Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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VOL XLIVx NO 89. NEWBERRY, S. 0., FRIDAY' OCiOBER 25, 1907. TWICE A WEEK. $1.50 A YEAR SEN. LATIER TALKS ON IMMIGRATION WAS IN NEWBERRY FOR FEW HOURS YESTERDAY. The Piedmont South Most Prosperous Section in World-Should Re strict Immigration. Senator A. C. Latimer spent yes terday in Newberry. He is returning to his home at Belton from Batesbung, where, on Wednesday, he addressed some three thousand people, who were attending the Tri-County Fair at that place. Senator Lhtimer is looking well since his European trip, and (talks interestinglv of -the conditions in Eu rope as well as the United Stafes. Of course since his first interview some weeks ago on the immigration ques tion, and having 'an.nounced that he would be a candidate to succeed him self in the United States Senate, his views are of interest on this subject. It seems that it is to be one of the issues of the -campaign for United Statis Senate next year, and there ea' be no doubt that it is a national issue; it is also a. state iss, because our legislature is confronted every year with ithe discussion of .the con tinuance of our own immigration de pa tment, which was established some four years ag1. Senator Latimr says that whei he made the trip abroad this summer, ihe was not committed to any decided position on the question, because he was .not so well informed as' he is now after a thorough invstigation as to the class of immigr~abts, which are being brought here and the conditions, which exist in Europe. He says that from Northern Europe we recive the smallest proportion of our immi grants, and that those who come from that section, are the most desirable, leing intelligent and law-abiding, and that he would welcome sach .people. who would be willing to pay their bwn transportation 'and become h*e:wn ers after their arrival here, and being a class with whom our peoole-,could assimilate. He had, however, taken - the position against indiscriminate immigration in speeches which he de livered more than a year ago, Senator Latimei- says that some of the newspapers, which have eriiteis ed his position, have not been -air enough .to give him an impartial hear ing. 'Dhe Herald and News asked him. to give an interview on this su'bject, which is a live one in this state at this timne, and Mr. Latimer readily consented to talk. 'He says after his speech at Baitesburg on W'ednesd'ay where some three thousand farmers were gathered, that a great number of them came to him af-terwards and endorsed his views onm the subject. It was not his purpose to make it an issue in the campaign, but inasmuch~ as he proposes 'to offer some amend ments to the present - immigration laws of the 'United States, and as he is on the inigration .committee to investigate the subject, he felt that it was due the people of the state that he should give them his opinion and his views on the anbject. At the same 'time he would' be glad to know the sentiment of 6.is own people -and 'to realize that he was backed up in his position by 'the people of his own state. Mr. Latimer is 'Iso very much in terested ;in the drainage of the swamp lands of this state, and he be lieves that now is the time to get an appropriation from the national gov ernent for this purpose. President Roosevilt, in his speech at Vieksburg, Miss., the other day, an nounced that he would recommand an appropriation to reclaim 'the swamp lands of that section, and Mr. Lati mer believes this is an oppotune time to have the swamp lands of South Carolina reclaimed, and it is as rea sonable that this should be done as that millions of money should be ex-I pended by the governiment to furnish; water for those lands in 'the wvest, which are without water. Speaking of the immigration ques-' tion in its various phases, Senator~ Latimer said: "I am satisfied that the objeet for wa; ereated las been misundelstood b the people. The Senate passed an immigration bill last winter. provid in tfr the illiteracy test. The Hous-- disareed to the illiteracy test. and it became nece.ssary to effect a comprozmse between the two Houses in order to obtain legislation,. This compromise resulted in a provision providing for the appointment of a ,commision, composed of three mem bers of the Senate, three members of the House and three lay-Members, to be appointed by the president of the United States. Being .a member of the Senate committee on immigration, I was appointed on .this commission. The duty of the commissiop., as out lined in the bill, was to investigate the subject of immigration in all of its phases, both in the