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1! W 1 oin if! ft " yoLl.M^nI_ >X5[BER i NEWBERRY, S. C? TUESDAY, JANUARY t, 19I?. TWICE A WEEK, $1.50 A YEAR. {SECRET ASSOCIATION I OF KERSHAW FARMERS PUBLIC MEi'TIM; HELD SEAR j I rcofF OX H lis I . J f Former Governor Cole. L. Blease and J Senator Jno McLaurin Deliver Addresses. Special to The Herald and News. I Lugoff, Jan. 1.?That the farmers of | South Carolina ire closely and thor- | ouerhly studying economic questions: i t:hat they are teginning to face the ? . which| confront them in a iusiness-nke niriner, and that they are in^earnest n an attempt to get \ogether and sund together, for the protection of th fruits of their labor v;as strikingly evidenced at a public gathering of theFarmers' Secret association, held atlPine Grove school house, near herl in Kersha'-v county, today. The mfi-ng, which was attended by between />&and 600 of Ker I show's farmers, was adcressec o*y rormer Governor C->le. L. Bleise and State "Warehouse 8cK>.rBlssioner John L. McLaurin. w From time tc time items in regard to this Farmers' Secreta association, which is spreading ove*. Sr*th Carolina, have creppinto the newspapers. Yery little in regard to it is known by those outside the circle, however, :or it seems t> live up to its name, Emitting only those who are eligible, and then scing about its business iif a systematic way, and keeping its affairs ig itself. The Mon. Newton Kelly, who presided o?*er the meeting and introduced the'SUta'^ers tcfeily, said that the [.association* this community began with three members, of which he was one, and that the local lodge nownumbered nicie than one hundred farmers, the membership having grown to this ntfrnb^r without any special effort on the" part of any one. the members having come involuntarily. 01" *% \rehouse which had bBQ''Tectedb;y le farms of the rt A ? V A ^ - - J. Icomm^BT, a Du eling Toxsuxiou reei, with iHtal ropf^now containing between HO and 00 balesK of cotton, which Bjoyed a ow rate of insurance fcrd w'.Mse i^ceipts commanded money at 6 y ffl cent by r?ason of the state warehouse system, vhich he character 4zed as one of the lost advanced steps which had been taen by any state in the South since th- War Between t'ne States. The last Igislature, he said, tried to -kill it, notbecause they wrere prejudiced against he warehouse system, because they Hew in their hearts that it was a goodthing, but "on account of political eeling against the man who started Any man that ^ J ^ i r< ? rtf fit w in uu a luiiig i.\.e i/iidt is uw in. to represent the conty that sent him there," he s"aid amj applause. "The shoe pinches," he cntinued, "because tiie state warehou^; system has reduced the rate of \terest on money "borrowed on cotton^o 6 per cent, and they know if theiy c;k lend noney at * per cent on cotton' aft?? it>is made, the people will rea ize that they can just as easily lend money at 6 per c.nt on other things for tie making of cotton." . | Former Governor Blejse. t Former Governor Blease began his address by saying that the ^formers as as other classes ought o organize. "Your interests are no properly protected in t'ne legislatur< of your B state.'* he said, "and never .ill be so long as the legislature is (ominated ^B and controlled by corporatio. lawyers. "Those, and the people t'a?.y control Hi are th^^people who are today fighting ^^rlcLajirin and the state Warehouse kmf Because, when the varehouse Bn causes the rate of iiterest to glcluced from 8 and 10 aid 12 per Bo 6 per cent, that hurt* the corBons that these men r-present. ' B] all the corporation belonged. B traced down to their , fountain Iae said, to tne same mchey powlicli centered in Wa; street, iie corporations stood Jogether *>t men in the legislator* to reppthsir interests. The fapners, lie jmould Organize closely and Uf to protect themselves. i 'stacked the last legislature for I -ease of taxes and "the creation &?ss offices1 jfcferring i>articiilk> tha t9T J^Bnieoinn !/>V. Hi? erized as SBg biggest blujff t off on -rB|oplet c^ted by j?opat?.on for l^ir own I purposes,and the *tate board of charities, whose secretary drew as mucn salary as the governor of the state, j with an assistant at $1,800 a year? j officers whose duty it was to go around l and see "that the chain gangs were [ worked properly, and the jails kept I clean, and the penitentiary swept out.'' I [ All these reforms, he said, he had J fought for as governor, and had efj fected some of them, and reform was I needed and should be had, but it was | the duty of those vested with the proper authority to make them, and j the board of charities, running around ever the state making recommendations, was a waste of the people's money. Un eoir? tliQ locriclaturci hart attpmnt. ixv, caiu liiv^ ^ w^. ? i ed to fool the