The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1903-02-04
Legislature.

Monday night there has been man
ifest disposition to get down tc
earnest work and many important
mattsrs have been carefully consider
ed and intelligently voted upon. The
first act which has been ratified and
duly signed by the governor was the
Senate bill to regulate the drawing
of grand juries, especially in Char
lesion county thereby, making itpos-
| sible for the court in that county to
hold it's regular sessions at the ap-
| pointed time during this month.
But the surprise of the session is
the passage of the child labor meas
ure by large msjorities on both the
second and third readings without
debate. Every senator had fully
made up his mind on the question
before coming to the capital. The
matter is now in the house Of repre-
sentatives and the outcome is watch
ed with varying interest by some of
the politicians and factory operatives
on the one side aud the mill men and
the fathers and mothers on the
other. The biennial sessions meas
ure, which passed the senate is not
so much matter of surprise. It is
necessary that the bill shall receive
two-tbirds majority of both houses
before it can 60 before the people in
the shape of an amendment to the
constitution to be voted on in the
general election. It is the people,
therefore, and not the general as
sembly who must say whether there
shall be biennial sessions or not, and
on them the members seem willing
to shift the responsibility.
A compulsory education measure
also passed the senate but in it's pre-
sent shape it is like castoria-harm-
less. The imprisonment clause be-
ing stricken out and only the penalty
of fine being attached it cannot be
considered a very stringent or radical
measure.
It is hard to foretell what disposi-
ton the house will make of the meas
ure when it comes before it this week.
In discussing the child measure
in cotton mill last year the Dispatch
contended then that the Legislature
had as much right to prohibit child
labor upon the farms as in the mile,
and in the essential principles of this
compulsory educational bill the men
who make the laws-the servants of
the people-have arrogated to them
selves the right to saythat the poor one
horse farmer whose limited means
will not justify him in hiring labor,
cannot use that of his children in as
sisting him to make and gather his
crop.
Some of the measures to be con-
sidered by the Senate are: joint
resolution to extend the time for the
payment of taxes without penalty
until March 81, 1908; the bill to re-
gulate and fix the liabilities of rail
road companies having q relief de-
partment to it's employees; q bill to
regulate the traffic in seed cotton and
unpacked lint cotton; bill to pro-
vide scholarships for post graduate
study in South Carolina college; bill
to require State and not the railroad
companies to pay salaries of the rail-
road commissioners and their clerk.
There was no morning session of
the House Monday but at the evening
session there was very good atten-
dance.
There were twenty third reading
bills on the calendar all of them be-
ing only of local importance, and they
are now acts.
The bill to regulate the sale of
cotton seed was killed by a vote of
81 to 33.
The bill to amend the law which
E