University of South Carolina Libraries
' Ii G We Stock of 'PHONE it LIm APPriCLT, E&dior.Ia Is ~.ANN ING. S. C.. FEB. 14- 1912. C PUBLISHlED EVERYv WEDNESD)A' sCBsCRIPTION RATES: Six in onths... Foci m onts.-...--..------ --- ADVERTIsING RATEs: one square, one timec. e ; ea: su m m In - sertion. 50 cents. Obituaries ard Tribu'tes of Respect char e~i for as regular : iver'isements. Li beral cont racts reade ior thre.s- r a.d tvelve CAPITAL CORRESOENCE. C Columbia. S. C., Fei. L1Ih, 1912. The general assemnbly has been retarded in its labors to the extent, that I now bceeve there will be a continuation of't the session, or rather a prolong- I ing of the session beyond the i usual forty days, however, tis will be no additional cost to the taxpayers, as the membership is not paid by the day as hereto- H fore, but by the session: there fore, if the session lasts si 1 montus the memnbers wil receiveii nio more pay than it it had onlyx lasted thirty days, as was cou templated in the beginning. The paat week the time was i largely taken up with the dis-| cussion of the "Anti-Racing" Bill, and while some object to! the bill in its entirety, there are others, me among the nunmberl wlho object to the feature of thie measure which provides for the injunction to enforce its opera tion. I object to the injunction because. it is repugnant to the] principles of democracy, it is repugnant to the iea of Ame i ieanism: we boast in this~ cotun try of being a liety' ioving pet ple, and when it is attemipted to1 encroach upon our liberties, to the extent of depriving ai ctize of the right to a trial by jury. it is resented, even though a. mnoril issue la involved not only in ti State, but throughout the entire American repuolec. 'The meas ure before the Senate scel;s. to declare betting a "commuon nuisance," theprpntsoth measure rophrewdty o ite: the word "injunction," expect ing that the operative effect of the omission of the word "in junction" would be~ ovelooked, but they counted wrong. Now their purpose has been exposed they are openly admitting it is thieir purpose to apply the i junction process to stop thec races, and. while they adm'~it such a drastic measure is rvpu.r nlant to the ieals of Ami'-: citizenship, and especially m contradiction to every utterance of the Democratic party, the attempt to excuse~ themselves o the ground that unless th m june-tion process is n~rmittev t r expect to mc uil H ILJ 66, - 1e law will be ignored in Char- Ifr stonl. I do not agree with vi 1em, and do not propose to be tI: party to writing into the l atutes of this State declara I on the citizens of Charleston tb: r any other county, are law-h ss and- that they should by ti: rastically legislated against. .1 st ave no objections to the legis-f tture making betting a misde-it eanor with a penalty for the ic iolation, providing the offence iin a treated the same as any otheris etty violation of law. that is tolhi ay, when a party is charged c e ~ith the violation, he shall have .I he right to have his case tried i y a jury, that it be the judge is f the facts, and the law, as will ib e given to it by the judge who Crgi resides at the trial, but to sayjt ,mian cihargeci with a misde-c 1eanor, a petty crime at most. is hail be haled before a judge lii pon an affidavit, and that judge w hall have the power to send thel iin ian to jail oc the chaingang if ithout the right to meet his si ecusers face to face, and ques- si. ion them, is more than I am ti aling to stand for even for a i p oral issue. The Jawv against ; vi etting is now upon the statute it )0oks, and needs no additional fj ower, but the proponents of pi his measure are not satisfied to.< tand by the law which has ip< een on the books for many w -ears, but in their fanatical zeal pa roused by a sentiment recently e i corkedl into, perhaps popular si favor by some' ministers, they fsi ave an idea that the end justi- jsi es the means and would resort ta o tyranny under the guise of p aw they lose sight of the awful li :onsequences which might fol- ti ow such' legislation. If the in- wv unction process is once brought i nto oneration for asmnall offence a ike betting, it will go on until s1 ~he right of trial by jury will be n seless, and the hberty of the a ~itizen will always be in jeopardy tl ~venever there is a spasm of o ~anatical virtue. I do not be- p love in it. nor do I1 think the il nasses do. n: The c-ounty supply bill has tl een made up. the t-ax levy will a e the same as last year. I made a~ p the bill for the c-ounty, hand- ti d~ it over to the lHouse delega oun and they gave it to the Ii Way s and MIeans comiunittee.a eretofor-e, I have simly put in he bill the amount of the levy. ut this time I have speciied ow the money shall be exp~end d, basing this uon thle e2sti nates furnished me by, the clerk d f the board of county commifis-~ oiners. The bill carries about t' Last Friday I rececivedi a pe-ti- ' on frm citizens of Sammer-ton ~shing meo to sup)port the house irviamg~ for -a system of t 'uai police in this (coumnty: it is ni A 4anX t. short time t TerCOat ve wish to re, 'AY YOU onferred with a large number f citizens in person, they