United States and in foreign countries and report its findings to congress, with a view of obtaining intelligent legislatioi on this irmportant subject. "At the 'first meeting ot the com mision, which was held in Washing ton, on April 22, it was decided that a part of the commission should visit Europe, and the part of the commis sion, who could not make ethe Euro pean trip, hoild make investigation in. the United 'States. This decision resulted in Senator Dillingham, Sena-. tor Latimer, Congressmen Burnett, Howell. and Bennett, and Mr. Wheeler. going to Europe., We neither went to Europe to encourage or discourage' immigration, but to find out the class of immigrants, who were. ooming to the United States; from whence they were coming; the conditions surround ing (them in their homes; the wages. paid; the cost of living and climatic conditions, so that we might judge somewhat of their adapta-bility to the conditions that exist in The United States. This investigation has not yet been completed, nor is the repor of the committee yet in shape for pres6nitation to. congress, and what I have said and shall say in regard to the question, ill be simply my own views on the ubject. ''. have no -obleetion to people coming to the United States or to South Carolina, who will add to our citizenship, strengthen our institu tions and he$' perpetuafte the govern mnent under which we live. ''Less than 200,000 people came in to .the United States last year from Northern, Europe, which embraces Germany. Holl-an.d and Belgium, Switzerland, France, England, Ire land, Scotland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden; and the class of immigrants, who eome from the countries referred to, who come into the United States under our present immigration laws are unobjectionalile. In all of ethese ountries t,hey have 'compulsory edu eation, and the percentage of educat ed people compares favorably with hat of any part of the United States; hey have also been aceustomed -to a form of government of which they largely -approve and for which they ave a large degree of respect, but in .Southern Europe you find condi tions very different. In Ruissia, Aus tria and Hungary and further south, you find a high per cent of illiteracy mong the people, running anywhere from thirty to sixty per cent. They ave been accus-temed to military gov ernment and are kept in subjection by military rule. They are l:argely of' low origin, and in my judgment, will in no way be advantageous to ourI itizenship tunder a Republican form of government such as we have in the United States, and I am for re striting this class of immigrants t,o the lowest minimum possible by fur~ ter amendments to our immigration laws. In fact. we have not had this lass of immigrants to contend with ntil the last few years. I do not believe that - the social or wage'con ditions in Sout'h Carolina are such that we can reap any material bene fit from people who .coime here from Southern Europe, as we pay lower wges in the sont'h than are being paid in any part of the United States, and the questXion is futrthier compli ated by the fact that they will have o compete with the negro. The fur her fact that we cannot assimmilate this class of immigrants-even if we REVERSE SYSTEM ON OPTION LAW n t MR. FEATHERSTONE GIVES IN- t TERVIEW. t: Wants New Law Passed-Thinks e Counties Desiring Whiskey Should . be Required to Vote it In t The- State. t Mr. C. C. Featherstone, considered one of the leading advocates for pro- p hibition in South Carolina, has issued r a statement containing sowse sugges- t tions for his friends that will be of c decided interest at this time in view n1 of jthe .aniouncement by Represen'a- f tire J. W. Nash that a prohibition I d bill would be introduced at the com- d ino session of the geseral assembly. Mr. Featherstone, in his advoeacy n for prohibtion, does not wish to deny 0 to those counties who may wish to b sell whiskey that right, but he thinks ' that the sale should first be wiped t out entirely and the present local op tion plan reversed;. that is, the advo- b eates of county dispensaries should be requiret-. to vote .the disppnsaries back*in. - Mr. Featherstone did nit state yes- ' terdav.whether this ..would be a plat form for any of the advocates of pro hibition. but it is thought that com ng a this time. the -statement would t have its effect on. the candidacy of v those. who might desire gubernatorial P honors. t 'His statement is as follows: u 'I have been studying -this ques tion wi.th great care for a number of P years. In 1898, when, as a candidate b for governor on the prohibition tick- S et, I made :a canvass of the state, I t] the fact that they are coming here h wit*ot their families, I feel that they will 'mix with th.e negroes and p&oduce a mongrel raea that will fur ther complicate the situation. 