The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1895-10-29


; West. But is there no difference be
tween New England and South Care
!inaS With dense white population
immense capital, numerous towns, ho,
: can we in South Carolina follow thei
lead 2"
Mr.. Derham asked whether th
township system was not adopted il
those States when they were sparsel,
settled.
Mr.. Wilson said he didn't know, bu
our population is different. Our pop
ulation has negro majority. Oul
conditions are different and reauir,
different treatment and need the pro
lection of the gOverement of the State
You can't apply the system here, be
cause we have no homogeneous popu
lation, Take Beaufort and portions o.
Colleton what would be the result o
this system 1t is hardly necessary
to say. 1t is patent to all
Mr.. Tillman interrupting said he ex.
pressly said that the freehold voters
should elect the directors. We also
J say that any county which wished
could be excepted from the system
This was done to meet the conditions
In the lower counties.
MIR. Wilson went on to argue that
the lack OF wealth, population and
homOgeneity in South Carolina as CON
pared with New England was sufficient
to kill Mr.. Tillmans plan. None Of
those States had ever had a population
like ours. Money has flown into those
States for the past forty or fifty years
while South Carolina has had to de-
pend upon her natural resources more
than anything else and she can't be
compared to them.
Practically Mr.. Tillman's plan is to
abolish present county lines and estab-
lish 300 or more principalities. How
about the debt? How can these town
ships be 30 intimately connected as to
pay debt contracted by the whole
county How about assessments I? 1t
will be impossible for the county to
nave q general assessment and pre-
serve the county autonomy.
AS to managers of election he pro-
poses to give three in each township
to appoint managers. They will be
no more angelic than those appointed
by the Governor. Nothing will be
easier than for them to appoint mana
gers who will return them to office.
There are just rs many evils in con-
nection with one system AZ the other.
The present county government he
contended came as near giving South
Carolina township government as her
appointment of the three comm ission-
ers on the ground that in the lower
counties, especially, it would be i'm
possible for the right sort Of men to
be selected. These commissioners
duties are just what Mr. Tillman wants
except ~ to the appointment OF cleo
tion managers and he saw no reason in
the world why this power should be
given them.
AS to our school system it was in
about as good condition now as could
be wanted. The objections to electing
the commissioners apply to the plan Of
OF electing the school trustees.
He took another view OF the argu-
ment and held that these provisions
had no business here, because it it was
not expressly prohibited the Legisla-
ture in its power could establish the
system If it wanted or the people
demanded.
Mr.. Parrott: Was the present sys-
TEN of the county government author
lied by a constitutional amendment 2"
Mr.. Wiloon said not but that the
hands OF the Legislature were simply
united.
He argued that Mr.. Tillman's plan
was an uncertain thing in the South
1T had never been tried and let us not
-,
Leave it all to the Legislature to take
care of the rights of tho people. He
moved to lay the section on the table.
Mr.. Otis Uift red the following as q
substitute:
Each of the townships of the State
with names and boundaries as now or
hereafter established by the General
Assembly shall he body politio and
corporate and the General Assembly
shall provide uniform system of local
government for the same. and require
each township to contribute its proper
tional part of the proper expenses of
an efficient county and State govern
ment."
Mr.. Otis in explaining his substitute
said we simply proposed to carry out
Democratic government as endorsed
by Jefferson. He granted that condi-
tlons in New England were different,
but the system has been tried in new
States in the West and was found to
work all right. 1t is nothing new.
Mr.. Wilson begs the question when
he states that we are trying to make
county out of every township. Suppose
some township wants to have special
school levy that would not do for the
whole county, why can't it be allowed
to do so?
lc nClu IudI Illc RACIAL CO0UlUlOnS
had much changed and he believed
there would be a greater one by Janu-
ary, 1896. AS matter of fact the ne
groes now controlled no county in the
State saveione. 1t is u notorious TACT that
the old county commissioner system
was failure, and while the present ia
an improvement 1t comes far from
meeting the expectations of it's friends.
1T is hard to place the responsibility
for anything. The commissioners and
the supervisors always put the blame
on each other when anything goes
wrong. AS to the debt there will be
no trouble about that, because it is
proposed to Tx it so that the townships
as u whole shall be responsible for
general county expenses such as debt,
poor houses, etc.
Mr.. Buist expressed surprise at Mr..
Wilson being 80 earnest against town
ship governments. Only the other
day he was just rs earnestly advoca-
ting the compelling of the incorpora-
tion of factory towns.
Mr.. Barton offered the following
substitute;
Each of the several townships Of
this State with names and boundaries
AZ now establised by law, shall consti-
tute a body polite, but this shall not
prevent the General Assembly from
organizing other townships or chang
ing the boundaries OF those already es-
| FOL liuh nl nd hou hl,,