people on the state levy, | fixing it at ~->Vz mills, but that in reality is was " mills, there being an extra levy of 1 mill for pension and % mill for the state hospital for the insane. He said that Senator McLaurin deserved the credit for the warehouse system, and rhat it was "the extra ses| sion of the legislature called by j Blease" that gave it to the people, i thrmj^h the efforts of Senator McLau | rin. He told of a gentleman who came to his office wanting to borrow $6,500. That man, he said, was a large farmer, his lands being worth from $100 to $200 an acre, but ne could not'borrow a cent of money either on his land or his cotton. "I sent him to McLaurin fo: state warehouse receipts on his cotton, and within thirty minutes he had borrowed his $6,500, and he got it at 6 per cent interest." Hp said nobody wanted to injure the higher institutions of learning, but they were ^Jng extravagantly supported, and he referred to the borrowing of $S5,000 by Clemson last year, and $100,000 being asked for this year -mnoey, he said, which would never be paid back: Clemson, he said, would be of just as much benefit to the people of the state if she were run economically. The idea of these demonstrators, he said, "going around teaching the farmers how to plant pinders. These farm demonstrators are going around pretending to deliver farm lec tures, but in reality they are preaching politics, and using their offices for political purposes." He said the year 1915 had written the bloodiest record South Carolina had ever known?16 white women having been criminally assaulted, and more murders having been committed than during any previous year. He said that with all this crime, not one single bit of it had been laid to the door of any of the convicts he had paroled or pardoned with the exception of one "poor crazy fellow who they say killed a woman and then committed suicide?but if you will take the testimony and read it 1 believe you will come to the conclusion that .the woman in her shamp and depredation killed him and then herself." He referred to a letter which he said was the direct cause of the Winnsboro tragedy. "I have a letter in my possession," he said, "written by Sheriff Hood--l have never mentioned it before because I did not care to bring politics into that trial. I have a letter written by Sheriff Hood to Clyde Isenhower, and in that letter he said these words: 'I have got to protect the prisoner aY all hazards or lose my commission, Governor Manning has already told me that.' -The life of Hood and the life of Boulware and the life of Isenhower are charged directly and positively to the office where these instructions went out, 'that you must protect that infernal brute at all harzards.' and Hood, acting under the fear of losing his office, shot Clyde Isenhower, for which he died." He said he was not a candidate for governor for his own ambition, and if the people he represented would agree on any one man he would withdraw in his favor. But that was the only thing that would take him out of the race?he proposed to fight the people's, battle. There would never be political peace in South Carolina, he said, so long as one faction turned out all the other faction as soon as it got in office?the faction now in power even exceeded its authority in turning ruit snrnp it. no risrht to turn out. and who were reinstated by the supreme court (referring to the case of, Sheriff Huckabee of Kershaw, who was on the stand). "You can't expect aj Dago in-jCnarleston to obey a law the wisdom of which is doubtful, when every day the highest officials are vio- j iating tie fundamental law of the' I J M i slate, such as increasing the salary ' cf the superintendent of the state hos! pital to double the amount allowed , by law." He urged the people to stand i together and elect men to the legisla' ture who would truly represent their interests, and not serve only the cor. porations. ! - - - .... I He briefly referred to 111s pianorm, ; including the warehouse system! 2cent passenger rate; local option by counties for the control of the whiskey 1 I question; liberal support of Confeder-j ; ate veterans; libertl support for the ] i ; ; state institutions for white boys and , ! i girls; building up the free school sys! tern; 6 per cent interest; a rural credit: | system; abolition of useless offices; re; duction of taxation, decrease of pres! ent-day lawlessness; laws to protect ; labor in legitimate purposes and capital in lawful investments; repealing the provision of the constitution paying aaa a - - ?