The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1899-01-14

MAJ prosecutions bllBlntt
courts of the county, exec
courts OF Il justice OF the p,
provides that these fines an
ures shall be paid into "a.
uries Of the counties as son
peusation to them for this o.
/ imposed upon them
The plan proposed by the q
nor was o. violate This Section o,
constitution and % take these II
and forieitures from the count
and put them into the CONNIE |
school fund. l Immediately wrotN
TO something like dozen county
supertendents in some Of the largest
counties in the state and asked them
what would he the effect Of this bill
explaining to them what conceived
TO be its effect. The answer was
uniform in every instance save one,
that it would ruin the public schools
Of their counties One gentleman
first wrote me that he did not think
that it would have any effect but
within a day or two new light
dawued upon him and he wrote to
me using severely critical language
Of the governor and stating that it
would ruin the schools in his
county.
When the Finance Committee met
in jackson there We're only three
members present, to-wit: your sen
ator, Senator Harry, Senator Irwin
Miller of Leake county and myself.
! stated 10 the governor that /
thought that his bill was uucOnsti-
tutional and asked him if he thought
il was constitutional He stated 90
me that he had no doubt that it was
and we had some discussion giving
our respective views. / finally said
to Gov McLaurin that in a matter
of so grave a moment that / thought
it would be well to take the opinion
of the Judge Of the supreme court
and he answered back that he would
not be governed by their opinion
anyhow in the matter Of the CON
struction of the constitution; that
he had his own opinions upon that
and that those Were satisfactory and
sufficient tOhim I then again asked
the gove1norJn the presence of Sen
ator Miller and Senator Hardy. do
YOU consider this bill constitutional
in every particular, GOVERNOR he
replied that undoubtedly it was so.
I said to him, "Well governor, /
know that one of the features of this
bill is unconstitutional because it Is
violative of section 261 of the Con
stitutiou which gives to the counties
the fines and fOrfeitures and that
section Of the constitution has been
construed by-our supreme court in
the case of Stone, Auditor vs.. War
rem county I stepped into the Ii
brary and brought a volume back
and read the decision and Gov Nc
Laurin then mad to confess that that
much at least of this bill was uncon
stitutiOnal
In his message TO the extraordi-
nary sess ion of 1897 he again pre-
scented tn IS bill shOru of this feature,
so far as fines and forfeitures We're
concerned. He entered into most
elaborate argument, trying to sus
tain the consttutiOuality Of his bill
He endeavored to explain his men
ton of section 261 by saying that he
had been mlslea by sesctIon 4U?z o.
the Annotated code OF AlsslsslI
If You will read sectlon 4V9z OF the
Code you VIII see Jhat 1t was Iof
temporary purpose only and TO ex-
ist fDT one year only, and that it
does not read as the governor quotes
it in his message. InIs seel!oI' so
far as it is necessary a. quote II mere
reads as follows.
In counties where there shall be
a deficit on account Of schools Tor
the scholastic year ending October
l, 1892 the boards Of supervisors are
authorized to use the poll taxes col
lected in the county for the year
1891 and if necessary an additional
amount equal to the net proceeds OF
the fines and forteiture5 paid INTO
the county treasury for the year
Io M 1900. j., hi, s,,ooio7 MOS
sage to the session says;
In my desire Tor the provision OF
ample funds for the common schools
l suggested to the ways anu means
committee that lines and iortelJufeS
added to TINS 1lna' oI !el. sec,
tion zol Oh Jue cons lI--l, 'OuIlOll az 0llu
the Legislature on 1872 Wheh by sec
ton 4U52 countles having a deilclt
on account OF the SCHOOLS We're le-
CURED to supply IL II supplled az ali
out OF the net proceeds OF INES anu
torfeltures
notwithstanding TINS eiaoorate