agree nth my position in this matter s to the need of the system in his county at present, so it can e seen that while the Summer ton petitioners no doubt disagrree ith me there are other citizens f equal standing who do agree ith me. There has broke out in Colm6 bia what begins to look like a! candal in connection with the atter of enlarging the State ouse, but I am sure when all the evidence is m,. it will turn out not to be anything more than misunderstanding of the nature f the power granted to the com ittee who was charged with the atter of carrying out the reso- I ution relating to the recommen ation of the governor as to the./ pproaches to~ the State House. Mr. Todd who is a member from harleston, and whose firm of!0 architects drew plans by the an tority of the committee, is ( an of the highest character, nd he would not for the value, of the State House be a party to a graft scheme. His tirm, in comd pliance with the contract made ith the committee did draw at great expense a magniticent set f plans, and they had built a odel showing how the building will look when completed, this odel is the attraction and ad miration of all visitors, it cost a hole lot of money, and if the~ plans are accepted and enlarging the capitol is authorized it will ost a whole lot more is self evi dent, but unless the legislature adopts the plans and authorizes thu work to be done. the build ing will not be enlarged soon. TI am satistied there is some pohities in the agitation about the actio~n of the committee that authorized the architect to make these plans and I am also satisfied the resol lutions did not give them the au thority they assumed, but they vent ahead, made the contract and now it is up to the legisila tre to endorse what the commit tee did or repudiate it, and this can be done too, without reflectd ing upon the integrity of the omiittee or the architects eith er. There are some newspapers that are endeavoring to conneet the governor with this business, but .[ cannot see what lie had t~o o with it, other that when the >lans were shown to him, he re narked like hundreds of others, "they are oeautiful,'' the papers go on to say that he said "if the general assembly passed the bill e would approve it," all of which may or may not be true, but if true, I do not see how thims would connect him with a scan dal, admitting there is room for scandal. Governor Blease may approve the enlargement of the capitol, so has every governor ince Ellerbe, every one of then.m aas recommended the enlargc Thenl ye within i That a WILL F >m those at home, but my ews on this subject are so mi~nghly grounded, and I rve made themi so well known, Las somewhat surprised to get a petition, I did not receive it ~wever until after I had killed e House Bill I was asked to pport. There is no hurry r such legislation. Sumter is in tor the experiment, we naitosee how it will work our sister county,if it is sat actory, then thle matter of ting such a system can be usidered for the next session. ould not support the kind of tis which have provided the stemn in some of the counties, cause I am sure the police are een powers that are unconsti-. tiona!. If the people of tis unty desire such a system, it my present idea a bill can be troduced at the next session sich will permit a policeman every township in the county, the citizens of a township de e it are willmng to pay for the me. If I uind the people ink they should have the lice, then it is niy present ow to get up a bill providing at whenever one-fourth of the ee-hold voters of a township ~tition to the sheriff of the ~unty commissioners for a )iceman, tihe sheriff shall for rd the namie of a suitable ~rson or persons to the gov nor- to be commissioned as ch ofticer, and that the town up petitioning for the officer ali pay the expense of main ining said officer, the fines im sed for the violations of the w shall go to the road fund in 10 township fronm whence they re collected. This is a crude ea I have in mind at this time out a rural police system ould the people disagree with e as to the necessity for such system. At the present time ere is a popular spasm all e-r the State for this rural >lice systemi, and in some of e counties the police have ore Dower thaui the sheriff. ese laws are unconstitutional, d the officers operating them e likely to soon run up against e courts because, they are mamissioned by the) sheriff who s no constitutional authority. d cannot be given such author y by legislative Act. Article section 7 of the constitution ainly says the governor "shall immission all officers of the tate," and unless the governor es commssion, the officer is ithout authority, and is likely ) bring on complications, there re I say if we are to have a :>uce system in the county we oudhave one that is author ed by the law and the consti tion. Recurring to the Sum erton petition, I do not wish lose people to think I am ig 1e Mor ;h Main Stree Trou iey on. ST IGAT E IIM I and his grouch is received and placed in the Journal, where thisi precedent will end I know not, I am looking for the Journal of the general assembly to become the sewer of all of the political filth and acrimony than can be gath ered, or that the Journal be made to take the place of the columns of some of the daily newspapers and th Mr yelping lhttle followers. some' * county press. I know of n. .,r:-a.dent for such, and I how 0-3 posuts of the gover no8 xx- d -.,i, if they have not g~ t so fa already. I am sure if ~,it.ininued, their very acts ;~: i .