The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1904-02-25


This Is the first time in the annals
of South Carolina where an investi-
eating committee only heard and re-
ported one side Of an important mat
ter, or which held secret meetings be-
hind closed doors, from which men,
bers Of the press were excluded.
EVEN THE vILEST CRIMINAL is
GIVEN A, 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 fG the vilest class Of
criminals has been denied some Of our
fellow -citizens who have been recCg-
| nized and honored by their people
the right of making Defense and
fair, impartial hearing. Before this
report is ended we propose to prove to
the satisfaction Of every fair-minded
person in South Carolina that our COM
mission was tried behind closed doors,
only one witness at the time being ad-
mitted, and what rs most unheard
! Of proceeding. the repagters Of our
State papers excluded (See affidavit
Of A. II Seats, Exhibit C, and Lewis
! G. Wood, Jr., Exhibit D.. Not only
! this, but apparently to keep the mem
bers Of our commission in ignorance Of
what was going on in that meeting
some Of the witness Tere bound net
to divulge the questions that had been
asked them. (See affidavit Of D. Il.
Means, Exhibit E). To show further
what a one-sided affair this was, the
son Of one Of this committee was made
clerk. and the only outsider admitted
to that room was Senator Marshall,
the minority member and the prosecu-
tor. (See affidavits Of j. B. 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-sided. tribunal Of socalled
justice?
The palladium of liberty in every
country is free press, but we find IN
Ethe 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 in
tereStei.
HUNTING FOR HUNT.
| 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 of
/ tect'' in charge Of the work of the
United States government, when his
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
! buildings: that his name does not ap-
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
nails 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.
Let US say that we have nothing
more to ask Of. your body. We now
appeal to the highest tribunal known
to sovereign State-an honorable,
just and fair minded people.
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
watchfui 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
70 f,71IJ IN +
ourselves with the minutiae of the
problem presented. We do not suppose
that anyone ever constructed build
ing, however humble it might be, but
after completion he discovered that he
might have made desirable changes
and improvements. It is easy to criti-
else the builder after his work is done.
A 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 to
the satisfaction Of the commission, and
we further believe that it would sat
isfy the taxpayers Of the State who
are paying for this work were they
familiar with all the facts surround
ing the task assigned us and appreci-
ated the difficulties which we encoun-
tered and the problems presented in
the construction Of this building. Since
the completion Of our State house
thousands have visited Columbia anG
inspected this work, and expressions as
to the beauty and magnifcence 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 S175,000 was
totally inadequate to complete the
building in conformity with the origi-
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 do the work accord
| Ing to the methods of so years ago,
but took advantage Of Improvements
in methods of construction, and for
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.
It 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-
plated within the appropriation they
made. We did not deem it your wish
or desire that we should apply to you