The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-01-22

Assembly lOE tue pdSI week s. - X
there have been but four working days
thus far. Tuesday was devoted to the
.conside derations of the annual message tli
Governor. Evans, and no new bills were
introduced on that day. The first bills
came In on Wednesday, and so the com-
3uiittees have had Wednesday, Thursday,
ou}k of the work thus far undertaken
mas BEEN BY the committees, and they
appear TO have all been hard at work,
Judging from the number OF bills that
nave been reported. The House will
,haye q great deal Of work ready forEits
:onsid deration when 1t meets in the morn
ing II 1T cares to take it up.
8 Most OF what has been done has been
over bills. The bill to abol-
ilsh the Citadel Academy commanded
attention for two days, aud some little
attention was given the cotton seed meas
.ure from: Florence. Outside Of these two
matters nothing much has been accom-
splished during the past week except to
map out the work for the session.
Thus far there has not been as much
legislation of importance as was antici.
.pated. The special committees delegated
% prepare necessary legislation under
Mr.. Thurmond,s ,s resolution may change
smatters, but up to this time there are
hardly half q dozen really vital bills be-
forethe Assembly bearing on the new
Constitution. 81 s
The election Of Associate Justices has
commanded some interest since the be-
ginning Of the session. From the start,
by his position and ability, Mr.. Ira B.
Jones has had the advantage of the con.
test, and it now appears that he will have
no opposition In the election that will be
held on Tuesday. He and Mr.. Justice
Pope will be elected with practically no
Opposition. The, idea is to have MIR. JUS
tics Jones take his seat ON the Bench
during the;week, or at the earliest mo-
smens possible. The bill reorganizing the
Conr- has come TO the House from the
Senate and will be given immediate con-
sideration on that account. -
3 A:great deal OF interest Ia taken In the
proposition to increase the number Of
judicial circuits, and thereby the number
of Judges. Governor Evans suggested
that TWO additional Judges would materi-
ally assist in giving speedy trials to
criminals and In unclogging the Courts.
In the early part Of the session q member
shad q bill ready TO file mapping out ten
judicial districts and providing for the
election OF the Judges and their duties.
The bill was withheld, and 1t Howappears
will not be introduced st all. An effort
.was made to have joint meeting Of the
House. and Senate Judiciary committees
70 consider the matter of increasing the
number Of circuits, but that meeting has
not yet been held It is understood that
the Senate committee is opposed to the
creation Of any new Circuits and that the
Scyx y1cf, l3piI IaA
upon the question, 30 If the hill should
be introduced 1t is likely 70 have hard
road to travel. The opposition seems to
suggestion is made that by requiring
more frequent terms Of Court the work
can be done by the present force Of eight
Judges. In any event the chances are
decide edly more favorable to the election
Of two new Judges than to the County
Court idea. The great objection to the
county Court idea is that while some
Counties may adopt the plan Of County
Courts others wiffsnot do so, and that
will cause additional expense to the
Counties with County Courts, while they
arc paying their quota to the support of
tho regular judicial system now In opera
ton.
z Nothing has yet been done In the House
in reference to the election or registration
plans that have been presented. The
election system is modelled after that
now in force, and incorporate the present
eight box system, while the registration
law is kin to that now in force, with q
as far as can be seen now to
the present constitution. The election
bill has been referred to the committee
on privileges and elections, while the
registration bill has been given to the
judiciary committee on account Of the
possible legal question and to see that it
conforms to the Federal requirements.
Il is likely that the House will wait for
The Senate bills as amended in both Of
these matters, as the House and Senate
bills now are practically the same.
There seems to be q willingness on the
part of those in charge Of these bills to do
what is to the interest of all voters, re-
gardless of factions. There will be an ef-
fort made to have the registration in
charge of two more officers, as 1t has been
found that when there is only one regis
tration officer he Is apt to be tempted to
stretch his authority too far.
OF course one Of the most important
matters to come up at this session will
be the income tax proposition. Up to
yesterday afternoon nothing had been
done by the committee on ways and
means in the matter, and the estimates
for the year have not yet been made up.
None Of the members has introduced an
income tax bill, and it is likely to come
from the committe as part Of the supply
bill. There has been but little talking
on the matter, and no one can tell the
exact sentiment Of the two houses en-
such proposition, for nothing definite
has yet been mapped out. It may depend
very much on whose OK is gored as to
how matters will stand in the end. 1t Is
almost certainty, however, that an in
come tax proposition will be submitted
for consideration.
It was perhaps noticeable that the Pc
rennial usury bill, which was referred to
.he committee on agriculture, should
have received an unfavorable report
About the only rea-on that can be seen
Tor sending such bill to the committee
on agriculture is that the friends of the
measure asked that such 8 reference be
made. and then it came in with an up-
favora ble report. Other such bills are
sure to bob up again, and one relating to
the practice in making such collections
has already been introduced.
The joint committee charged with the
into the charges against the
OF the Penitentiary will
meet tomorrow and begin work. The