The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-12-21
THE LAWMAKERS.
up their Work and Get.
ting Ready 10 Come Home.

tIus RG6Ny ~ SOiuS
Columbia. S. c., Dec. l9.--In the way of "re-
form" if ali measures favored With the dis:
tillutlonS from the Governors think TANK
he reform" this session of the General As
sembly has done enough. 1t has JAILED In
several of It's tremendous undertakings, nut
when the session closes next Friday night, or
early Saturday morning, few Will deny that
it has accomplished much bold, not 10 say
reckless, legislation. Governor Illlman -
both houses, if there be any, has been Kept III
the background, and there has been little 10
interfere with the easy course OF reform leSis-
lation. ~ m,
played in both houses than usual, and there
has been as yet none OF the stormy scenes
that added interest if not luStre 10 the pre-
ceding General Assemniy;; AS Rnay;- corv doc,oimed
against Col. John c. Haskell for a few min
ules last week, and now and then lhe serenl-
ty OF the Senate is disturbed by sparrns
matches between senator John gary Esails
and Senator Snythe. Occasionally Congress
name ect Strait, the Senator from Lancaster,
derours a newspaper man. but these Incl
dents are tame com pared with some oil those
which have occurred in recent years. Olu
legislators say that i'll temper Increases to
ward the end Of the session, when the law
makers liver gets bilious, and 1t may be that
we shall have fireworks In the next few days.
PROHIBITION.
The only real fight Of the session has been
on prohibition. Most OF the other very I'M
portant bills have been strictly adnilnlSira.
lion measures, and they have always rallied
to themselves u host of friends which IL was
vain 10 oppose But prohibition was GER
tainly not an administration idea, and the
Tillmanite legislators were divided into hall
II dozen clans In regard to IT, The ConserHa-
tivrs strenuously opposed the whole idea.
The conviction expressed III this correSpon-
dence. that the Chles-ROper Till would never
become law, is on the verge OF confirmation.
The bill passed Its SECOND yn,e reading III 30 IN a. tae
The following day II passed It's third reading
by q vote of I2 10 66 Mr. Blease, OF Newher-
ry, moved to recommit the bill.
Messrs. Anderson, Ashley. Barry. Blease,
Bruce; Cooper, T C. Duncan, Edwards, Egan,
Ellis, Farley, Garris, Hardee Haskell. Har-
per, Hydrick, Kelly, kirkland, LANCASTER,
Mauldin, Mishoe, Moses, Perry, Rhodes, Riv-
ers. Rowland, Shunan, A. J. smith, Stalvey,
SuIlivay, Thomas, Tupper, Vonkolnitz, Wa
lers. Watts, Williamson and j. S. Wolf.
Those who voted against recommitting the
Black we'll, Breazeale, Breland, Briee, B.ist,
Byrd. Carpenter, Carroll, Chandler, Cox, Gov
ington, Crnm. Davis, Dendy. Dennis, DuBose,
Estrdge Felder E9Ik, Foster GTanam, Hsnsnr
sou, Hill, Hough, Jefferies, Jordan, Kennedy,
Knots, j. d. Kinard, H. j. Kinard. Leman,
Love, MagiIl, L.; Mauldin, McLaurin' Nc Ne
l
ton. Phillips, Rast, Roper, Russell, skinner,
]. l.. Smith, Stack house, Sturkie, Suddath,
Tatum, Taylor, Vaughan, Whitmire, VIII
born, w. c. Wolfe, Wylie, Yeldell.
The bill was then passed and sent to the
Senate.
over in the Senate the bill went to winter
quarters, or, in other words. into the hands OF
the judiciary committee. There 1t stayed un-
an unfavora BILE report, to which eight OF the
nine members of the committee had agreed.
