Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-05-11

The taxpayers convention, so called, assem-
bled in Columbia, South Carolina, on Tuesday.
This convention had been announced with
great flourish of trumpets. as an agency which
promised to work a wonderful reformation in
the politics of that state. 1t professed to have
no partisan purposes, but to be prompted only
by desire, very generally felt and expressed by
the best neil of all parties, to promote retrench-
ment in public expenditure, and a thorough re-
form of the financial administration of the state.
1t has been the standing complaint there among
the former ruling classes that the state govern
ment Of late years has been intolerably profuse
and reckless in its expenditure. The fact that,
with a greatly diminished valuation, as COM
pared with that of 1860, the taxation was enor~
mousy increased, and an enormous debt had
also been contracted, was alleged as sufficient
proof Of these charges, and the assertion, prob
ably not far from the truth, that very few mem
bers of the present dominant party have taxable
property, was represented as the cause of the
formidable evils, present and prospective, which
called for the deliberations of the convention.
The comparison between the present and
former ratio of taxation and taxable property
quarters where the mischiefs and dangers of
negro and carpet-bag governments are favorite
topics of denuneiation, is not a fair one, be-
cause it omits some elements that are essential
to a correct understanding of the real conditions
Of the problem with which the convention now
in session and the political leaders of the state
will have 10 deal. 1t is true that the valuation
of the state is less now than in 1850; but it is
also true that the omission of slave property
from the present valuation, which certainly
takes away no real wealth, more than accounts
for the difference. There are some circum-
stances, too, that explain the increased
expenditure without charging all of it
to the reckless extravaganza CT legis-
lature representing an untaxed constituent
cy. South Carolina before the war had no pub
lie school system; now the cost of maintaining
common schools makes considerable proper
ton of the state tax. The former government
was an Oligarchy, careful of its own interests
but Indifferent to the welfare Of the mass of
the people, and therefore, while economizing the
state revenues, which must come out of the
pockets of the rich landholders who had seats in
the legislature, and managed the affairs of the
state it neglected many duties which in free
state, add to the expenses of the government and
are justly regarded as essential to the convent
ence, prosperity and welfare of the people. 1t is
probable if not certain that the government of
South Carolina for the last three or four
years has not shown the perfection of wisdom or
of administrative skill. 1t would be strange UNI
der all the circumstances if the state had been
on az we'll cd In of att,o
states. We believe it has not fallen very far
short of this, and that the condition of affairs
would have been much better il the influential
white people, men of wealth and responsibility,
had endeavored to use their legitimate influence
for the support Of lawful authority, instead of
encouraging the contemptcous arrogance and
inSolent sayagery of the kuklux bands and their
Rccomplices
1t is unfortunate for the Don-partisan charac-
ter Of this tax payers convention, that all the
delegates except one are democrats, and that
more than half of their number are old politi.
clans Of the class which formerly controlled the
state. Ofthe 1874 delegates, four have been gov
errors of the state before the rebellion, three
have been United States senators, five are
ex-eongressmen, two ex-lieutenant governors,
forty-three members of the legislature before the
war, eleven were rebel major and brigader
generals, and considerable number were rebel
of1cers Of lower rank. The composition of this
assembly does not promise much in the way of
cordial cooperation with, or valuable aid to the
governing party of the state, which must for
some time to come be republican. tbougb no
assemblage would be more likely To do
wise ingenious measures for depriyine the 5or.
inant party of the power to which il is ent;,led
by its numbers. The president of the conven.
ton, in his opening speech, was kind enoupb 70
say that reputation was not intended, tboupb
he added that the property owners wished to give
notice 70 all persons that takers of any future
issue Of bonds would, so far as the convention
and those it represented were concerned, take
them at their peril. The acts of the convention
are not yet reported but it is said that its doings
on the first day of its session were moderate
and PRACTICAL" and there is ground to hope fol
good results from its fEsl determinations. We
are not so sanguine, but perhaps we may be
happily disappointed.