The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1904-02-24

house ard the senate? The true mis-
sion ot an investigating coInmlttee' as
its name implies, IS to investigate ana
bring TO light every side and bearing
OF I question, and not TO prosecute
This is the first time in the anil!s
! Of South Carolina Where an investi-
eating committee only heard and re-
/ ported one side Of al important mat
Ter. or which held secret meetings be-
F: hind closed doors. from which mem
berS OF the press were excluded.
/ EVEN THE EILEST CRIMINAL IS
GIVEN = HEARING.
! In his message TO your BODY our
! chief executive asked you to devise
! some law TO put an end TO the lynching
: in our State. Now, what Gov. hey
ward demanded for the vilest class Of
criminals has been denied some Of our
! fellow citizens who have been recog-
! nizel and honoCed by their people
+; the right Of making a defense, and
! fair, impartial hearing. Before this
report is ended we propose TO prove TO
f; the satisfaction of every fair-minded
person in South Carolina that our COM
! mission was tried behind closed doors,
only one witness az the time being ad-
mitted, and what is a most unheard
Of proceeding, the reporters OF our
State papers excluded. (See affidavit
Of A. H. Seats, Exhibit c, and Lewis
F.. G. Wood, Jr., Exhibit d.. Not only
this, but apparently to keep the MEM
| bers OF our commission in ignorance OF
i what was going on in that meeting
some Of the witness were bound not
! to divulge the questions that had been
| asked them. (See affidavit Of D. H.
Means, Exhibit E.). To show further
- lal 70
/ son of one Of this committee was made
clerk, and the only outsider admitted
to that room was Senator Marshall,
F; the minority member and the prosecu-
/ tor. (See affidavits OF ]. 3. Garfunkel,
Exhibit F.)
| Is the life. liberty. property or good
name Of any citizen Of South Carolina
safe when he can be tried by any such
secret. one-sideG tribunal of socalled
, justice?
The palladium Of liberty in every
country is q free press, but we IND IN
the proud old State Of South Carolina
a throttled press when an investiga-
| ton was in progress in which every
taxpayer OF the State is personally i'll
! terested.
We are convinced, gentlemen, from
such evidence as we are able to secure,
! that the sole witness against US was
falsely represented to the people or
South Carolina, as an expert archi-
+! tect" in charge of the work OF the
/; United States government, when ms
name does not appear in the list OF
government employees and he is to-
tally unknown to the experts OF the
United States government who are
charged with the construction Of its
1>s n
pear in the blue book" which contains
the names Of all government employees
wherever located: while the directory
! of congress which. contains the names
OF the attaches Of the national capitol,
/: does not show any such officer as "su-
+; perintendent Of constructing.
! All we now have to ask Of you is that
! this protest be spread upon your jour-
mails and be given the fullest publicity,
! as you have promised, and we further
! beg the press Of South Carolina, and
of every other State that has given
publicity to that report, to reproduce
! our defense.
AN APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE.
i Let US say that we have nothing
more to ask of your body. - We now
appeal to the highest tribunal known
! to q sovereign Stete-an honorable,
:
A PERFECT BUILDING HAS NOT
BEEN ERECTED SINCE THE
DAYS OF SOLOMON.
We assert that We have given to
| the completion of the capitol the same
| watchful care that we would have done
! had this building been our personal
property. The members Of this COM
! mission are not architects, and the
legislature was aware Of this fact
when they appointed us to this duty.
We do assert, however, that we gave
careful thought and study to the de-
/ tails and science Of the work, and left
no effort unturned to fully acQualnt
ourselves with the ninutiae Of the
problem presented. We do not suppose
| that anyone ever constructed bu1lo-
ing, however humble it might be, but
after completion he discovered that he
might have made desirable changes
and Improvements. 1t is easy to crlti-
else the builder after his work is done.
{: 4 building erected by human hands is
never perfect, and this, of course, is true
of the work on the State house, but We
do assert that the general result was 70
the satisfaction of the commission, and
/; we further believe that 1t would sat
isfy the taxpayers Of the State VINO
are paying for this work were they
| familiar with all the facts surround
ing the task assigned us and apprecl-
ated the difficulties which we encoun-
tered and the problems presented in
the construction Of this building. Since
the completion CT our State house
thousands have visited Columbia and
inspected this work, and expressions as
to the beauty and magnificence Of this
building have been heard on every
side.
The State House commission alleges
that if there are some defects in the
South Carolina capitol, that the respon-
sibility rests not upon the commission,
but is due to the fact that S1I5,000 was
totally Inadequate to complete the
! building in conformity with the origf-
nal work on this structure. The State
House commission endeavored TO com
plete the building so that it would
present an imposing appearance. 1t
did not attempt to dc the work accord
ing to the methods Of so years ago,
but took advantage Of improvements
IN methods Of construction, and Tor
this it has no apology to offer
This duty, gentlemen. was not So
;licited, and there is not member OF
this commission but sacrificed his per-
sonal interests and affairs in the dis
charge of the duty imposed upon him
1t was not ours TO fix the sum neces-
sary TO do the work. That was the
province of the legislature. We did
what we were directed to do complet-
ed the work YOUR predecessors contem-