University of South Carolina Libraries
Board of The eight gentlemen at the top of these two pages are South Car olina’s members of the Board of Directors of the biggest corpora tion in the history of the world. Each of us is a stockholder of the corporation, known as the Feder al Government, which is pres ently celebrating its 175th anni versary. The pictured two Senators and six Congressmen constitute l/50th of the vote in the United State Senate and about l/72nd of the vote in the House of Rep resentatives. Back when it all began in 1789, South Carolina had l/13th of the say in the Sen ate and l/13th of the vote in the House. Needless to say, the corpora tion has grown a bit bigger through the years, necessitating more leaders in Washington headquarters for the purpose of handling all the money and its related responsibilities. Our first directors met for 519 days during their first two years and helped spend about $8 mil lion. The current directors will likely meet for about 600 days in two years and spend about $200 billion — 25,000 times as much for about 40 times as many peo ple. Spending money, and taxing the people for this money, is only oiie of many major Congression al responsibilities. Checking up on the President, whom we elect rather than trusting his selection to the Congress, is perhaps the most time-consuming job of our representatives. It’s the Presi dent and his two and one-half million employees who recom mend to Congress spending pro grams and then actually put the money into circulation if Con gress gives it to them. Congress traditionally keeps a close eye on the President’s oper ations — or at least they did prior to the billion-dollar age of the 1930’s. Now, it’s almost too complicated to determine who is doing what under the Presidency, and many members of Congress have accepted the inevitable and 6 Rap. John L. McMillan Rap. L. Mandal Rirars of United States are not concerning themselves with such mundane topics as money — particularly as long as they are getting their share in the form of a thousand-and-one benefits. For example: There’s the $22,500 salary plus a $2,500 tax free expense allow ance that makes the job fairly attractive, a personal staff ($50,- 000 ih House and $120,000 in Senate), almost unlimited long distancjb telephone calls and tele grams, free postage, free station ery (including items that can be used as gifts such as pen and pen cil sets, leather goods, etc.), su perb air-conditioned offices both in Washington and at home, a large allowance at the Govern ment Printing Office for books and booklets both for themselves and their constituents, a recrea tion room for massages, exercise and steam baths, researchers and writers in the Library of Con gress to write their speeches or prepare outlines of same, Com mittee staff personnel to write speeches and prepare outlines, automatic machines which will do everything from writing form letters to the folks back home to actually signing the letters with a legal signature, a recording stu dio to facilitate reaching the vot ers via radio, a television studio to make it easy to prepare film coverage for TV, and so on. Of course there are things of a less personal nature but which can help a man get reelected to office. These include advising the President (if he’s in the same political party) who should get a good portion of the key Fed eral jobs in his state — as well as Post Office rural mail carrier jobs, assisting the local political and business leaders to get vari ous Federal projects into their areas to assist the economy, and helping constituents resolve their differences of opinion with a sometimes unreasonable agen cy of the Federal government. In addition to collecting taxes and approving spending pro grams, Congressmen decide on such matters as whether or not to declare war against enemy nations, who may migrate to the United States, and how to regu late interstate and foreign com merce. Obviously, in bodies as, large as the House (435 members 1 ) and Senate (100 members), it be comes necessary to devise a sys tem of getting things done. Com mittees have been the answer. Chairmen of the various commit tees provide the necessary order and (hopefully) leadership. To avoid political deals outside of committees, chairmen are select ed on the basis of the number of consecutive years they have served on the committee. This puts the pressure of leadership once again in the hands of the voters, for they can see to it that an incompetent Representative or Senator is defeated so that he cannot gain the influence and power of a committee chairman ship. It is not necessary that a Sen ator or Congressman limit his time and interests to his commit- MAY, 1964 Getting difficult to beat man in office The trend toward long tenure in Congress by South Carolinians is a definite one begun at the turn of the century. Prior to about 50 years ago, the average U. S. Representative from this state served about six years, and the average U. S. Senator from South Carolina remained little longer in the nation’s capital. Today, Senators Olin D. Johnston and Strom Thurmond are assured of Senate terms of 24 and 12 years respectively (barring death), while Representatives John McMillan, Mendel Rivers, Bryan Dorn and Rob ert Ashmore are in their 26th, 24th, 16th and 12th years of office. There are two schools of thought regarding the longer terms' of office: (1) that it’s wise to select a good man and to keep him in the job accumulating tenure and the power that goes with it, and (2) you can’t beat a good politician once he’s in office for he has too many things working for him. Altogether, 212 South Carolinians have served in the House during the past 175 years, and 51 have represented this state in the Senate. In the case of the Senate, many of these 51 served only a few months as interim appointments (such interim appointments are not provided for in the House). Representatives who served most of six terms are as follows: Richard Winn, 1793-97 and 1803-13; William Butler, 1801-13; Thom as Moore, 1801-13, 1815-17; William Lowndes, 1811-22; Starling Tucker, 1817-31; George