Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-01-28
H0W 1T WORKS.

THE PRACTICAL EFFECTS OF THE PRIORI-
TY LIEN LAW.
| [Orangeburg, Jan. 10, Cor. News and Courier.]
Our streets wear as stagnant an appear
ance as if it were a prolonged holiday. In
the last two months seven merchants and
dealers have voluntarily closed or were
forced to do so by stress of dull times.
There is now idle on the Main street prop
erty to the value of $4,000. An unusual
number of clerks are out of employment,
and rents must necessarily fall. The effect
of tinkering on the lien law has already
sent several sturdy men, who do not own
land, out of the county. The labOrers are
at sea what to do, and the merchant is
obliged to be cautious. Several families
have gone to Florida in the vain hope of
bettering themselves. At the next session
of the Assembly unusual craftsmanship
must bs manifested, or the people will make
change. High taxes and unremunerative
property do not promote contentment.
[Pee Dee Index, Jan. 90
The predictions heretofore made in these
columns in reference to the effect Of this law,
are beginning already to be realized.
White and colored tenants seem to be very
much demoralized, and many of the latter
are leaving for the west, hoping thereby to
better their fortunes. One of the great diff
culties with the southern farmers has been
the large bodies of land owned by them,
which could not be worked by hired labor
to advantage. Heretofore the tenant sys-
| tenn has enabled them to get fair Interest
on the assessed value of their lands, but AS
very few farmers are able to supply their
tenants, and are unwilling on account Of the
uncertainty of crops and seasons, to become
liable for the supplies furnished their ten
ants, this system will be badly crippled.
~, ho nj
this change in basis of credit affects inju-
riously the mercantile credit of the business
men of the country. In conversations with
various merchants and farmers, we have
not met one who thinks the law will operate
favorably upon the agricultural interests of
the country On the contrary, they picture,
most graphically, the disastrous conse-
quences, such as fields growing up, negro la
borers leaving the country, and litigation
growing out of the construction of this new
law. In our opinion it would have been
far better to repeal the lien law in its entire
ty than to have placed this monstrosity on
the statute books of the State.
Marlboro Chronicle
At the most inoportune period in the his
tory of the South Carolina lien law the leg
islature has tampered with the law and left
it in a much worse condition for those peO-
had been entirely repealed. There has not
been a season since the war when our peo-
ple needed more the assistance of merchants
in securing their supplies than the present
the beginning of the year 1856. 1t was in
deed a bad day for South Carolina when
lien law was first enacted almost as terrible
has been the recent action of our present
legislature in its partial repeal of the law,
and leaving it in the onesided unsatlsfacto-
ry shape it now assumes. How the matter
of the adjustment for advances between
landlord, tenant and merchant can be ar
ranged remains to be explained. No mer-
chant will be safe in making advances as
heretofore, and it does appear to us that
the so called amendment is destined to open
an avenue of endless litigation, and finally
result in the overthrow of the tenant and
small farm system. Wecan only await the
result.
1Charleston News and Courier, Jan. 2l.
There will be great trouble and distress,
we apprehend, on account of the amend
ment of the lien law. The signs of it are
painfully apparent. Being denied ade-
quate security, the merchant will not make
advances to the tenant farmer, and, IN con-
sequence, the landowner, who, by law, has
the first lien on the crop, will be unable to
rent his land. Both landowners and their
former tenants will be hurt in this way,
and nobody will gain. There has rarely
been, in our judgment, more mlschievous
legislative act than the passage of the prior
ity bill. The consequences of it can hardly
be counted as yet, but we hope that the i'll
results will be published far and near. 1t
is clear case of killing the goose that laid
the golden egg. The tenant system, which
was objected to as making labor scarce, and
as encouraging thriftless farming, gave the
large landowners an enormous rental TOR
their land in proportion to its value. The
former tenants, finding that they can no
longer obtain credit, because of the law
which gives the landowners the first claim
on the crop, must either hire themselves
out as ]aborers, or leave the State. Wheth-
er they 90 or stay, both the former land
lords and the mercantile class must be Sc
riously injured.
GERMAN WAR SHIPs.-The new iron
clad, OhlendTy, will be of entirely novel
construction. 1t is a broadside ship with
ten ten-inch guns-five on each side, two
above and three below deck, but the whole
five can be concentrated on the same point
with sufficient force, it is estimated, to dis
able even the strongest iron-clad. The dis
placement of the Olden6any is 5000 tons,
and her engines, $500 horsepower, en-
abling her to steam eleven English miles
an hour. The German Government are ap-
parantly not we'll satisfied with the con-