> to damn them in the futue .e people are not fools. they are able to discriminate, and when they learn as they surely will how their representative are in a conspiracy to dam up tne political waters for the de struction of the present execo tire, the dam will break abou. them. and the schemers will be engulphed in a whirlpool of con demnnation. The mnasses believ' in a fir deal, they demand it ThereeI say, the filling up ot teJunal with the grievances of miinor otficials, or private citi zens should this be done, will not be sanctioned by those who have the balloting power. I really be lieve there arc men in the gen eral assembl~y who would be de lghted to have The State's noto rious buzzard cartoon placed in the Journal for future genera tions to look upon, I believe thesei men would lhke to have placed~ in the Journal the scandalous editorial of a Dorchester news paper, in which it was charged that when Governor Blease went to Columbia to take the oath of office, accompanied by a number of friends he stopped at several. blind ti'gers and by the time hel go to the capitol be was so~ drunk~ he had to be held up to matke his address, 1 have heard that this~ same infamouse faise hood has~ been repeated in pul pi ts as hear say. I was in Colum bia, saw Governor Blease take the oath of office and saw him at' his hotel after the oath was ad ministered, lHe reached Colum bia desperately ill, was carried to the Staite House, accompanied by Doctor House:il his family physician. lie took the oath of office ma wais too feeble to de lie thc address, at his own re quest the reading clerk of the House~ Hon. McGowan Simpkins: didl the reading, all the while1 Doctor Houseal sat by the Go v er nor holding his pulse. as soon as the ceremony was over, the governor was removed to his ho tel. and during that day his famn ily and friends were greatly con cerned over his condition, late that night a rumor got out and went flying over the city that tihe governor was dead. but in ashiort! while this rumor was stilled by a bulletin announcing thme Gover NI' t. We have ~ers esting easy, on account of the oise in the hotel he was remov d to the mansion. Govern or 1ease's condition was very se ious for several days thereafter, and yet the newspaper editor, ven after he learned the truth, unity to know that his editorial as a cruel slander, he did not ae the manliness so far asI ave been able to ascertain, to pologize. I mention this as one f the incidents of the mean, con eptible prejudice that has been resorted to, and as heretofore said, I believe there are men so blinded with their gangrene hat red, they would like to place tbese slanders in the records. 'elI me such tactics are fair? Tell me it is sensible politics? tell me the people are going to tccept and endorse such conduct? Lfor one do not believe it. The people I represent know e so well that when they read Yom my pen they have contidence i what I tell them, and 1 sayj that I have obser-'.ed Governor ease since he has attained that igil oflice, I[frankly tell you h e has, according to my way of look-. ng at things made mistakes, he has said things I would not have said. but after all he is human, his hide is no thicker than the most1 of us. If a coal of fire is placed on the back of the average man e will squirm and kick, when te enemies of Blease put coals of fire on his back he kicks hard and strong. but when they con tinue to stick him with fire he roke loose and went at them without policy or mercy, and without thought of his political future. In this, he should have ontrolled his temper, but he did not, and it was one of his great est mistakes. I have voted to pass several measures over the governor's veto, and sustained him in a num ber, I am not altogether satistied that I did right in voting over his veto any of the measures, but from my view I believed I was right, but I know I was right in those I sustained him in. And whenever there comes for my onsideration anything I shall endeavor to judge it on its merits, and not from the standpoint of a partizan, this h-as been my atti tude all along and I propose to so ontinue. When the primary comes on I sall in the selection of my choice for governor consider the claim of the present incumbent for re election, and if his record as gov ernor justifies my support he shall have it, if he does not I shall support some one else for the place. I shall not be driven from my ideas of justice by the howling of certain newspapers nor by what Governor Blease has said, but I shall judge him solely by what he has done. I was pained to learn of the a large ~R, S.C. who is now at the hospital here, I did not learn of his being here. antil late Friday afternoon while on my way to a meeting of the finance committee, at this time this