~ ? C /> Itrrt n nrrrA I ?f>-,UUU 10 Hie lauui)' ui a. l.mtucu ut^xu, , and providing that no officer elected : by the people shall be removed from ! j office unless convicted by a jury. Senator Jno. L. McLanrin. Senator iM.cLaurin was introduced by Chairman Kelly, as the "man who has done more for the farmers of this j state in a short period of time than ; any other man since the war." j Senator McLaurin briefly sketched j the inauguration of the system, and ; told of the bitter fight which had been wa.?pd asainst it by the financial inter- i | ests and the insurance trust. He told ; : of how the system nad reduced the in- \ ! surance rate on country cotton from i | $3.50 per hundred dollars, on a shortterm cancellation basis, to $1.58 per { hundred, on a pro 'rata cancellation i basis, a saving of considerably more I than 60 per cent, and of how the char| acter of the state receipt had been es; tablished in the money centers, and ! maney secured upon the state receipt at 5 and 6 per cent interest at a time ( when it was well-nigh impossible to | : borrow money in South Carolina at j o-mi- rQto nf intprpst on anv kind of ! security. \ The real fight against the state ware house system, he said, had a deeper j foundation, however, than the fact that" , money could be borrowed on the state ! receipt at 6 per cent, and that insur- j ! ance rates had been enormously re| duced. '"Through all the ages," he >said, "your forefathers and my forefathers have been waging a fight for pt rsonal liberty. People are now coming to understand that the man who controls your source of income, the I man who controls your labor?who controls your means of subsistence? controls 'you, and that this control is I being exercised through the subtle inj fluence of the money power; that there | is no liberation for the people until j you can free them from financial slavi ery, and the moment you break the chains of that bondage, then and then only will we have a free citizenship. Here is the reason they oppose the state" warehouse system: I said at Spartanburg last summer that the money of this country belongs to the Deonle of this country; that nobody has any more right to a monopoly of j money than to exercise a monopoly of j anything else; that money is nothing in the world but a medium of exchange, and that in a certain sense it j is a common Carrier, like a railroad or telegraph company, and that intere# rates are nothing but carrying charges, like freight to a railroad, or tolls to a telegraph or telephone company. That is the movement of which the state warehouse system is the exponent in the South, and if they can destroy it, then they break the back of the move- J ment and rivet the chains on (you. That is the reason I haven't been willing to retire from the position which the people of this state, through their legislature, 'put me in, for I have been able to call every trick which the money power has attempted to make, and with the help of God I will never stop until we have made the pound of cotton the unit of -credit, and thie same in the hands of the poor man as in the hands of the rich." In the face of the disastrous condition created by the war, he said, we had been able to maintain the price of thi3 year's crop at from 11 to 13 cents a pound, and for the first time in the history of t'he crop the tenant and the poor man have received the benefit of the high price. "The balance of the crop is in the hands of strong men, able to carry it, and we will make them pay back some of that four hundred million dollars that they stole from us I In 1914. (They will not get the cotton 7 ANOTHER USER SUNK WITH LOSS OF LIVES [ BRITISH STEAMER PERSIA TORPEDOED IN MEDITERRANEAN. Robert 3IcXeely of North Carolina, American Consul to Arabia, Among the Missing. London, Jan. 1.?The British liner Persia, carrying more than 200 pas sengers and a crew of between 250 and 300 men, was sunk by an unidentified submarine at 1 o'clock Thursday afternoon off the island of Crete, in the eastern Mediterranean. Reports to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation company sui'd that nearly all on board were lost. Robert McXeely of Monroe, X. C., American consul at Aden, Arabia, and Robert Grant of Boston were on the liner. Four boats are known to have got away from the sinking vessel, eacn capable of carrying 60 persons, but it is not know iS the boats were full The rescued were picked up by a steamer bound for Alexandria, where thev are exnected to arrive todav. Peninsular and Oriental line officials said they received no details concerning the disaster and did not know whether the Persia received warning. They also were unable to give any information concerning Americans on the ship. Cable communication with th? East is so slow that details of the disaster are not expected for a day or two, but the meagre reports received give rise to the fear that the sinking of the Persia will prove the most disastrous result of submarine campaign since the torpedoing of the Lusatania. But Little Information. Every efforts