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i-OUR THE NEWBERRY SUN FRIDAY, a&r-i^innaK 14, 1946 1218 College Street NEWBERRY. SOUTH CAROLINA 0. F. ARMFIELD Editor and Publisher Published Every Friday In The Year Entered as second-class matter December 6. 1937, at tht postoflice at Newberry, South Carolina, under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. SFECTATOR A state senator is a power in his county. Tne 46 state senators are one half the legislature. Twenty-four senators, in- fact are half the legis lature as compared with 63 members oi' the house, for there are 124 mem bers of the house. One man must have long experience and qualities of leadership to becorne a power in either senate or house, but he is a power in his county from the day of his election. Each county has one senator and one of more members of the house. All the legislators from a county, the senator and house members together are called the “legislative delega tion, or “the delegation’. The senator is in a position of special power be cause the senators will defer to a senator in all matters affecting only his county The senator, then, by reason of this senatorial courtesy, is the dominant force, at least negative ly. His objection will stifle any mat ter or measure of the house mem bers from his county. But it oper ates the other way, too; if the sena tor passes some measure through the senate, the house members from his county can throttle it ovei in the house—if they stand together. Edge- field, Barnwell, Bamberg, Allendale ' Jasper, Saluda, Calhoun and Dorches ter have one representative each; so for those counties it is nip and tuck; the senator and the representative balance each other perfectly. If the senator enjoys the full power of the senate in local matters, so does the representative command equal power in the houdb. Charleston county, with eight, Greenville with nine, Sumter with three, Orangeburg four, New- berry two, Clarendon two, Lee two—well there are possibilities of a lack of sympathetic cooperation; they may not always see eye to eye. In the smaller counties, if the sen ator tries out a statesmanlike pro ject, the house member from that county can say nay, my brother, and the whole thing will fall like a due 1 .. And, of course, the same applies to> any effort of the House member. His Senator has only to raise a fin ger or bat an eye—and the whole thing is as dead as Hector. But the counties with two or more represen tatives—now they offer explosive possibilities. Sometimes a large county may have an aggressive sen ator, or an ambitious senator; and his. house brethren decide to hold a tight rein on him. Then follow in cidents and accidents in the effort to keep the world safe for democracy. Most of my young friends may not know what a “tight rein” means. Well, let’s be modern and say that in such circumstances the members of the House clamp down on the brakes. The best work of our legislators is done in financing their County gov ernment, I think. No one man feels the responsibility of the whole State except the Governor; so pressure groups hold high carnival at times, in State-wide matters. We have un dertaken big things as a State, for getting that the golden stream may dry up; but that has not been the attitude of the Counties. Here we have an illustration of our democra cy at work. Senator John Doe of Washington County may vote for millins and more millions; he may create jobs by the thousands and bog the State in debt; and no one can call him to account. But if he spends his County’s money lavishly, the boys will rise up from one end to another to know what’s what and why. So our democracy looks better in the Counties than in the State at large. Let me cite some encouraging figures: Some weeks ago the Sena tor from Charleston, Mr. Wallace, was quoted in The News and Courier as saying that the tax levy for Charleston County would be reduced five mills. “The State” of Colum bia quotes the Richland Senator, Mr. Berry, as assuring a four mill reduc tion this year. I wrote To all Senators but some haven’t replied yet,’ by letter. Sena tor Dinkins of Clarendon and Senator Eatmon of Williamsburg have told me that they will write as soon as possible. The first replies came to me from Barnwell, Colleton, Hampton, Abbe ville and Newberry Speaker Blatt, as usual, wrote fully, just as he d-d last year. Later Senator Brown, who has been in a hospital for months, took time to drop me a line—as he always does. Let me quote Speaker Blatt and Senator Brown: Mr. Blatt gives this clear picture: “Keeping in mind that a one mill j levy in this county raises about j $3500.00 in taxes, we levied during j the past year for ordinary county | purposes seven mills, and four mills for roads and bridge bonds. The levy of four mills for roads and bridge bonds was to take care of an outstanding bonded indebtedness. The only indebtedness owed by Barnwell county is the sum of $15,000.00 which is for bonds sold, the proceeds of which was to be used to help the construction of a new Court House and Jail. The original amount of this indebtedness was $35,000,000 and we owe three more payments totaling $15,000.00 on this debt. The three payrr.* its are due in the years, 46-47-48. When we issued these, bonds and war was decalred, we im mediately invested the proceeds from these bonds in government bonds and we receive more in interest from our investment than we pay out as interest on the bonded indebtedness. We owe on the roads and bridge bonds a balance of $3,000.00 which matures on April 1st, 1946. You will note that the entire indebtedness of the county exclusive of school dis trict debts amounts to $18,000.00, and we have an ample reserve set aside to met this indebtedness which we tried to pay in advance, but, the holders of the bonds refused to ac cept paymet in advance due to the fact that they have a fine investment. We a re requiring our school districts to pay off their indebtedness and to opearte on a cash basis. As a mat ter of fact we passed a law making it a criminal offense for school dis trict trustees to spend beyond their income and the Act provided that in the event of unforseen developments creating a deficit, then a levy is im mediately made to pay off the debt the following year We have sub stantially decreased the school in debtedness and in just a few years our school districts will be out of debt They now operate on a cash basis and most of them have a nice surplus on hand. We have on hand about $115,000.00 in cash and gov ernment bonds. All of our currant debts are paid and you will note that we could pay our debts now and have a surplus of around $100,000.00. The County is in the best shape it ever has been and we a re proud of the re ductions that the present delegation has made. Now a s to the actual levy for taxes, we could take off all taxes for ordinary county purposes and for roads and bridge bonds and operate the county within the present reve nue and still have a surplus. We have reduced our levy for this year two mills and the only reason we haven’t reduced it more is because we intend building a new Jai. and Court House and we are getting the money now when the taxpayers can afford to pay it so that we might have as much cash on hand as pos sible to start the new constructions, and at the same time not levy addi tional taxes in the future years when we know that our people will not be in a position to pay them. Our county officials and the present dele gation have been working together keeping in mind that our objective is to have a county g-overnment op erating on a business basis and levy ing as little taxes as possible. The present financial condition of the county is due to the splendid coop eration of all involved. I am right proud of the set up in the county and of the fine record that has been made” And this note from Senator Brown: “We are reducing our millage by 2 ; mills, down to 5. As a matter of fact, we could take it all off next year All County debts are paid ex- | cept some we cannot call but for 1 which the moeny is set aside. In ad- | dition to this, we have upward of $100,000.06 in surplus account. The | County at this time, is in the best financial condition in its history. Senator James B. Pruitt of Ander- ■ son: “Instead of reducing the tax levy in Anderson County at the last ' session of the General Assembly, (Continued on opposite page) Only top quality products get the job of lubricating the motors and machinery on our fighting Navy’s ships. So we’re proud to tell you that Sinclair lubricants are used on many Navy ships to assure smooth operation and save wear. To give your car the same, sure protection, get Sinclair lubricants from your Sinclair Dealer. 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