The sun. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1937-1972, September 14, 1945, Image 4
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)
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BUILDERS
Good work, son! Today you’re building a make-believe
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Tomorrow you’ll help build a new business, a great
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And that’s another reason why we are constantly
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President
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