1 I-also oppose, their coming to the .nited States. because we, in -South Carol- - ina, can get no benefit from them; and a they will go to Oklahoma, Indian Ter- V ritory and Texas and fyrther stimu- b late thq production of cotton, compet- 0 ing with our own people in its pro duction,, whiedh means a lower price t and a financial distress to our south- E ern people, who are engaged in the h production of cotton. We are now 0 producing all the cotton that can be ' used at a remunerative price, and the effort of the farmers to control the production of cotton would be fur- ' ther complicated by .their coming. I ''To -elaim that these immigrantsc would produce other crops than are now being produced in the south, is to claim that they are more far-sight- ~ ed and intelligent .than our people,c who have lived here for the last one bundred years. " The editor of the News and Cour- Isi ier has been more frank in his state- I ment of the views of those who were g advocating a large inflow of immi- e,c trants in the south, than lnyone who j i bas yet spoken on the sufbject. He bi states plainly 'that he is in favor of m nybody .coming, who has white skin; ti mnd that he is also in favor of empty- v ing all the houses at the cotton mills; w :f our, native white population, and og send them back to the farms and fill- g ing 'the houses with foreigners. How- ti ever, he has given us no proof that bi th.is policy will, in any way, be benefi eia'1 to our people. "The Piedmont section of the south is .now the most prosperous commun- ti ity in the world. All our people, who si riasire employmient. are emrployed at .o rdminnenative priceis. The farmers la ar prosperous and happy, the cotton ca rnills aIre mnaking good dividends on ~ivested c:npital, anzd wve have brought p :thout this condition with our own na tive labor udhiout any aid from im- a ni grants.C "In New England the immigrants iare gone into the mills and have le krgely elisplaced the native people. w wvho have gone to the west and o-ther m etiops :f the United States, and the er result is -that the New Enwland m;nu- et fact :1rea are not near so pro'sperois hi. 1s they have been in the past. nor is ei Lhe labor condition as satisfaci.ory as dvi-c.tel with all the vini of which T as capable a -eneral pro-hibition ).w for the entire state and foug'ht iost bitterly the local option idea. At hat time I was ten years younger han I am now. Siiee then I have -atehed'with great care the prohibi ion movements, both in this and oth r states, and have endeavored to tudy the question carefully and' con ervativelv with the view of aseer aining what was best for prohibi [on in the long run. "Of course, what I and other true rohibitionists desire eventually is a eneral prohibition law for -the en ire state, but those of us who .think onservatively upon the subject do ot want to rush into a state of af airs that can not be maintained. To o so would be to do irreparable amage and injury to the cause. hen we do get prohibition (and in iy judgment that time is not far i) we want to get a law that is so aekedl up by pucblic sentiment that it -ill mot be a farce. The only ques ion, t-herefore, that presents itself ;: How can such a state of affairs e best brought about ? -."Away back in the 80s, when the eense system prevailed in 'South Car lina, there was taeked on to the rhiskey laws a loeal option feature. think the gifted and lamented E. L Murray was The author of the bill. "Under its provisions various >wns in the state went to work and oted out whiskey. Vigorous cam aigns were made and the prohibi lon sentiment was revived and built p. For a numiber of years this went n and the cause received such an im etus that in 1892, when separate oxes were placed at' the polls, the ate voted for prohibition by a ma rity of about 10,000. Then came ie dispensary law under which -the >Aal option feature was. eventually estroyed. Under i.t the sale of rhiskey wasi -thrust upon. communi les 'by all sorts of questionable iethods. When dispensaries wake es iblished they could not be voted- out -snd they were established in nooks nd corners of the.state where, pre ious to that time, whiskey had never een sold. The result was that, with at. the local option feature, -and by >oling thousands of honest prohibi .onists into believing that the. dis ensary law was a step towards pro ibition, the cause that is so dear to ur hearts received *a -blow from 'hieh it may never entirely .roeover. The Brice Bill. ''Eventually