is being made by Conj on hand now until they paiy our price, | and they are beginning to realize that i fact." Senator McLaurin said that in his | forthcoming report to the general as# sembly, which he wanted the farmers to read, he was going to expose the machinations of the trusts whic'n had been fighting the state warehouse system, and was going to offer to submit to the legislature the proof that these trusts were operating in violation of both state and national laws, and he hoped the legislature would take up the matter for investigation ana pusn it. His reference to several matters with which he will deal in his annual report created a great deal of surmise, and the report will be looked for witn much interest. The state warehouse system, he said, had experienced a rapid growth and development; what it needed now was the active backing of the farmers and the business people of the state in its continued fight in their interests. "It is time," he said, "for the farmers of South Carolina to rise up and assert themselves." He said he believed in the organization of t'ne farmers, and they had a right to have secret or open meetings, just as they pleased. "Is the farmer to be the only man in all our society who can't have a secret organization? Do you suppose those insurance people, when they meet, let me know what t'ney are doing? Do you suppose the warehouse mergers, when they meet, go out and blazon it to the world, and inform us of what their plans and purposes are? This is a free country, and the farmers have a right to organize, and to serve their Koc+c intprpsfc hv organization if they so desire." During t'ne' course of his address Senator McLaurin developed his idea of a system of rural credits. If a man can borrow money on the product of his land, cotton, at 6 per cent, why can't he borrow money on his land, the basis of all wealth, at 6 per cent? If the product of the soil has been turned into a fluid as6et, why can't the land itself be turned into a fluid asset?making land what God intended it should be, the controlling power Ill LUIO TTUUU . The state warehouse system, he explained, was a great step in the direction of an adequate and efficient system of rural credits, which must be brought about if we are to escape an industrial upheaval. Both Senator McLaurin and Former Governor Blease were given close attention, and the audience frequently evidenced its sympathy and approval by hearty applause. Every effort is being made by Condon to get some information about Robert X. McXeely and Robert Grant The British admiralty informed (Mr. Skinner chat it had no information with regard to the fate of individual passengers. Ai cablegram has been sent to Alexandria requesting any news available regarding the surviv Ui a. The Persia sailed from London on December 18 for Bombay, with 61 firstclass passengers and 83 second cabin passengers, including eight children. Some of these, including Edward Rose, a Denver school boy, were landed at Gibraltar, Marseilles and Malta. At ATr? nrr.il 1 001 noocfinft-nrc? Q T .vial ociiico paoocugtio, inv/iuuiu^ ui women and 25 children, were taken j aboard, bui line officials say that after deducting those leaving the ship at various ports of call, something more than 200 passengers were on the (vessel. ' A majority of the Persia's passengers were British, bound for India, including many women. Her cargo was small, but slie carried a heavy consignment of mail. The crew was made up principally of Lascars. Sixty-one first-class passengers and 83 cabin passengers, including eight children, boarded the steamship Persia at London, according to information obtained from the Peninsular and urientai line. At Marseilles 35 of the first-class and 32 of the second cabin boarded the boat. The company estimates that after deducting the number of passengers leaving the ship at her various ports of call about 160 passengers were aboard when the vessel was sunk. Every effort is being made by Consul Gen. Skinner to get some information about Robert McXeely, the American consul at Aden, and the two other Americans known to be on the passenger list. The British admiral ty iniormea Jir. sKinner u naa no information with regard to the fate of <;he individual passengers. .Mr. Skinner sent a cablegram to the American consulate at Alexandria revesting the consul to ascertain the fate of Consul McXeely and the other Americans. (The Peninsular and Orien^l company stated that the Persia haa lufc London December IS and Marseille:December 26, carrying British mails bound for Bombay, and that she Was J sunk off the island of Crete. Only four boats got away from the ship. Tnese boats were picked up by a steamer bound for Alexandria and the survivors were expected there this morning. The names of the passengers saved have not