-eight bonds, and proceedings in the Courts were had for mandamus to require the Treasurer to do so without further action of the Legislature. In all of these thc mer its of the case have been thoroughly investigated, and the Courts have declared the bank the owner of the bonds, and its receiver the only person entitled to fund them. In the mandamus proceedings, in which all the judges in the Stat': were called to sit en bane, (though all but two ultimately decided that the Treasurer was not authorized to fund without special action of the Legislature, two holding that he was and that the receiver was entitled to have the lost bonds funded without such action) the judges were unanimous as to thc merits of the claim. Previous Legislatures have hesitated to allow thc bonds to be funded, fearing that some one might possibly turn up with the bonds, and claim to own and fund them as an innocent holder. But as I pointed out last year this danger is now removed, as itt this case the twenty years from maturity, during which these bonds might have been funded by the Treasurer upon their presentation and deliv ery to him by any such holder, expired on thc ist of July, 1899, and any such holder is now barred under the Act of 1896. Under these circumstances, the claim of the bank to bc allowed to renew and fund these bonds in my judgment is valid and just, :u 1 should be allowed. It is not denied that the State owes thc bonds io some one-they are carried as part of the old debt of the State on the books of the Treasurer as owing to some one-th,e Courts have de creed the bank to be thc owner-no one else can now claim them, as all persons but the bank are barred under the Act of 1896 from doing so. It seems to me that in the face of these facts it will be a little short of repudiation if we continue to refuse to allow the receiver of the bank to fund these bonds. In some States, provision is made for the renewing of lost or de stroyed bonds, without requiring action of the Legislature in specific cases ; if might bc wise in this State to make a similar provision, as the renewing' of such lost evidence of indebtedness should be a matter of judicial rather than legislative inquisition and remedy ; and for the further reason that everything which adds assurance to the creditor that he will be paid even though he loses thc paper evidence of his debt adds to the credit of the State. I have gone somewhat into the merits of this matter as I cannot but feel that the credit and honor of the State are now to some extent in volved. I earnestly recommend it to the attention of the General As sembly as one upo*. which some action should bc taken, for thc bonds can no longer be carried on the Treasurer's books as "Oki Bonds Fundable." EDUCATION. Not thc least, gratifying evidence of our progress is the remark able awakening* tn all departments of education. At thc beginning of the century just closed the civilized world knew no ?> ach thing as a State system of education ; and in many quarters, until a compara tively recent date, thc position of those who advocated free public education as 'a legitimate function of State government was stub bornly contested, the opposition in our State being largely due to peculiar racial and social conditions. State education is now the settled policy of our country, being recognized as both a function and a duty of the government ; and it may well be questioned whether the nineteenth century has, made a more important contri bution to the cause of democracy and civilization. Since 1870 thc public expenditure for common schools in the United States has nearly trebled, being now $2.67 per capita of population, or an ag gregate of $200 ,<. 00,000 annually. It is a principle now well recog nized, that the safety of the government itself requires that it give its citizens the opportunity to fit themselves for an intelligent dis charge of their duties to the State. Encouraging reports come from the schools and colleges of our own State, indicating that they have entered upon an era of unex ampled prosperity. And yet much remains to be done to increase the efficiency of our public schools. Thc first essential is teachers of high moral character and adequate professional equipment. Our teachers have better opportunities for professional training than ever before, and they show a higher average of intelligence and pro - fessional fitness; but they are too often poorly paid for their ser vices, and the best results cannot be expected until the schools, in stead of advertising for bids from teachers, offer adequate pay and demand good qualifications. The complaint is made, and not unjustly, that our school system ii. not well articulated; that no provision has been made to fill the gap between thc common school and the college, and that the col lege must therefore maintain a preparatory department. While it is true that very few of those who enter the common school ever reach the high school, and fewer still thc college, yet those who de sire to fit themselves for college should have the opportunity to do so in their own schools. This deficiency has been met in many of thc towns, and in some of the country districts, by the erection of graded schools ; but in most of the country schools inadequate pre paratory training is offered. The result is that many of the country pupils who desire to compete for scholarships in the State colleges, or who desire to enter college, arc at a manifest disadvantage, and must cither employ some one to coach them, br must attend a pre paratory school or graded school in town, at a considerable outlay for board and tuition. The importance of levying an additional tax for the support of the country schools cannot be too strongly urged upon our people. This will enable them to employ competent teachers for longer terms ; it will enable them to give their children elementary and pre paratory training at home; and it will tend to check thc abnormal flow of population from the country to the town ; it will be bene ficial from every point of view. While ii Im possible for thc graded