a local option feature as grafted on to the dispensary law i the shnape of the Brice bill. Whaf -as the result? Prohibition again re sived sa. tremendous impetus. toun r after county in .the state voted hiskey out, 'and by a praetical 44 onstrationi showed that such a law yul be enforced as well as any oth e law. ''Under the Brice law; however, the tate dispensary macenne still existed. Te still had a declara.tion from the aneral assembly that it was the poli 7 of the State of Sou'th Carolina to all whiskey. We still had in Colum a that great politieal machine. That achine fought the Brice law with ail ie vim of which it was capable. In arious counties in 'the state, .where hiskey was honestly and fairly voted at, all kinds of contests on technical counds were made and the will 'of ie people, as expressed at the ballot >x, was thwarted and overridden. Two D)ifficultiek. ''Under all of the local option Lws that we have had the prohibi onists have 'had to contenid with two ~rious difficulties. First, the local .tion features were tacked on to ws which clearly defined the poli rof the state -to be in favor of the hiskey traffic. T'hose laws were issed by general assemblies which ere in favor of the sale of whiskey a state policy. The State of South arolina did not outlaw the traffic. ''In the next place, being passed by gislators. the majority of whom ere opposed to prohibition,,adequate 'achinery was not provided for thc iforcement of .the law in prohibition moties. The enforcement of .the law is a&s been retarded by some offi 1.1 ).pdeSed to it. '" a ddition to t.his, the punish-! whiskey laws was not severe enough. s It ought to be, in every ease, a term s on the chainang and not a fine. I People pay very little attention to s fines. t "Second. The greatest difficulty t ,thoug'h with which prhibitionists t have always had to contend under lo- I cal option laws is that the bur4en of I securing prohibition in the counties is d on them. Whiskey is in -and they must get it out. Whiskey is en trenched behind strong breastwors- r it is in possession, with all of its s money and organized power, and up on us is the burden of routing it. :We must get up the petitions, run the gauntlet of having them passed on by y offcials wiho are frequently anta gonistic. All of .the machinery is in the hands of the whiskey crowd, and t although the majority of the people in some of ithe counties are in favor of voting it out, every obstacle is thrown in their way, and it not in frequently happens that they are not able to surmount them. c Shift the Burden.v 'In my candid. judgment the next move that the prohibitionists ought to make is for the passage of a law -that f will shift 17his burden. I mean a law under which whiskey will be put out of the entire state. Get the general assembly to; declare that the polifg of the state is opposed to its sale-. - . '"Next, for the present, allow coun ties, under very rigid ristriotions, to vote it in, if a majority'of the quali fied electors desire its sale in any county. 'On the contrary, I do not believe bhat it would be wise, at this time, to t prevent the sale of whiskey from be- .8 ing majority for prohibition in the I people of any community are oppos.ed 1, to prohibition. A prohibition law in 01 such a community would be dangr- e ous to .the eause at large by reason of 1 its non-enforcement until the -time Is comes when we -have an overwhehn ing mapority for prohibition in -the entfre state. "In a prohibition eonferance in Co lumbia-several years ago r suggested.A and outlined such a law as I have b above suggested and my recollection. is that it .met with almost unanimons approval on the part of those pres- -e ant. The idea is in line of that b advocated 'by Senaior Otts ol Chero- f kee a few weeks ago.k ''Such a law will, in my judgment, ~ give us3 practical prohibition in al- I most the entire sta,te and will, at ths , same tim, gaard against the great dangers that may come from -the non enforcement of a prohibition law. in th~ose counties where public sentiment is, at present, overwhelming in fa -I vor of whiskey.. ''I.have reaehed this eonclusion af-jb ter .the most eareful study of' the sit. nation in South Carolina and in other O states. ''Local option laws led up to and t1 made possible general prohiibition in to our sister state of Georgia. Sueh laws e are f-ast leading up to the same con- b dition in Tennessee, North Carolina> a Kentucky and other states-. ''The Brice law, however, was, in my judgment, a great prohibition l-aw. It was the entering wedeUn der it, county afte'r county voted whiskey out, and the practical demon- ti stration -as to .the enforcement of the. law in those counties was the strong-0 est argument in favor of prohibition that could possibly be made-worth more than all' the theories 'that could t have been advanced. ''Hundreds of honest men in the state who doubted the practica:bility e of a prohibition law were converted j ti Farmers all over the state fonnd that 't labor was more easily handled. Few-j er fines were paid for their negroes; they saw t'he decrease of crime in! those counties. Merchants s'aw that!t the negroes and a good many whites, too, had more money and business was i better. and in scores of other ways the: conditions were vastly improved. 