The first Senatorial debate on the subject
occurred Friday on o resolution introduced
by Senator Fuller, of Laurens, to require the
judiciary committee to report the bill that
day. The John Gary Evans bill, providing
for State and county dispensaries from which
the stuff could be bought In quantities from
reported, and friends of the Roper bill SEEM
ed to be dissatisfied on account Of 1t not hav-
ing been hustled through and given an even
START
the committee, and several Others, took the
ground that the resolution vas an imputation
that the committee was endeaVorlng TO
smother the bill by unduly delaying IT,, and
they vigorously resented it, Senator Finley
made the fight for the resolution, denying
that 1t reflected upon the good faith OF the
committee, and arguing that since the com
mittee had already reported favorably upon
the Evans bill, 1t must, to be consistent, re-
port the Roper measure unfavorabiy any
way, therefore, why keep it back?
The members OF the committee replied to
this BY declaring that they felt bound to re-
spect the request Of both sides to be- allowed u
hearing. The resolution was defeated by a
vote OF 25 to 10. 1nasmuch as the question OF
rejecting upon the committee was involved
in the vote 1t was not fair test OF the prohi-
bition strength.
Senator Browns bill, the same as the Tim
norman License bill OF last year, came up
Saturday. Senator Zimmerman stated that
be had conscientiously advocated such a
laSt 40 a "A S0fp6
He moved 10 continue the bill until today,
and the motion prevailed. This, with the
Evans bill and the Roper bill, Will come up
in the Senate to-day and the fighting Will be
furious. There will be stubborn minority
who will insist on the iron bound Roper mea-
sure.
The Evans bill is said to be stamped with
the seal of the Governors approval ana Will
enter the contest with that advantage, bat
the Roperites will fight 1t vigorously because
they do not believe that 1t Is prohibitory
measure at all.
play, and will only serves to give those two
gentlemen, and possibly one or Two Others,
an opportunity to vote against the Roper
bill. Ten or twelve Senators will array them
selves squarely against any form o whisky
legislation, and they will have abundant
power to Elm barrass the divided opposition,
The situation Is about this: None OF the
proposed bills can possibly reach bird read
ing before Tuesday, and there are thousand
chances against any Of them reaching 1t be-
tore "Wednesday or Thursday. 1t is out of the
question for The Roper bill 10 pass the Senate.
No other bill will have time. If passed In the
Senate, to get through the House. Then the
supply bill will be under consideration in the
Senate throughout the week, together with
the work of winding up pending matters
that cannot be passed over. There are scores
of local and private measures on the calen-
dar and their projectors are more desirous OF
fulfil ling the wishes OF their constituency in
regard to these than they are to fool with pro-
hibition.
When, In addition to this, 1t is considered
that the Senate has taken the whole prohibi-
btion question in an easy, don't care way,
and has shown no disposition for spaSmodic
eXertions, The conclusion Is inevitable that
prohibition is stone dead SO far as this session
is concerned-a fact which Is now generally
conceded. Even GeneralisSimo Nettles writes
to his paper that the Roper bill cannot pass.
FEMALE SUFFRAGE.
Senator Hemphill, OF Abbeville. delivered
a capital speech on his proposed constitution
al amendment granting women the right to
vote and hold office. The Senator had evil
IDENTIFY given the subject careful study and he
was listened to by the whole Senate, us well
as by q female college or Two In the galleries.
with the utmost attention.
Fourteen Senators from both factions gal
laptry voted against the unavorable report,
which report prevailed, going to show thai
the proposition was at least received serious
ly. Some OF the Senators who voted against
It admit that the idea is gaining ground, and
say that the race problem Is the great obSta-
Gle in the way Of IL in the South. Coored
women would have no hesitation In going to
the polls but 1t would be a long time before
majority of the white women would consent
TO dabble in politics.
MruUite dictu, none Of the Senators made
the point that the surrender of political SUI
premacy TO the women would emancipate
The men in domestic affairs and bestow upon
them iu an ideal form, that local Self-gOveTn-
ment. which Is the underlying theme of the