yet been received. The com pany's statement says it is reared mat j the loss of life among the passengers and crew will be heavy. Officials of the line say t'ney are unable to give any information concerning American citizens on the Persia. They say the steamship carried a large number of persons, but that no official figures are available as yet. Passenger lists have not been published since the beginning of the' war. Mr. McNeely sailed from New York for England on November 27 on the Holland-American liner Ryndam. A fellow passenger was Koberr f. 5Kinner, American consul general at London. Mr. Skinner advised him to sail for the East by the Dutch line, but the young man already had engaged passage on the Persia. The Persia was last reported at Malta on December 20. The Persia was a steamer of 7,974 tons gross. She was owned by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation company of London. She sailed from Bombay November 14 for London and was last reported as leaving Gibraltar on December 2. The Persia was one of several vessels recently sunk by submarines in the eastern Mediterranean, through would take her from Malta. On De-1 cember 24 the French liner Ville de la j Ciotat was sent to the "bottom off the I island of Crete by a submarine which, according to unofficial British advices, flew the Austrian flag. The Persia was 'built in 1900 at Greenock. She has been in the Bombay service since that time. On account of the danger from submarines to vessels which pass through the Suez canal and the Mediterranean this route has been abandoned by the Japan Mail Steamship company, winch is dispatching its steamships around the Cape of Good Hope. Insurance rates for ysssgjs gassiBg throu?| Suez have been increased by English <8> # <$> COTTON MARKET ? 3> <$ <$> dewberry. <$ ? Cotton liy2c <3> 3> Cotton seed, per bu 60c ^ <S> <$> 3> Prosperity. $ <$> Cotton ll^c ^ ^ Cotton seed, per bu...... 60c * <S> <* -v~' <S> Pomaria. ^ Cotton ^ ^ Cotton seed, per bu 60c | $ <8> <S> Little Mountain. ^ Cotton 11 ^ <S> Cotton seed, per bu 60c t ^ ^ Silverstreet ^ <S> Cotton 11V4C ^ Cotton seed, per bu 60c *> <s? Chappells. <S> iCotton ll%c ^ <?> Cotton seed, per bu 63c ? ^ ^ <$> Kinards. <?> ICotton H%c 3> .. <$> Cotton seed, per bu 60c ^ <8> - <$> <S> Wbitmire. <? ^ Cotton ll%c ^ <S> Cotton seed, per fru 60c ^ >'otice to Colored Teachers. Uhe Colored Teachers' association of Newberry county will hold its second meeting on Saturday, January 8, 1916, at 11:30 o'clock a. m., in the Koge school building, Newberry. At this meeting arrangements for "Fair day" will be made. All teachers are expected to be present at this meeting or report to the superintendent of education the reason why. Ultysses S. Gallman, Colored Supervisor. underwriters to three or four times Ue normal figure. Lord Charles Montagu, who booked passage' on the Persia, is a London stock broker. He was born in 1860 and served with the yeomanry cavak^. / | JTNEELY }VAS NATIVE \ OF >ORfTH CAROLINA ??? \ Bom in Union Coonty?Two of Miss wgr Man's Keiatires Are Jow in Columbia. Robert Xey McXeely, the American consul to Aden, Arabia, who was aboard the British liner Persia, tor^edoed Thursday, was born in Union fl county, North Carolina, where his fam- m ily now lives. Two relatives, Mrs. De- M laney and Mrs. X. G. Ledbetter, lives in Columbia. It is presumed by relatives^ that one of the other Americans onl| board the liner was his brother, Dowd? who was to be his secretary. M Mr. McXeely, when appointed to tJM -Arabian post in October, 1915, wajjl cf the leading lawyers in Union ccfl t;>. He is a member of a large fa? that has lived for a century or in the Waxhaw district. He was wk on the farm at College Hill ceived his first educational trail* the sc'nool there. He then tauM the public schools of his native cl received scholastic training f? trance into a university, befon^ ?i-v. :?J 1.1,^ 5 lllg \N LLiCIi lie L'aincu tuc 1x10.1: D. Xo. 2 out of Waxhaw. HeB the University of North CarolinM which he was graduated with W gree of LL. B. He studied la\w Judge McRae, and upon being aol to the bar in 1907 began his pfl in Monroe. He was elected cleiV treasurer of the city of Monroe iifl 1907, and held that office until X<9 ber, 1908, when he resigned to bel a member of the legislature in He was 32 years of age. Mr. McNeely was one of a of children of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Xeely. His brother, Dowd McnM whom he had selected to be his^ tary, was editor of the WaxhawA prise; another brother, Var.cejB is a lawyer in Monroe, where? er and father with a yoimjH daughter are now living. HtM Neely is practicing civil enfl in Pennsylvania. Mr. McN? nephew of the Rev. S. R. BelM gia and a cousin or r. k. tfeM Carolina, the father of MrJ| 184 Mf?: was-in Cohn^Jbia yesterday*