The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1894-12-05
oV.GiDnan' 'sMeSSage
REVIEW OF FHE PAST, RECGaMENDA.
TIONS FOR THE FUTURE.
WHAF REFORM HAS ACCOkPL LISHED.
HOW THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVEN.
TION MUST BE MANAGED.
ADEFENCE OF TIE DIsPENsARY Law
AND ITS ADMINISTRATION.

2kUN MOSI DE MANAVGOs
Defence OF TIE DIsPENSARY Law
AND ITS ADMINISTRATION.
The Darlington Troubles-The Disorsanizs-
ton Of the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Instisu-
lions Must Econouaize-Esne Condi-
don of State Charities-No Longer
ANY Income from Phosphates.
Othcr Natter
Gentlemen of the General Assembly:
herewith present to your honorable
bodies this my fourth and last annual
message. Since my induction into
Office, four years ago, the ADMINISTERS
ton Of the Executive department has
been beset with difficulties. Complex
problems have forced themselves for
ward for solution; reforms of radical
nature have been accomplished; abuses
of long standing have been corrected,
or attempted to be corrected, and the
natural result has been that the period
from March, 1890, to 1885 has been one
Of intense polital activity, and will
mark an epoch in our annals to which
the future historian Of the State must
devote more than passing glance.
During this time there has been no
perfunctory performance Of routine OIL
cial duties in the Executive Office. The
irrepressible conflict between capital
and s3abor-between the corporations
and money ON the one hand and the
people ON the other-which is fast
msrshaling the American people into
opposing political armies, has been
waged here in South Carolina with re-
lentless fury. But, thank God, Mach
iavelian cunning and interruptions
political methods have been met by
honest patriotism and uodlnchlng re-
gard for duty. The people have sus-
tanned our efforts to make reform mean
something, and the victory has been
with the State Administration in every
essential particular. The corporations
havs been forced to bow to the rule OF
right and justice. The Iawless have
been taught that q statute OF the State
cannot with impunity be annulled by
mob. Equality Of burden, with
equality OF benefit and equality OF op-
porsunity, is aoW more nearly rule
than at any other period in our recent
history, and the march Of progress,
while over rough roads, has been
steady. The people Of the State govern,
the majority rules and tbs advance in
education, in temperance, in all that
goes to make up s higher, better civill-
cation and q more prosperous, nsppy
people is marked. No >unprejudlcea
man can deny it,. No truthful man
who will deal with facts will depyslt. .
The representatives of the once
privileged classes will protest most
yehemently, The newspapers, oWned
or subsidized by the liquor dealers Will
continue to howl and gnash their teetA
in rage that the goddess traffic is being
sleRly bat surely taken from7aeaeIr
patrons and confined within. reason
able and lawful bounds. But the great
mass OF plain, business" wcrklHg@es
and farmers know that what l state IS
true.
ACHIEVEMENTS OF REFORM"
7 cannot expatiate or 60 iato details,
but q brief recapitulation of the things
which have been accomplished by the
Reform movement in South Carolina
can best show the truth of what l as
sert. They are: .
1st. The erection and endowment OF
Clemson College.
ID. The overthrow Of the Coosaw
monopoly.
Sd. The Just and equitable assessment
of taxes on railroads and other corpc-
rations, and the victory in the Courts
compelling them to pay.
4th. The passage of the dispensary
law and the destruction Of the bar
rooms.
5th. Refunding Of the Stste debt,
which saves $4,000 a year in interest.
9Th. The eestab blishmeEt Of the Win
thfop Normal and Industrial College
for women.
7th. Election of the railroad commits
sionere by the people, and allowing
them to fix passenger and freight rates.
Sth. The inauguration of the primary
system of party nominations for all Of
dees in the gift Of the people.
The last is not function OF govern
ment, and belongs rather to party
management; but by and through It,
.snd the battle fought to obtain it, all
the rest have come. BY those who
have fought US doggedly it will be
charged that the unity Of the white
race has been destroyed, the Demo
cratic party driven assunder, and the
kindly feeling of our people for each
other replaced by factional bitterness
and strife.
'iBoURBoNIsM" DENOUNCED.
Be It 90. The blame rests with those
who, while claiming to represent the
masses, were entrenched in our high
places as the tools Of corporations and
advocstes of special privileges for the
few and political slavery and financial
servitude for the many. Perish the
Democratic party of both the State and
nation if Democracy does not mesn
ths greatest good to the greatest num-
ber, and the rule of the majority. Let
white unity go if the bond which binds
US is not that Of brethren with equal
rights, but links sristocratic privilege
and the claim OF inheritance by divine
right, TO a servile surrender OF the
sights of freemen. The National Demo
cracy betrayed the people and broke all
of its pledges. It has been given de-
served chastisement, if not a death
stroke, by the voters. But the State
Democracy, although stabbed in the
back by white men calling themselves
'sour best people" and the only 'true
Democrats" )" has triumphed over Bour-
oon:sm and treachery. The presence in
these halls of an increased number Of
Reformers shows that the people are
content with the Government as it has
been administered, and intend to con-
tinue the policy I have pursued.
Freedom and tryany cannot reVolve
in the same orbit in an elective Gov
eminent unless the tyrant is on top.
The position having been inverted by
the election of 1890, placing the free
people on top and the tyrants below,
the natural Republicans among our
white people-the believers in special
privileges and class legislation-have
sloughed of into party OF their own,
and have gone to the negroes at last.
They have not been content, however,
to 90 in decent silence and vote-as
thew Dlpased. but remembering the