McDuffie, 1821-34; R. Barnwell Rhett, 1837-48; Isaac E. Holmes, 1839-51; John McQueen, 1849-60; George D. Tillman, 1879- 93; William Elliot, 1887-90, 1891-93, 1895-1903; David E. Finley, -1899- 1917; Joseph Johnston, 1901-15; Asbury F. Lever, 1901-19; Wyatt Aiken, 1903-17; James F. Byrnes, 1911-25; Fred H. Dominick, 1917-33; William F. Stevenson, 1917-33; John J. McSwain, 1921-36; Hampton P. Fulmer, 1921-44; Allard H. Gasque, 1923-38; Thomas S. McMillan, 1925-39; But ler B. Hare, 1925-33, 1939-47; James P. Richards, 1933-57; Joseph R. Bryson, 1939-53; John L. McMillan, 1939 to present; L. Mendel Rivers, 1941 to present; John J. Riley, 1945-49, 1951-62; W. J. Bryan Dorn, 1947-51, 1953 to present; Robert T. Ashmore, 1953 to present. Senators who served most of two terms are: Pierce Butler, 1789- 96, 1802-04; John Gaillard, 1805-26; William Smith, 1817-23, 1826-31; Robert Y. Hayne, 1823-32; John C. Calhoun, 1833-43, 1845-50; William C. Preston, 1833-42; Andrew P. Butler, 1846-57; Matthew C. Butler, 1877-95; Wade Hampton, 1879-1891; Benjaniin Tillman, 1895-1918; Ellison D. Smith, 1909-44; James F. Byrnes, 1931-41; Burnet R. May- bank, 1941-54; Olin D. Johnston, 1945 to present; Strom Thurmond, 1954 to present. Federal funds to South Carolina Are we getting our money’s worth for taxes going to the Federal government? A difficult question to answer, and one which should be studied closely by the taxpayer! In the area of Federal rebates to states for the countless programs described on pages eight and nine, South Carolina received $89 million of the more than $7 billion paid out to all the states in 1962. (In 1964, $10.4 billion is budgeted for payment to states.) A breakdown of the 1962 payments to all states and South Carolina follows: pa Tm •nil paymanlt Fadaral grants programs to aU states to S. Car. Agriculture Experiment Stations $ 31,521,495 $ 691,044 Coop. Ag. Extension work 63,373,746 1,470,215 School lunch program 151,972,399 3,793,480 National forests fund 35,671,616 417,197 Submarginal land program 391,987 Cooperative marketing projects 3,290,000 27,500 State and private forestry coop. 11,442,611 340,635 Watershed protection, flood control 32,449,018 114,768 Value of commodities donated 71,878,027 505,497 Special school milk program 86,685,047 621,414 Removal of surplus ag. commodities 195,650,404 1,783,380 Highways (trust fund) 2,590,788,486 38,987,423 Other highway programs 31,798,877 148,497 State marine schools 499,120 Lease of flood control lands 1,492,156 3,638 Civil and defense mobilization 11,478,624 171,331 Research in civil and defense 1,057,638 4,258 Civil defense disaster relief 7,318,682 Printing house for the blind 400,000 4,083 Conference on aging 1 —9,508 —26 Colleges for ag. and mech. arts 1 7,276,500 91,118 Cooperative vocational education 39,797,725 748,267 School construction and survey 59,248,637 708,281 Maintenance and operation of schools 207,639,466 3,194,900 Library services 7,414,221 196,082 Defense education activities 50,189,647 388,162 Education of mentally retarded 509,377 Communicable disease activities 2,363,177 97,296 Tuberculosis control 3,973,585 59,072 General health assistance 17,873,506 353,764 Mental health activities 5,913,981 91,784 Cancer control : 3,355,518 57,976 Heart disease control | 3,296,567 75,946 Environmental health activities 2,633,541 51,687 Polio vaccination —5,761 Hospital and medical construction -— 159,692,441 3,549,556 Waste treatment works 44,085,200 790,564 Health research facilities 1,921,580 Maternal and child health services 18,113,755 378,269 Services for crippled children 19,795,003 459,981 Child welfare services 13,613,088 308,749 Medical assistance for aged 19,579,088 Old age assistance 1,215,164,973 12,356,743 Aid to dependent children 701,302,286 5,602,276 Aid to permanently disabled 182,817,338 3,379,258 Aid to blind 48,122,548 753,711 Office of vocational rehabilitation 54,932,040 1,169,256 Wildlife and fish restoration 20,925,019 178,499 Migratory bird conservation 488,391 66 Payments under Mineral Leasing 34,736,941 Special Interior Dept, funds 17,869,428 Bureau of Indian Affairs 6,418,761 Unemployment compensation (trusts) — 358,552,447 3,369,107 Federal airport program 64,797,596. 279,969 Payments under Federal Power Act 54,782 183 Urban renewal program 140,918,364 166,445 Urban planning assistance 3,045,194 Public housing contributions 140,243,564 l r 418,385 Small Business grants (research) —1 879,994 18,630 Tennessee Valley shared revenues 6,478,577 Veterans homes for disabled 7,569,754 Veterans supervision of schools i 1,414,440 Miscellaneous grants 77,700,495 31,083 Total grant payments 7,101,863,200 89,403,759 THE SOUTH CAROLINIAN Today, more people belong to Blue Cross than to any labor union or church group — more by far than voted for either party in the last national election. Blue Cross enjoys the greatest endorsement ever given to any single program for hospital expense protection. What surer evidence that it serves people's needs in an exceptional way? Through an exclusive working relationship with hospitals, Blue Cross provides benefits in a unique form. “Personalized Benefits," they’re called, and they're truly personal. For rather than a fixed allowance in dollars of so much per day, they provide benefits as actual hospital care. Thus, the help expands to fit the illness. To obtain these ben efits, a member merely shows his Blue Cross card on admission to the hospital. It's all simple and sensible and thoroughly practical. Last year. Blue Cross provided 66 million days of care to members. The Plans not only paid out more than any other organization in the field, but delivered far greater value. Behind these Blue Cross achievements is a deep sense of public responsibility. This is why Blue Cross has pioneered so many noteworthy advances — including protection for senior citizens, more than 5 million of whom are enrolled as members today. Popular acceptance proves the Blue Cross method works, that it can continue to meet people’s expanding needs. For full details on membership, contact Blue Cross, 709 Saluda Avenue, Columbia, South Carolina. /*■'% f* 11