0th er counties saw and believed. The! leaven has 'been at work and the whole is rapidly becoming leavened, a The Carey-Cothran Law. ''Next eame the Carey-Oothran law. By it .the state took another up- ti ward move in the direction of prohibi- J tion. The state dispensary, that migh-; t t' oro-nized force for evil, wags de- hb troyed. I confess that this law haa3 ome features that are not desirable. nder it the effort is being made to o conduct t,he county dispensaries as o make them profitable to the coun ies financially, and thus populaize he sale of whiskey with the people. do not believe that it will aceodh lish this purpose, but there is some -anger along this line. County Rings. "Under it also organized countk ings will spring up, which will fight traightout prohibition. But, on the rhole, I think it is better than the >revious law. It is not, however, what -e want by a great deal, and we are Lot going to be content with it. Th-a 'arey-Cothran act, however, in my udgment, has made it easier for us o take the next great step. "Georgia, for almcst a score of ears before she got general prohibi ion, ad voted whiskey out of three ourthe of her counties under local op ion laws. The other states are fast oming to it under similar laws. From prohibition st4ndpoint, we are at a lost- critical juncture*. in this state. he wave is moving alongso beauti lly at present that a false step now aight prove disastros--might .give s a backset for 10 years.. Had we not etter adopt the cautious but sure ethod 7 Build up public seniment to he point where, whenvwe get a gen ral law, it will be sure to prove a sue ess. No Child's Play. "The prohibitionists had as well at he outset unqerstand one thing, and hat is that the enforcement of an ati-whiskey law is no child's play. ts suceessful enforcement means a irge public sentiment behind the law. t meams, in my judgment, a paid onstabul'ry force. It means the wying of a tax for that purpose. An nti-whiskeF la=-is the hardes"f- aA VWt enforeeder obvieous-reSo&. E I set6 my neighbos watch. my eighbor appears as a proseeutor and ee-that T ameonvieted.if I shoot own my -neighbor'S son. 1my neigh or sees 4o it that I am p Mated. E, on th'o tn*trary, I bqy whiskey rom my neighbor, ther*'is. no prose utor for the resor. that neither, yer. nor sellet wans -the law N en wreed. In adAition !o this, we,all now how hard it is to get citizens to form upon and testify against each ther. unless they have a personal rea an for so doing. ''You will, of course, understand a.at I am not for one moment under king to.say that prohibition law can ot be enforced. .On the contrary, i. an be done wh'ere, there is a healthy blie sentiment behind it. It can not e done witihout this. 'I am in favor of undertaking a eneral prohibition law only when we.. re sure that we can 'enforce it. And ien I sin in favor of going down in 2 our pockets and providing a spe ial tax for the purpose. It will not e money wasted, but both directly n& indirectly, it will come back to * s with compound interest. 'My plan is to move ~slowly and Lrely and I hope and pray that we lay move with such caution and with ich wisdom thgt .de will give impe as and ever increasing -impietus to i movement, and that we may not ive it 'a b'ackset by moving with too iueh haste. 'I am persuaded that there .are 2usands of honest men all over outh Carolina who have hitherto esi.tated to vote for prohibition be muse they did not tiiink that, at that me, it could be enforced. It is true iat the cry that 'prohibi,tion won't rohibit' generally comes from those 'ho ,at heart are li favor of the sale whiskey; but I know 4hat there are iousands of honest men in the state ho do not believe that a prohibi on law can now be enforced. Such men have to be convinced, t by abuse, but by argument, and iere is no argument so powerful as practical demonstration." Mr. Roosevelt doubtless recognizes. ie fact that it is necessary to admit ore states into the union in order be able to give names to the new dite ships-Chicago Tribune.