The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1892-08-10
r.l,n.n,sua and our coenora.,ons

SLrangeSC features OF the apnOFn3l
political campaign now going in our
State is the relentless warfare waged
against organized capital-"corpora-
tions," by the Tillman faction. AZ
| most equally strange, as it seems to
| me, is the apparent indisposition or
| tiInidity Of the opposing faction in
taking up and defending our financial
institutions on their merits, and yet
| every intelligent man must admit that
| more capital, greater abundance of
capital, is the great want of our own
State, and to q greater or less extent of
| the entire South. How can we possi-
bly, expect to obtain this capital by
waging bitter warfare against the very
| institutions OH which we are dependent
for supplying it?
, The special spite Of the Ti!lmanites
is poured out against the banks, the
railroads, and the factories, and yet
these are the three most important
money producing and money distri-
buting institutions in our State. II.
you ask any intelligent man in New
| berry what is the most useful, the
most absolutely necessary institution
we have in the county, he will tell you
! without moments hesitation, the
Newberry National Bank. We are in
! formed on authority that this bank
! loans to the farmers of Newberry Coun-
| ty annually about 1915, 900, and that
| this amount constitutes about so per
cent or four-6ffhs of its loans. How
| in the name of common seuse would
! our farmers obtain the money nee
essary to run their farms, if our bank
| were abolished or so crippled that it
could not supply it? And yet, would
it be believed, these very farmers,
| many of them at least, who are re.
ceiving these favors from the bank,
! and are depend on it for means to
| run their farms and feed their fami-
lies are the very men engaged in wag-
| Ing this bitter warfare against it, Mr.
Sigh himself among them. They re-
ceive the favors, and turn and slander
the institution comforting them.
The second. place in5inportance for
the well being of cur county must.
presume, be assigned to our railroads.
They carry our cotton and other pro-
ducts to distant markets, aud bring
US in return the corn, -four, meat and
! other articles necessary for our use,
| and all at remarkably low rate@com-
| pared with what we would otherwise
| have to pay. Think of cotton being
carried all the way to New York, 800 to
1000 miles for about fifty cents per
hundred.
To estimate the value ofour railroads
we would have to imagine ourselves
! without them for a while. and yet
these, next to the hanks, are the r5rin-
cipal object of Tilllnanite Nenesland
oppression; so much so indeed that, as
/ see it stated, there is not now a mile
| of railroad in process Of construction in
the entire State. I doubt if this could
be said of another State in the union.
To such pass has Tillmanism fright
ened away capital from, poor South
Carolina. ,e. ~ -
The third place in importance would
oe assigned to our cotton factory, of
which all good Newberrlans ought, to
he proud. It furnishes renumerative
labor. and susteuance to several hun
dred people, it consumes here at home
a considerable amount of the chief pro-
duct Of our soil, and it puts in circula-
ton weekly considerable sum Of
| money. And yet, strange as it may
seems next to our banks and railroads,
our factories seem to be the principal
object of Tillmanite spite. This so-
called special friend of the laboring
masses, wages relentless warfare against
the very institutions which are fur
nishing remunerative employment to
so many thousands of the laboring
classes in our State, and have been the
means Of introducing into it millions of
outside capital. Efforts are made to.
array even the direct beneticiaries of
these factories against them, as if they,
| would not be the first to suffer injury
done the factories.
But We are told these corporations do
not pay taxes on the full value of their
property. This would bea valid otjec-.
ton if taxes were generally levied on
the full value Of property. But as. we
know that this is not the case, that on
the contrary they are generally levied
on not exceeding one-haif to tTo-thirds
its actual value, it would be both nn-
just and unconstitutional to ieyystaxes.
on the banks and railroads, and S6tfer
corporations at higherrate. The State
constitution, Art. ix, Sec. r, provides
''for ualJ0Tm and equal rate of assess
ment and taxation.1 Until then our.
Legislature provides for assessing all
property at its full value it would be
manifestiy both wrong ard illegas to
assess any part Of it st its fuilvsine.
This attempt then of the TiilmaI
government to increase the assessments
on the banks and railroads is clearly
not only wrong in principle, butts also
4 5unnnvcfiEr,fS0roi- Er,fS
correctly so decided in the case of the
banks, and I have no doubt will de-,
| eide the same way in the case of the
railroads. 1t would be interesting to:
know just the proportion of taxes paid
in South Carolina by our farmers, and
that paid by these much abused cor.
porations. Bat have not the figures at.
hand. Col. Sheppard said at Spartan
burg Saturday that the people Of that
county pay taxes amounting to;Sa :
| 600; and that of this amouat the farm
ers pay only $4,000, while the fac
| tories, railroads and othes like enter
prises pay $85.000 of it. Issuspect q,
careful examination would show that
these hated corporations already pay
much more than their legitimate share
of our taxes, while those who are at
tacking them so violently are aasiuaS
less than their share.
But what are these eorpora
they should be so Violent
as the enemies Of the peeele
not for the most part SIR eEe they
tons of our own mas organiza-
successful citizens ~ pectable aud
pufr 'a,ssss ssssST Newberry Ps,tai Pan1s
OF the Leading citizens Of our conn. n.le
Two OF them prominent farmers asy; aSs;
others @aaa SIX largely interested In farminaa ana
a bank make these men the ene,n;ss e of s
the people, as Tillnan and his foiIo,s y
ers would have US believee Such Dm an
idea is too ridiculous for inteIliaaaatt al
men to think Of seriously. Our factoru
too IS in charge Of our oxn citizens ~
l. believe are the factories in our State5
j generally. Our railroads are, unfortnSs
ately for our special local interests. for
the most part ln the hands ofoutsiders
But they are none the less entitled to