The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-09-08
rMr Lien LAW nIscu,xso>.

One ,,range ia', connected with Tie
agi,a,i u. Of the repeal of the Lien law j,
tia. we hear Of no men who give Liens
asking Tor .l.c repeal OF the la" The
clamor comes en,irrly from men who do
no, riyr them, and who, therefore. are nut
30 we'll prepared to ,ay whether tho Ian
j. necessity or mo-. a. those who make
u-c ni il ~ -ecur" Their rerc.>arics.
The law viii np, he repeated until the
parties who u-c j, ask its abolition, or
nn;i! those who favor it. repeal show
t!la; the law Injuries them. Il will no, 90
for one portion Of the community 70 show
tia, they could make more money under
some p,her sy,;em % agriculture. The
question l., will the repeal Of the law give
the grcate-, good to the creates. number
] il can be -hnwn that il will. then we
would favor is repeal, but until we can
see some reas"' 10 suppose that i, will
benefit the greatest number OF our ci,i.
'cns we shall oppose the effort to secure
repeal. lt1 repeal at the close of 4
disastrous crop year would be great hard.
ship upon the poorer tenant, and small
| landowners who have no other means
Of credit. 1t would injurc the large
landowners who rent the lands anu do not
wish TO personally supervise the man
agcment Of labor. |, could only benefit
those who have the means and the in
clinalipn to hire labor for wage, and
work their lands themselves. This
class j. in the minority. and could only
be benefited by reducing wage, and
making the laborcr entirely dependent
upon them. The land owners can en-
ploy laburcr, for wages now unless the
laborcr prefer, 10 work otherwise, and if
| lie does prefer another mode of woI Iking,
and can find some other landowner will
| ing 20 rent him land, he should have that
privilege. Ii the landowners would re-
fuse to rent land, they could force the
labrrcrs 10 hire to them for wages. but
the law should not force the landowners
to hire labor for wage, if it ,lit> their pur-
poses better to rent their lard,. Each
landowner should be enabled 10 man
age his lands as he plcases, and each
laborcr or tenant should be entitled to
make the best contract he can. Bv thi.
means energy and thrift are encouraged
and the most general prosperity will be
diiluscd. In order to reach thi, end,
the simplest, cheapest and safest means
of credit should be given to all classes
Such credit is IL benefit TO the laborng
class. and n protection to those who give
them credit.
Those who urge the repeal of the Lien
law have not given Us any idea Of the
system of credit they would establish
The fact is, they virtually wish to destroy
credit. This would cause great hardship
to all persons who have not years sup
ply ahead, or the means of paying cash
for them. 1t would make hired laborcrs
of over six hundred white families in
Anderson county, and would c.nbarrass
some five hundred small landowners.
In addition to this, there are many own
crs of large quantities of real estate who
cannot work their lands directly, that in
consequence of the inability of tenants
10 secure credit would be unable to rent
out their lands and even where they
rent them out they would have no secu-
ri;y for their rents. In urging the re.
peal OF any system, it is not enough to
show that it is = bad system. Those who
advocate It's repeal should be able to give
better system. This the advocates of
repeating the Lien law have not done.