The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1895-01-04
BAREwELLs PLEA FOR PEACE
A sHORTREvIEw OF THE WORK
OF THE LEGISLATURES.

N bhOfSx REVIEW OF THE WORI
OF THE LEGISLATURE
------
The Appeal of the . Forty /. Should b
Met In Good Faith--Time will Shoy
Whether their Professions ar
"A Reporter for The News an
Courier called on Senator. u W. Barr
4Wen With . request for an ihtervie,
upon the work Of the Legislature at it
late ssion. Mr., Barnwell said tha
describa8 3: s%horoMS thor d 3 81 sly " the work dom on
that thefe fas little Tor him to say. ii
would Aay1 hoV oV6vers that he had neve
q n Rie lime had snch hard work {.
s 3QEEB that htc11SWas ercwded into tn,
t1c6e weeks b6tWeen the 4th and 24tl
/. OF pecemb Dor. 1t was literally q nigh
Z and daN oNSiness TO do the mere routin,
$ th9twas req ufred VI Senator and ais,
TO keep watch upon general legisla
tion.
Something over four hundred bill.
had been acted on by the Senate, O
which about three hundred had come
before the committees on the judiciar,
and on interpretations, of which he was
member. Work usually began at II
o'clock in the morning with the sitting
OF one or other of these committees
and was continued until IL o'clock.
when the Senate met and continued in
session till shortly after = o'clock The
judiciary committee met every day at
4.3O and sometimes sat for over two
hours, and on one occasion until the
meeting of the Senate at Sp. m. The
Senate met nearly every night at and
continued in session till about 10 and
sometimes up to II and IL o'clock.
There certainly was no waste of time
In the Senate. No set speeches were
delivered and there was no member on
either side SO far as he could see who
wasted time in speaking. He did not
hesitate to say that he believed tho
Soutf Carolina Legislature was the
hardest worked legislative body in the
world. Under its unwritten law it ad-
journed at Christmas and to do so re-
quired unceasing labor. OF course
there was a. mass of legislation which
was mere routine, such as the incor-
poratlon OF towns or amending their
charters, or the Incorporation of rail
roads and the many local matters con-
cerning county government.
Under the present Constitution every
bill must relate to one subject, and
consequently it was impossible to have
one bill or two bills Incorporating i'm
one Act a large nun Dor of companies,
as was the practice prior to the present
Constitution. This Legislature had
adhered pretty closely to the rule that
no charters should be issued which
could be obtained from the Clerk of
the Court or the Secretary of the
State: but the number of Acts of in
corporation which cannot be so OBJ
tanned is considerable and many of
these it is scarcely possible to see q
tn OrQnfinn
Jaw 49, -
Charleston has afwaysa a very large
mass of such legislation to be got
through with, and he pitied the Sena-
tor who ever had to do this work alone.
Every person interested in a charter
wishes to know exactly its progress
through its two bodies, and the Senate
is amused sometimes to see the tele-
grams rushing in upon the Charleston
Senators. Personally he was treated
by all of the Senate, its officers and
employees with the utmost courtesy,
and he had the pleasantest recollec-
tions of his intercourse with them. He
did not believe that the errors in
noting amendments made by the
Senate were the effect OF design. In
fact he might say that he knew they
were not, inasmuch as they sometimes
occurred in bills in which no one could
be interested in making them. He
stated this as simple matter of JUS
tice to the presiding officers and the
clerks. In the tremendous rush to-
wards the end of the session and in the
late hours which prevailed it was won
derful that there were not more errors.
There are really not so many com
mifted as there are in the closing hours
of Congress of what is known as the
short session.
Politically speaking, Of course, the
onservativcs were not able to control
legislation. That no sane man could
expect with the small minorities in the
two houses, but that their weight was
felt on the committees and in general
legislation is fact too patent to need
discussion. There was scarcely any
bitterness in any debate, and the effort
seemed to be as a general rule on the
part of the Conservatives, not to OBJ
scure the questions by side issues but
to discuss them on their merits, and to
leave no excuse to the majority to
plead on behalf OF their party
measures that they had been irritated
or taunted by their adversaries. On
the other hand he did not think that
any of the majority ever thought for q
moment that the minority had surrcn-
dered their convictions. You must
recollect that on number of the party
questions the Conservative vote was
doubled by the addition of the more
independent of the Reformers. Sena-
tor Finley, ofiNew York, Senator Kirk
land of Kershaw and Senator Miller,
OF Lancaster, voted on all subjects as
they pleased and were reinforced from
time to time by other Senators.
Senator Barnwell was asked to speak
regarding the address of the forty "
He said that not all Of these gentlemen
had proved their faith by their works
but he thought that certainly an effort
should be made by the Conservatives
to show that they were willing to drop
party lines in the matter OF the COnstitu-
tional Convention. II that body was Il
partisan body, bent upon making
Constitution which should recognize
the dictates of faction alone, it should
be clearly shown that the fault of
doing so did not rest with the cities
and towns and the Conservatives, but
should be laid at the door of the Nd
ministratiOn and the extremists of that
faction. There would be time enough
to demonstrate who were at fault if the
body was not truly a representative