The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1904-03-22


turc in fit q .~2IiE,crtalitv. Ii
is The states duty 10 help 1hc needy
Confederate Veterans: hut this help
must be limited to her ability a<
we'll u> T. their necessities. We DO
no; say that the pensions are given
to undcrScrvii1g but We lo say that
ii hall million We're appropriated
there would still he many deserving
who could not be reached. SO the
pensions should be conhlred to
the really necesSitous. There
must be a limit somewhere.
and tor a poor and small state
like this. $4,000 is liberal.
We may say. i'll passing. that there
will have to be more rigid admin
iStration OF the pension law any
way. Every year. Notwithstanding
the pr"port;ol!a.cly large death rate
among the veterans and the widows
OF soldiers. the pension list is grow
ing at AZ alarming rate. Not 10 90
into long particulars. note the III
crease in rur own county. And VIC
sec that tWcntv-cight new names
were added 10 the list in Cherokee
COUNTY this year. and SiNtv-tWo in
RichlanG. These may be taken as
samples. 1t IS not question OF
what we would like to 90. but what
We are able to do.
We would not reduce the salaries
of state officers. nor OF their clerks
but we would give them fewer
| clerkS-ior most of them. if not all.
have more clerks than they need
50 many in fact that they can stay
away from their offices for weeks at
a time from their clerks and poor
ly paid stenographers perform the
work. 1t is quite within reason
that 5000 or $4,000 year might
thus be saved without at all dimin-
ishing the efficiency of the public
service.
There may be other places where
savings could be made-we haven't
the appropriation bill in hand, and
cannot specify more fully. But we
may say that there is spirit of ex-
travagance now in official circles
that bodies no good for the taNpay-
ers. Gen. He1nphill. in one of his
interesting letters to the Medium.
said the legislature did not refuse
any request for money-even vot-
ing $4,000 to a private school in
Charleston. He might have given
it credit, though, for refusing the
asked-for appropriation for the St.
Louis exposition. 1t was this"1ib-
eral'' or extravagant that voted the
appropriation for libraries for pub
lie schools. Libraries are good
things for schools undoubtedly. So
would be free textbooks for pupils
and many other things that could
be mentioned. The sum here.
though. is small. The Herald and
News says 5000; but it must be
more than that. for twelve schools
in forty counties are to get $40
from the state fund and $40 from
the county fund. This will prob
ably be repeated for some years to
come. for the schools that do not
get their libraries. this year will
claim the right to get them next
year or some year thereafter.
We have specified something
over a hundred thousand. Our
ideas will be styled marrow" Per-
haps they are, Horace speaks of
augusta res domi. We must realize
that as a state and as people we
are-we will not say poor, for that
sounds denlagogic-but our cir
curnstances are narrow. and we
should not try to live on too broad
scale. Legislators should remem-
Der that this is small state and
that we cannot safely initiate the
ways of large and wealthy COM
monwealths. We are only little
more than million in population.
and of that number only about half
million are whites.
AS a state we are spending too
much money. The same may be