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Neville Bennett Addresses House ?%. At the close of the general assem bly Hon. Neville Bennett, chairman of the ways and means committee, I delivered the following address to | the house: Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the House; If you will indulge me for a few minutes before we adjourn, I wish to present to the members some stat istics, in explanation of wfeat seems to me to be the remarkable accom plishments of this General Assembly. I am very sorry that I could not give the figures last night, when more were present, and when considerable attention seems to have been given to expressions of appreciation and es teem. At that time it was my mis fortune to be rather exhaustingly en gaged on the Free Conference Com mittee handling the so-called Deficien cy Bill, and 1 was therefore deprived of the opportunity at that more ap propriate time of expressing to the House my deep sense of obligation for the many kindnesses and courte sies and also for the many indul gences so often shown me by the Speaker and the other members of the General Assembly. I have im posed upon you and have been fa vored more than my share and I ap preciate it all more than I can tell you. Now !by way of preface, let me Fay that the figures I shall use have beeo compiled from records in the offices of the State Auditor and the Comp troller General. They are therefore substantially accurate. Although they may sound like any other set of cold figures to the thoughtless or ignorant, to intelligent and fair-min<led students of our State Government they will be eloquent of the labors and accomplishments of the last two General Assemblies, the General Assembly of 1931 and 1932, and the General Assembly of 1^33 and 1934. It is a record of splendid business management, patriotically carried to success in the midst of gen eral business collapse and in the face of appalling difficulties of finance. Of course, this General Assembly has been abused and will be abused, and for many mistakes can be most justly 1 criticized, /but no one can take from it the record of accomplishment that belongs to it, nor erase that record from the .Books of the Comptroller General and the State Treasurer, nor from the Statutes of the *5tate. There it will remain forover. When we came here last January many of us did not realize our diffi culties or the full weight of our re sponsibilities; and today as we close our period of service many of us do not realize the fundamental fiscal changes that have been made. The first great accomplishment I wish to mention is the reduction in the ex penses of the State. According to the records of the Comptroller Gen eral's office, in 1929, the disburse ments from the general' funds of the State were $11,374,562.58, of which the School received $3,788,367.00. In 1930 the total disbursements from the general fund were $11,354,772.11, of which the Schools received $3,500, 029.00. In 1931, disbursements from the general fund were $10^657,911.20, of which the Schopls received $3,500, 000.00. In 1932 the total disburse ments from the general fund were $8,768,341.78, of which the Schools received $3,394,329.00. In 1933 the total disbursements from the general fund were $8,827,115.32, of which the Schools received $3,096,895.00, and of which also approximately $1,300, 000.00 was a deficit brought forward from the preceding calendar year. And according to the Appropriation Bill adopted at this session there will bo expended during the next fiscal year from the general funds of the State a total of $6,948,000.00, of which amount the Schools will receive $*2,372,980.00. In other words, for every dollar that the State was spend ing from the general fund in 1909, it is now to spend 61c. Or in other words, total expenditures from the general funds of the State have been reduced 39 per cent since 1930. From the information I have been ) able to gather, this grebt reduction has resulted in considerable hardship , at some of the State Institutions and Departments. But, the services ren dered by the (State to its citizens have not been perceptibly reduced in num ' ber of efficiency. ? The maintenance of former stand ard* of service by the Departments and Institutions of the State should be put down to the credit of the State official# and employee* who have shown a wonderful spirit of patriotic cooperation in the saving of the pub He funds, and^-the rendering of effi ? cient service under great handicaps. Your next great accomplishment that I wi*h to mention is your main tenance of State support for schools. I 1 ws take the flgureal gave you ? few minutes ago and separate the 'School expenditures from ths other disbursements from the general funds Iof the State we will get a surprising result. Leaving out the amount/spent for schools altogether, we And that In HMO the other saqpenditors# from the ?