The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1895-10-09
About the Convention.
Special to the wa,chman and sou,hron.

Special to the Waschman and Southron.
COLUMBIA, S. c., October 9Th, '95
The Constitutional Convention, af
ter months session, has taken a
recess for ten days. The members
have gone home to see how their
work is being received and to en-
auire what is wanted On certain other
matters. The Convention now has
all of it's work mapped out, and as
the last of the committees has re-
ported to the body. the general tenor
of most Of the matters may be spec
ulated upon, with some degree of
certainty.
The Convention has, with its pre-
liminary work, finished up the Sec
tions on these matters Executive,
impeachments, amendments, miscel-
laneous matters, municipal corpora
tions and police regulations. and
legislative (almost) The more i'm
portant subjects that have yet to be
considered. and which will consume
most of the time of the Convention,
will be suffrage, corporations, edu-
cation, county government and judi
ciary. Some of the other remaining
reports will take up time, but in these
the Convention will find the greatest
difference of opinion and the greatest
amount of accumulated oratory
When the Convention reassembles
there is a little more work to be done
on the legislative report, and then
the much dreaded fight on the new
county matter will be taken up. The
lines have already been sharply
drawn on this matter, aud the fight
as to area, nearness to other county
court houses, population and assessed
value of property of the new territory
and all such matters, will be Tough:
from the jump. The champion of the
new county idea will be Mr.. Geo. D.
Tillman, who has already announced
his intention to fight for the small
county idea to the last ditch. The
special champion of the old counties
has not yet been shown, but it may
be Mr.. Frank Gary, of Abbevile, or
it may be Mr. Stanyarne Wilson, or
some entirely new man. There will
be no lack of men to lead both sides,
and one of the sharpest and prettiest
fights of the session is expected on
this question
The general outline of the report
of the committee on suffrage was ex-
pected by those who mad been watch.
ing the committee. The only material
change in the provision by which the
registration under the Understand
ing aud explaining clause is to be
conducted by board Of three super
visors Instead Of the one supervisor
as intended. The promise is that
one of these three registration Off
GERS is to be Conservative. The
idea is to let in all of the illiterates
by the time of the closing of the
understanding and explaining
clause in 1896, and after that to apply
the straight reading and writing pro-
vision. Senator Tillman and the
members of the committee on'sufrage
insist that the plan is fair, and that it
is the only thing that will stand the
test of the courts that they have been
able to devise, and that if this is not
adopted then they do not know what
to do. The amount Of property was
reduced to $500 and this, it is con-
tended. will let in very large
number of voters, and among them
great many colored people who own
their homes. The record, it is
claimed, will show. that there are
more colored people owning small
tracts of land than there are whites
in the same condition the proposed
plan, if etrictly carried out, will, it is
thought. leave the white people
margin of 10000 for the State The
Republicans are somewhat surprised