The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1892-12-28

.
Great 10 Reform.
correspondence The Herald and News.l
3 Co1UMBIA, sc. Dec. 26--ha gsaae re'-s-
tas. freely translated into our own verna.
cnlar means that drunken man Will
sneak the truth. And 80 last Friday
night one Of e"boys" Who was taking
his Christmas in advance spoke only
the literal truth when he said that the
term "Reform Party" as applied
to the dominant element in this State,
was a misnomer, and that they should
4 be dubbed the ''ruination Party"
It is a sad truth that the General
Assembly. which has just hnisaeo its
first session has certainly exhibited
most destructive tendencies, and has
not reformed worth 8 cent.
There is the "salary reduction bilE.-
cone where the wood bine>twineth, the
whancdoodle roreath and the campaign
howler reioices for his first born, is the
answer that echoes through the now
empty corridors of the State House.
Where is prohibitior-killed IN the
housa of its friends and travesty
substituted for it, is the reply that Is
sadly heard as the tread Of departing
feet dies away in the distance. ;,
And where, oh, where is the mucn
talked of reduction Of taxation" 1t
comes in the shape Of an Increased
levy for State purposes, and our over
burdended taxpayers, many OF Wnom
find it hard work to dodge the sheriff,
will nav. for. the wear 1893, one mill
more to the State than they did in lS9z.
sRefcrm, ~ as defined by the majority
Of the State Legislature, consists IN
harassing the. great corporatlons oy
vexatious and arbitrary legislation,
and in destroying the liquor business
in the hands of individuals and max
ing the State the vender OF lntoxIcants;
Truly the mountain has labored ano
brought forth a very, very small
mouse.
But .cuS 6onos What is done is done
and it only remains for p'e to
choronlcle briefly the leadinge5' sol
the closing week of the session.
The week opened with battle royal on
prohibition in the Senate. The : Evans
dispensary bi;I' was taken up as an
amendment to the: tRoper-Nettles billD,
and in this. shape was forced through q
second reading. The minority, under
the skilled leadership of that able and
accomplished parilame entarlan, Senator
Smythe, of Charleston-ably seconded
by his colleague, Senator Bnlst, and oy
Senator Sloan, Of Richland, and otners
made an all night fight oft, and
attacked the bill with eloquence ano
logic that could not be answered.
But it was ali in vain. The nat mao
gone forth, and the royal command
was obeyed.
In speaking against the Evans amend;
ment Senator Smythe said ne couio
not see how the prohibitionlst who
bases his opinion ON moral grounos
could vote for bill to transfer the
traffic from one channel to another. Il
was not right to embark the state IN
such speculation. The cry OF TINS
Legislature is, Down with monopoly
Yet this is q monopoly Of the worst
kind. We are ali going in as partners
to sell liquor. It is paternalism. dere
we are creating little army of govern.
ment employees. By this bill we seno
the State Of South Carolina into the
market to buy liquor on credit.
Senator Buist made three-houl
speech discussing almost everything
under the sun. Several Senators rose
to points of order, asking that the
Senator be allowed to speak slttine
down, and inquiring if member
could be regarded as present when DC
was asleep. -.
The amendment passed its third
reading in the Senate Friday night al
1850 o'clock and then the fight was
transferred TO the House. There, as IL
the Senate, the antis made stubborn
but fruitless fight.
The speech of Mr.. Sullivan, OF Char
lesion, against the amendment was
very funny. He said that it reminded
him ofthe Black Code. 1t was hllec
with nothing but persecution anc
punishment. Under it yoa had to be
. villain or an angel If you looked al
bottle unsealed you were william. 1!
vcu buy one from the State sealed, yor
are an angel. Under it liquor could
oniy be purchased in bottles. He hopeo
the Legislature would not compel him
to carry bis drink around IN his pocket
Citizen Josh Ashley made char
acteristic speech against the bill. He
had come pledged for prohibition, but
if anybody would show him any pro
hibitiop he would eat it. The amend.
ment was twenty-eight sections long.
He was no lawyer but he knew that
IifhS courts would decide in ten minutes
thAt no such lengthy amendmet could
Ske made on the spur Of the minute
Where was no prohibition in it. Under
ieyou could not only buy liquor, but
they compelled you to buy whole
bottle in order to get any.
Mr.. Thomas, of Columbia, gave the
most forcible argument against the
passage of the amendment. He said
that on account of its great length it
was practically new bill and it had
not been read three times in the House
as was required of all bills by the Con-
stitution. The bill had not been printed,
thus preventing all opportunity to con-
siderit. The bill did not relate to bat
one subject and that subject was not
expressed in the title, as required by
the Constitution.
The amendment was passed by a vote
of 81 to 80, as follows:
Yeas-Barry, Breazeale, Buist, Car
penter, Cox, Covington, Dendy, J. T.
Duncan, Edwards. Estridge, Fielder,
Folk, Foster, Gary, Graham, Ham
NETT, Hardy, Harper, Hill, Jeferies,
Jordan, Johnson, Kennedy, y,sKnotts, ].
D. and II. J. Kinard, Lemon, Magill,
Mauldin, McWhite, Mitchell, Net
ties, Oliver, Parks, Pearman, Phillips,
Rast, Roper, Shuman, Skinner, Smith,
Ssackhouse, Sturkie, Suddath, Tatum,
Tindal, Vaughan, Waters, Whitmire,
Wilborn, W. g. Wolfe, J. S. Wolf,
Wiley, Yeldell.
Nays-Speaker Jones, Anderson, Ash
ley, Bacot, Carol, Cooper, T. c. Dun
can, Elder, Gsrris, Glover, Hamilton,
Hardee, Hardin, Harris. Hughes, Hy-
drick, Kelly, Lescene, Love, Torrance,
Manning, Moses, Perry. Rhodes,
Rivers, Sullivan, Thomas, VonKolnitz
Weston, Williamson.
Mr.. Nettles, the prohibition leader
made the following statement: 81 dc
not favor this bill, but, believrag it to
| te much better than the presensli: