Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1890-01-30

manufacturers, the phosphate miners
and the University and CitadeI. II
n farmer voted for its continuance i,
is because he felt that tho South
Carolina University would lose
something by its abolition. The
support of the fertilizer companies
is easy to understand. This bureau
has been their best friend. Year
after year we have been told by
Commissioner Butler that the guanos
inspected were below the guarantees,
but nobody has been punished. In
fact there is no adequate punish
mcnt for selling fraudulent guanos
in this State. The bill prepared by
the committee of the Farmers As
sociation for the reorganization of
the Board of Agriculture would
have secured our farmers against
swindling fertilizer dealers, but it
was amended to death by the law
ycrs in the Senate who are attorneys
for the phosphate miners and fcrtili-
zer companies; and the men who
were elected on the board over the
nominees of the farmers convention
were chosen not because they are
more loyal to the agricultural inter
ests, or better fitted for the position,
but because they arc friends of the
University and belong or are sub
scrvient to our aristocracy-"so
callcd"-and the phosphate miners
arc too well satisfied with the systcm
of collecting the State royalty to
permit a change if they can help it..
How wonderfully perfect or defect
i've this system is shown by the fact
that during the ten years under the
same officials not single Indictment
has been brought against any one
for attempting to swindlc the State
out of its dues. No wonder Char
lesion is in love with the Agricultu-
raj Bureau and cannot bear to sec
that "cxisting institution" disturbed.
The recent proposal to sell the
States interest in the phosphate
beds is fortunate, because thereby
the attention of taxpayers is at
tractcd to this most important mat
ter. The Farmers Association pro
posed in 1886 to increase the royalty
as means of lowering taxes, and
we believe this can be safely done to
the extent Of 100000.
a Legislative committee was ap-
pointed to "invcstigatc" and report
on the subject. This was only done
to give waiting ten months
until the market had been manipu-
lated, etc. This committee pro-
cecdcd to show how well it had been
chosen "not to do it," There was
no honest effort made to get at the
real facts as to the profits of the
business and it's ability to stand an
increase of royalty; and after it had
been "winod and dined," and brought
into suitable frame Of mind that
committee came to Columbia and
actually proposed to give the six
largest companies monopoly for a
less annual rental than the State was
then receiving. Only one Senator,
to whom all honor is due, dissentcd
from this outrageous proposal.
What was the result? OF course
the General Assembly did not act
favorably upon it, but all thought Of
an increase of royalty was also aban-
doncd, and this was what the corpo-
ration attorneys, who were there in
the interest of their clients and not
of their constituents, had been
working for. "Thc goose that lays
the golden egg" was no, killed
"cxisting institutions" were not dis
turbcd. Phosphate rock, which had
been manipulated down to $3.40 per
ton, advanced in two months after
the Legislature adjourned to 5000,
and has since ruled between SO. 80
and $3.50 per ton. The golden eggs
are still being laid, but not in the
States ncst-whcthc some Of them
have not gone into pockets which
they ought not, is an open question.
Now, we want to warn the people
that the charter of the Coosaw com
pany-obtained by bribery, it is said,
OF a Radical LcgisIaturc-cxpircs in
1891. This company, which has
grown fabulously rich, claims to
have a perpetual contract, with cx-
elusive right to mine in Coosaw
River, and pay only one dollar per
ton for the privilege. The next
Legislature must act on this uucs-
ton, and the next Attorney General
may have to test these claims iii
court. The whole question OF phos-
,,hoto n,ono,nn,n,t ~, ,,,;o,>>o.,.,.,.