Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1890-07-03
Letter from Comptroller Gerpral ]
Ycrner..-Read and Heed.

ohohi, - "hAoii oiiS PSoPAo lUoVo w
thoroughly posted upon all matters
relating to their government, and
that measures of real and substan-
tial reform would be advocated and
urged upon the people in such way
as to result in relief from the bur-
dens of taxation, and make the gov
ernment more vigorous and effective
in the enforcement of lew. / fear,
however, that the turn given to tho
campaign will make it one for the
mere scramble for Office, and in this
scramble that the reforms in govern
mcnt, which our people so much
need, may be lost sight of. | do not,
however, intend to let the methods
adopted on the stump abatc my
advocacy of the reforms which |
think should be made in the admin
istration of government.
l have ever been one of those who
think that we need a radical change
in our form of government. 1t is
too expensive and too hurdcnsomc
for Il thinly settled population like
ours. 1t is the New England idea
Of government and teaches the doc
trine that every service, however
small, rendered the government,
must be paid for. Undcr it we have
over ter thousand ollicc-holdcrs
drawing salaries from fifty dollars up
to four thousand. With these
ollicc-holdcrs there is q constant
and growing demand for an in
crease of salary, and the tendency
is an increase of salaries. In addi-
ton to the large amounts expended
for salaries the court expenses in the
counties, upon the principle Of pay
ing for every service rendered, arc
constantly increasing in the way of
constable, witness, and trial justice
fees. In the County Of Hampton,
| was informed by the County Com
missioncrs, that vhe fees of trial
justices and constablcs amounted,
last year, to over four thousand dol
lars. These expenses arc constantly
growing under this New England
idea of government and the number
of officers drawing pay arc ncrcas-
ing. There is also with il q constant
demand that every service done for
the government must be paid for;
and hence you find that there is strong
sentiment abroad in the State to
work the roads by taxation. Those
who arc familiar with the legislation
of the last four or five years know
that the communication road tax is
becoming very popular. by it the
citizen, able to pay, can get off for
from two to five dollars per annum,
while the poor man must work his
ten or twelve days.
Now under this form of govern
mcnt | take the position that if you
pay everybody else who does any
thing for tho State, why not pay
the man who labors on the road as
well as the Commissioner who super
intends him? TO pay one and not
pay the other is n manifest injustice
Is not, however, the form of govern
mcnt which teaches the doctrine that
you must pay for every service, Il
vicious one? Is not the old idea of
government which prevailed before
the Constitution of 1868 better, to-
wit: That every citizen of the com
munity, is due his State some por-
ton Of his time, free of charge, from
Il sense Of duty and patriotism, pre-
fcrablc? Under it our counties were
governed by a system Of boards, by
commissioners Of poor, commission
crs of roads, commissioners of pub
lie buildings, etc, who served with
out pay. by division of the labor
and responsibilities, which now fall
on the County Commissioners, the
counties were governed by these
boards without any large tax upon
purse or time, and hence the cxpcn-
scs Of county governments were com
parativcly small. Now the taxes to
support the county governments and
schools are nearly twice as much as
that paid to support the State gov.
crnmcnt, and in some counties three
times as much. The difficulty, too,
in controlling these expenditures is,
that you have no one body Of men
in the State whom you can hold re-
sponsibIc for expenditures.
This year the General Assembly,
composed of one hundred and sixty
men, levy and appropriate seven
hundred and sixty three thousand
Il n A. 4