The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1892-04-20
GOV, SHEPPARD IN NETHERHE.
He Delivers Strong and Conservative
Speech in the Opera Gouse-A Large
Crowd Present.

For an impronlptu meeting, the oHe
in the opera house Monday night was
q bowling success. No one seemed to
know anything about il. There was
no flourish of trunpets beforehand.
But when the hour arrived the opera
house was well flied, about 500 persons
being present.
Gov. Sheppard had been invited by
telegram to spend the night in New
berry on his return from The Greenvliie
meeting. and he accepted.
Persons got word OF il III the country
and there were number present from
several miles from town.
DR.. Holland opened the meeting with
prayer.
Mr.. J. Z. Crosby, president OF the
Factory Democratic Club, presided at
the meeting and introduced Gov. Shep-
pard. He said: "FeliOw-cit!Zens-l
have the honor of introducing to you
tonight the Hon. Jno. {. Sheppard,
one Of the candidates for Governor. l
hope you will give him the best of at
ten ion. MIR. Sheppard will now ad-
dress you"
AS Gov. Sheppard stepped to the
front of the rostcum be was greeted
with round after round Of applause.
He said: "Mr. Chairman and Fellow
citizens of Newberry:-it affords me
great qualification To be permitted once
more to appear before you. [ nave
been the recipient at the hands of the
people of New berry Of many kind
nesses. I long ago made up my mind
never to forego the pleasure OF an op-
portunity toappear before them. " hen
I received the telegram this morning L
did not hesitate. | promise you,.In the
absence of my opponent, | shall not
violate any of the proprietits of honor
able debate. l propose to cl-cuss the
issues before the people calmly and de-
liberately, without passion, tor Gods
knows we have had enough OF bitter
ness, of abuse, OF viiification, OF vltu-
pelation. I shall not initiate my COM
petitor in this. So far as | am con-
cerned, | shall conduct myself and
this campaign in such spirit Of kind
ness and friendliness, that when the
result is known we can go hand IN
hand and vote for the nominees.
"Solne men Have already said that
this movement is incipient inde-
pendentism. They speak what they
know to be false, or they do not know
me. The time has never been, nor
will ever come, when | shall lead or
follow any movement that looks to the
disintegration of the white people OF
South Carolina. The future welfare
and prosperity of South Carolina de-
pend upon white supremacy aud white
supremacy depends upon Democratic
unity.
Il propose to illustrate that the
charges made by Gov. Tillulan against
his predecessors are without foundation
and that his promises have not been
Performed, and ifthis can be established
it will follow that he is no longer en-
titled to the sutfrages of the people.
His promise was that he would re-
form the extravaganza Of former ad-
ministre tions, which he had denounced
most bitterly. The first thing he did
was to spend $500 to erect platform
upon which to take the oath of office.
He next recommended that the poll
tax be increased from 81 to So. At that
time there were sl29, ,6l2 from poll tax.
He proposed to Increase it to S3SS, 1856.
Yet he talks about being the friend OF
the poor man. The rich man can af-
ford to pay three dollar poll tax, but
there are plenty Of men who walk be-
tween the plow handle sand work IN
our mills upon whom such a tax would
be burden.n
Mr.. Sheppard then quoted some fig
ures from the records. Mr.. Tillman
had charged Gov. Richardson's admin
istration with extravaganza. The last
wear of Gov. Richardson's administra-
ton the appropriation for the executive
department was sl15,S00. The first
year of Gov. Tillman's administration
for the same purpose it was Sl23, 3,0S3,
and the second year it was Sl26, 935. In
another depart lnent where the expen-
ditures under Richardson for the last
year We're S43, ,S25, under Tillman for
the same purpose the appropriation was
S52, ,3S5.
Mr.. Sheppard said he did not claim
that these appropriations were eXtrava-
CANT, but they show how utterly with
out foundation and injustitiable were
the campaign charges and criticisms of
Gov. Tillman, or if not, how much more
open to censure aud criticism Gov.
Tillman is than those whom he so
abused.
Gov. Tillman talked about the num-
erous offices and high salaries Of the
clerks in the departments. No office
has been cut off and no salary reduced.
He denounced others for taking free
passes, and he had not been in office
sixty days before he had one HIM
self. It is a record Of glaring lncon-
sistencies. When the Legislature cX-
tended the lime for paying taxes and
while he had the bill upon his desk, a
plain farmer from Rock Hill tele-
rraphed Gov. Tillman the simple cues
ton, Has the time for paying taxes
been extended?n The answer was
"no." At that moment the Governor
of South Carolina had not paid his own
taxes, because he knew that viii. 49,
time had not been extended it woLl,.
be; but he deceived this poor farmer
who had to scuttle around to pay his
tax to avoid, as hethough, the penalty.
But some one may say these are small
things. What we want to know has
the tax been reduced in the aggregate.
The tax that you will be called upon to
pay this year Will be more than it was
last year. But some one says the levy
last Year was +! mills and this year Il.
That is true, but the question is how do
the number of dollars compare. TO
talk about the levy being reduced is a
miserable fraud, for anything is fraud
that is intended to deceive the people.
Mr.. Sheppard then gave the figures
to show the facts. The assessment of
property for last year amounted to
$50, ,632, 431. For this year Sl6S, 262,-
$50. Last year the taxes paid were
1861, III. This year you will be called
upon to pay S7l4,116. ~
At this point an ardent Tillmanite,
who was present, could stand it no
longer, and shouted family, "hurrah
7 H.