The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1904-02-11

upon all bequests and legacies of certain
amounts. The defeat of the assessors bill
proposed by the tax commission, may
mean fight now all along the line on the
remaining bills, but the license bill on
corporations is really the revenue getter
of the entire repertoire of tax bills.
The House oug ght to take up the general
appropriation bill on Tuesday, and get
through with it in decent time and with
proper consideration. Chairman Moses
has gotten the general appropriation bill
into the House two weeks before the
prospective day for adjournment, and
there is no reason in the world why the
House should now wilfully delay the
proper consideration of the appropriation
bill, and not have it properly enrolled and
finished days in advance of the final ad-
journmens As rule, the appropriation
bill is left over until the last minute;
there are conferences and troubles in the
last hours of the sessions, and the right
thing to do is not to have the adjourn
ment waiting on the writing of such an
important matter. 1t can be so easily
avoided, when the ways and means COM
mittee has done the wise thing of getting
the bill into the hands of the House in
such good time. As soon as the appro-
priation bill is sent to the Senate the gen.
eral supply bill ought to be taken up, and
this shonld be followed by the legislative
appropriation bill, fixing the session for
the full forty days. 80
BIENNIAL SESSIONS.
It is gratifying that among the very
| first batch of bills ordered to be ratified
was the joint resolution providing for q
vote of the people on the subject OF bien-
NAL sessions. The suggestion has been
made that this legislation is in response
to the fight that has been made by The
News and Courier more than to any other
influence. 1t is well that such credit
should be given, and there is now Ger.
tainly no reason to believe that mis-
take has been made
CORPORATION INFLUENCE.
The suggestion has been made on the
of floor the House that this was a move
in the direction of helping the corpora
tions; that the less often the general as
sembly met the less interference there
would be with corporate interests, and
that in Alabama the corporate interests
secured the passage of laws providing for
sessions every four years, instead OF an
nual meetings. The fact Of the matter is
the old.time feeling against corporations
is dying out as it ought to. There is not
the same bitterness against corporations
that there was in former years. Every
bill directed against cotton mills has been
killed, and in fact, showed under. The
members seem to realize, and, by their
votes show, that the mills are doing
good work in the development Of the
State, and that there is no use to try and
cripple them by adverse legislation, and
that there are now ample restrictions on
the statute books. So with railroads.
There have been plenty Of bills intro
duced that would, If passed, have affected
these interests, but they have been pretty
generally and freely killed, aud some OF
minor interests have gone through upon
their merits, or because the railroads ad-
mitted their justice and offered no resist
ance.
NO ANTI-UsURY BILL.
Quite often there is legislation proposed
directed against the banking interests Of
the State. This year, strange to say, no
bill was offered looking to a reduction Of
the legal rate of interest that banks
might charge. Perhaps the lawmakers
have come to realize that money is COM
modify, and that it will bring and ought
to bring whatever it is worth to the man
who has right to borrow. It condi.
tions change and money is more plentiful,
banks will, of their own accord, as re-
suit of competition and the desire to earn
money on their holdings, reduce the rate
of interest on the proper class OF secur-
ieties.
1t looks now very much as if the row
that has for some time been going on in
medical circles has been settled, and that
peace will again be allowed to reign su.
preme. The compromise bill that was
agreed upon by the representative Of the
Medical College, the Medical Association,
the Legislators and all others, has passed
the House. and now that it has gotten to
the Senate, will hardly meet with much
objection there, in view of the support
that it has already received in its prelim-
mary stages.
TOO MANY NEW BILLS.
When the lawmakers came here they
found Calendar full of bills that had
been left over from last year, and, there.
fore, it seems strange that there should
have been so many new bills introduced
this session. There are $50 more bills to
the credit of the second term of the pres
ent Legislature than to the first term.
The Calendar of the House yesterday ran
to thirty-one pages, and there is no hope
of acting upon all the pending measures.
KEEPING CONTROL OF CLEMSON.
Apparently an onslaught was being in
directly made against the funds OF Glenn
son College. First the House passed q
bill providing for one hundred and twen-
ty-four scholarships-that would have
meant $12, 400 out Of the treasury OF Glenn
son. Then the House passed the bill pro-
viding for county experimental stations
that meant another $12, 600, and to cap
the climax; the House refused to strike
out the enactiug words of the bill, which
sought to reduce the privilege tax-the
backbone of the support of Clemson. SO
there was trouble ahead! These three
items meant 8 reduction of more than