committee is very busy, I met Sheriff Gamble on the street, and he informed me, I intended to visit him Saturday but we were in session until late in the afternoon, giving me only time to get my dinner and take the train for home, ho Never I called up the hospital, talked to Mrs. Plowden and she told me that Mr. Plowden stood the trip well, but at that time, he was suffering some, and the doctors would op erate Monday morning. I shall go to see him as soon as I will be permitted. It is my earnest hope this good citizen will be spared. I feel especially close to him be ause he was my best man at my marriage over thirty years ago, and we have been warm friends. ever since. It is generally known that Co-.. John P. Grace, the present May or of Charleston .and one of the coming men of the State, was a great friend to Blease, recently there has been a coolness be tween them through some misun :erstanding about some matter in onnection with the-constabulary in the city. The Columbia State heard of this misunderstanding and on last Friday came out good and strong with a sic-em--tige editorial to widen the breach be tween Grace and Blease. Of course John Grace remembers the very laudatory editorials The State printed during his cam paign for mayor, he is going around looking for sweet meats. from his enemies, and when they - and him adoughnut he of course: will take it on faith. Nit. The State makes a strong plea to, rouse Grace's Irish to break: from Blease, but if I mistake not; the man he will take anything: cming at him with a yellow flag flying, as an object of suspicion~ proper to be quaranteened. while e may dislike or feel offended at something the governor did, or was to do which was done, I think am justified in saying he does not appreciate any counsel volun tarily offered him from The State f Columbia. A rereading of The State's editorials by the editor imself, should convince him that his butting in Charleston cam paign where he bad no business, to denounce Grace and his follow ing, is not at all calculated to now find favor with the Mayor of the. city of Charleston, and his edi oal of last Saturday I have not the least doubt fell flat, and far short of accomplishing its object. ohn Grace is too smart and too white a man to be buffaloed by a yellow plague, nor will lhe allow himself played for a "simp." If the enemies of Grace and Blease are out fishing to catch, they must bait their books with some-. thing more than Spanish mack-. : al. A . ith I ,o No. 14 Nori S and alize the moi TO iNVE -U-__ ig of a new mansion, but the legislature has not felt justitiec il carrying out their recommen dation s, and the St'ate has gotter along too. But things are differ et now, if Blease makes a reco. mrmendation it is a cue for his opponents to raise a suspicion and have this suspicion exploited as much as possible, in order tc discredit him with th~e masses: if they do not have a care they will bring on a condition like they did in 1890, and have the people tc be determined to vote for Blease, een if they were to catch him stealing sheep. From what I can gather in this matter there is nc ground to suspect the commnittee of any criminal intent, but there is good reason to believe they overshot the mark in giving out a contract for doing more than was contemplated by the resolu tion adopted by the general as sembly, this being the case. the general assembly is not bound tc payj for any more than what it did authorize the commnittee to do. All of this hurrah that is be ing kicked up is entirely unnec essary, and in my opinion, it i for political buncomb. The ware house bill mentioned in my last letter has passed both Houses, and is now in free conference, the purpose being to perfect the measure, by incorporating a pro vision to have the attorney gen era! bring a suit in the supreme court to ascertain whether or not the Act is constitutional. What is known as the "Medi cal Inspection Act" is now before the governor for his signature, what he will do with it I do not know, but 1 regard it a good measure since it has been amend ed so as to make it permnissory nstead of mandatory, as it was when it came to the senate, the striking out of the word "shall' and substitution the word "may' was done at my suggestion, but had not this amendment carried, the bill would have been killed, and properly so, because it woul d have forced the school trustees to have employed a physician tc inspect the schools and examine the children, as it is, the trustees can exercise a discretion as to the necessity for such an irnspee* tioni and examination, and wvhere they do find a necessity to have a school inspected the p~ay or ex pense must come out of the funds for that particular school and not out of the entire fund of the county. There seems to be in this time of political play for position, a breaking of past records: under the constitution the governor is required to send messages to the general assembly, and these are to be written into the Journal but no other officer is so required, however, at this session when ever a State officer has a differ ence with the governor he is treated with the same considera