* a Engineering facts prove It. Ex perience In building nearly ten million cars confirms It. And the record off over 3,000,000 Chevrolet Six owners removes any shadow of doubt about It: The only way to get real economy In a low-priced car is to insist on SIX cylinders and OVERHEAD valves. SIX cylinders? no morel? because extra cylinders mean extra cost for gas, oil, upkeep and parts. OVERHEAD valves? * nothing else/? for the same good reason that air planes use them. And speedboats. And racing cars. They get the MOST power out off the LEAST gas. That's why overhead valves are the choice off leaders? and champions. - ^ CHEVROLET MOTQR CO., DETROIT, MICH. Compwt Chevrolet's low delivered prlcta and aaty QJULC. terms. A General Motors Value. MCM-'X AOVDmUMRNT j Camden, S. C. D. M. MAYS Bethune, S. G. general funds of the iState for purely Stat? purposcR find not for tho public schools was $7,854,741.11. In 1931 it WRR $ 7, 157, 911.20. In 1032 it was $5, 374,012.78. In 1933, it was $5,730, 263.82, ami in the next fiscal year, 1934-85, the expenditures for ordinary State purposes will he $4,580,724.33. You will see therefore thnt the ex penditures of the iState Government outside of public schools have iheen reduced from $7,854,741.11 in 1980 to $4,680,' 724^83 for the next fiscal year, o* a total reduction in purely iState operating expenses, exclusive of schools, of approximately 42 per cent to the operating costs of the State Government alone. Now, taking up the figures for public schools, we find that In 1930 the amount was $3,500, 089.00; In 1981, $3,500,000.00; in 1980, $3,894,824.00; in 1933, the calen dar yaar, $8,008,895.00. During the j eighteen month*' period, which in | eludes the calendar year of 19JW and t.ho first six months of 1934, the total amount spent from the general funds of tho State for schools including teachers' notes, will amount to $6, rry2,560/58. And going into the next fiscal year for which we have just made the appropriation, we find that of the total bill of $0,048,000.00, the sum of $2 ,372, 9ft 0.00 is definitely al located to (Schools from the general funds of the (State, hut that in addi tion thereto, Schools will receive the ! proceeds of special revenue In the amount of $1^JW, 000.00, making a total of $ft,B72,9fiOiOO. In addition to this, during the next fiscal year the schools will receive from the general funda of the \State *n the fofm of payments made on teachers' notes, the sum of $1 ,<200,000.00, malting a grand total for the schools during the year ? next fiscal year ? of $4,906,000.00; So that the result is that during the same period in which the general ox- 1 penditures of tho iState Government for purely &tato purpoaefl "were being decreased 42 per cent, tho expendi tures for school purposes had actually increased from $>8, '500, 000. 00 to $4, 900,000.00, or an increase of approx imately 40 per cent. I have heard it said by thojte who were unfamiliar with the facts that this General Aasemlbly had not taken care of the school*. iThe contrary is true. iXhe truth being that during the iflncal year 1&M-196, there will be expended from the funds of the State of South "Carolina, iboth school funds and the general funds, the sum total of $9,4ftS, 000.00, of which approxi mately $4^00,000.00 wiH go to the public .schools of the (State. This General Assembly has devoted a greater portion of the revenue of the !st*t? to th? support of ihe Public Schools than has any other ("Jencral Assembly in the history of tho State. There in more which I wish to any with regard to the (Schools, hut I will bring that i?| in oonnoction with tho change of the fiscal year. Changing tho fWal year op the State from a calendar year 'basia to a July 1st to June 30th date was tho greatest aingle accomplishment, of this* General Assembly from a fiscal sandpoint. It is an accomplishment that can be credited to the (preceding ' General Aaaemlbly as well as to this, | and to the .people of South "Carolina who approved the necessary change In the constitution so that it could be put into effect. T>aat year, when we were making the change, it put a great strain upon the finances of the State. iNow that the change ha* been negotiated and we are on the new JUcftl haaia, the strain has been parsed, and wo now And ourselves in ft position of absoluto control and safety of iRtat.e finances, a condition which never prevailed tberfore. This session ia the first regular aeaaion at the General Assembly ir> 'which the members came down to (Columbia and were not called upon to reach ibeck six or seven months trying to find money to pay tfle costa of expendi tures that had already been made. The period for which we made appro priation#* at this aession -wa* ih?? perio<l beginning this coming Ju)y lat arul extending to next June 80th. Bmployeea of the Comptroller Genr eral'a office tell me that the atrain of their -work has been cut in half. The head<a of the Inatitutiona tell ua that they are now able to formulate their plana in a more (buaineaa-like ami common a-emae way, and can ad Juat their t>n4gets to the bndgat at