The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1902-05-14

l0QlIQ, l Will ldht lllc quincy
and you the buzzard." Soft was
buzzard every time for the In
dian, and so it is with the peo-
pie, the corporations with their
combined wealth aided and en-
couraged by the laws made by
our General Assembly give the
corporations every advantage,
and the reason for it is plaln.
The corporate interests IN the
General Assembly is being look
ed after either by paid attorneys,
or bv men who have money in
vested in corporations. This
condition was so apparent, that
Senator Ilderton of Florence in
troduced & joint resolution to
make it unlawful for a corpora
ton attorney to hold a seat in
the General Assembly, but it
did not get through, the corpor-
alton element continues to grow,
simply because the people allow
themselves tricked into voting
for men under a hue and cry
about some matter that is Of no
practical value to them. When
this element finds a man in the
General Assembly with the back
hone TO fipht the encrOuchmentS
of corporations, and they cannot
fatter or buy him, then they
mark him for political slaughter;
all kinds of devices are resorted
to, they will take up some ex-
preston of his, which has no
practical value, and convert it
into political issue, then they
will combine with the personal
enemies of the man,-men who
are known to be standing off
watching an opportunity to loot
the public treasury; they will
use every effort to prejudice the
minds of the people against the
man who dares to obstruct them,
and with lot of hypocritical
cant invite a popular idol to help
them out in their nefarious
scheme, and to fit the key stone
into this conspiracy arch, they
pose as sacrifices and consent to
become candidates only after the
people have been asked to bind
themselves. or mortgage their
birth right, by signing a peti-
ton.
We assert, that corporations
are gradually fastening their
manacles upon the limbs of the
masses, and unless their isa gen
eral awakening to resist, corpor-
ate greed will clutch the throats
of the people and choke them
into a condition Of servitude;
':lethargy" on the part of the
people says William Jennings
Bryan ''will permit these rapid
ly increasing corporations to
weld chains of slavery upon the
ankles of those who are forced
to buy from, and sell to these
combines, whether the same are
local or foreign and any man
chosen by the people to repre-
sent them in a General Assem-
bly, whose money is invested IN
corporations orcombines will GER
tainly betray you, because such
men will surely legislate where
their moneyed interests are, even
to the extent of depressing the
people, who have trusted them. "
Bryan has, time and again char
acterized corporation legislators
as money changers that should
be driven from the temple"
Do the people want South Car
olina clutched by the tentacles
of the corporation octopus, as is
the State Of New Jersey today:
Then they had better heed the
warning of William Jennings
Bryan, and keep men who are
interested in corporations out Of
the General Assembly whether
they come out as candidates at
the request of a petition volun-
tarily put forward, or the result
of a stable caucus. A look
over the legislation of the past
few years will convince Us that
the farmer, laborer and mechanic,
has but few friends in the Gen
eral Assembly. and that nearly
all of the legislation tends to the
advantage of corporations.
We cannot urge too strongly
the reputation of any effort
to bind the people in advance OF
the primary. The primary sys-
tenn was inaugurated to require
candidates to meet the people
face to face, and show to them
what qualification they have for
the position they seek. but if the
candidate is permitted to trick
the people into a pledge of sup
port by a petition, then the pri-
mary is absolutely a farce. Any
man who aspires to go to the
Senate or House of Representa-
tives. should be required to come
out fair and square. on his indi-
vidual merit, and let the people
with an untrammelled Judgment
pass upon him. A petition is a
Stroke at liberty which self re-
spect should resent; a man may
sign a petition today and to-
morrow it developes that he re-