The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1904-01-27
CAPITOL CORRESPONDENCE.
Editor The Manning Times:

Editor The Manning Times:
Complying with your request | an
sending you few lines from the State
capitol, where the Legislature is in ses
sion. But you must not expect any fine
letter; am just going to scribble at
random as my pen seems to run.
It will be two weeks tomorrow since
the General Assembly convened, and
both the Senate and the House got
down to work pretty quickly. There
were enough measures left over from
the last session to give the mill some
thing 70 grind on at once, and 1t has
| been grinding pretty regularly ever
since, occasionally grinding something
into law, but mostly grinding bills to
death. There are l24 men in the
House and II in the Senate, making
165 in all Every man who comes up
fresh from the people and the CAM
paicn has from one to three bills to in
| troduce. OF this number about three
out of every four are killed, aud still
the State lives and the government
survives. This is about my experience.
Mr.. Editor, and you know how it is. |
cot through two or three little meas
ures last session and had one other re-
lating to the recording of chattel mort
cages to prevent fraud left over to
come ND this session. The daily papers
give such brief mention of bills some
times that the general public do not get
the true substance of the measure, and
such was the case with this chatte@
1 mortgage bill of mine. However, ex"
pected it to be killed, and when it came
up did not put up much OF fight for It.
the House was in killing frame OF
mind that day, so my bill won't the way
Of many others. I have M sure now
introduced which proposes to simplify
the matter of tax collecting and put
ting on penalties and doing away with
the present complicated and cumber-
some arrangement, but if I get it
through I am going to have a hard
fight. However, I think some remedy
is great necessity, and propose to
make good fight for it if am whip
ped out. The measure may not pass at
this session, but something similar to
nv bill will have to be adopted in the
next wear or two. The present ar
raneement was only made to help out
banks, cotton mills anc other corpora
tions and big taxpayers, while the aV-
erage taxpayer, the masses OF the peo-
pie, get practically no benefit from the
arrangement But the worst part of
the present law is that it complicates
the system SO and the treasurers never
get through gathering taxes. think
the State ought to have one fixed time
for the tax books to close, and when
that time is out then put on peralSy
of say 10 per cent and close up the mat
ter of tax collecting and be done withit.
/ Mr.. Lanham's baggage bill, which
passed the House last session, has also
passed the Senate, making the amount
Of baggage that passenger can carry
on trains 200 pounds instead OF 2o0
pounds as Mr.. Lanham wanted. Ihe
House refused to agree to the amend
ment, and the matter is now in COM
mittee of conference, where l am in
clined to think it will find its death.
Mr.. DesChamps has introduced a
measure for the establishment OF agri-
cultural experiment stations in all the
counties, under the direction largely
of the professor of agriculture OF Glenn
son College. like the plan, but it is
too long for me to go into its details
now.
Considering that there is now so
much more work, in our County Treas
urer's Office than there was a few years
ago on account of so many special
school districts and general increase IN
the work, we have decided 70 increase
the salary of the County Treasurer
from eight hundred to a thousand dol
lars. The Treasurer has to give
twenty thousand dollar bond. which
costs about 500 per year, and then pay
out about $3.50 for clerk, so that after
he pays for these out of his salary 1t
will not quite come up to some OF the
other regular salaried officers yet.
I understand that our county has $500
in hand which accrued from the sale OF
the old poor farm some years
ago. I am trying to get our delega-
tion to provide that the county COM
missioners shall buy piece of land for
about $1,000 and put house on 1t to
cost som ething like l,5O0 for taking
care of the county's poor. The pres
ent system of supplying the poor at
| their homes has grown to be unman-
ageable, and besides, I think the count
| ty should have some place where the
poor and mendicant can go, and where
sick convicts can be sent. believe
that such farm can be worked with
the short term convicts and help large
ly towards sustaining the changing.
There is big proposition on foot
here, introduced by Mr.. Herbert Of
| +o 1914 cnh01o rel
in Clemson College. I don't know
about the wisdom of such proposition,
as the board OF trustees has always
been composed mostly of agricultural
lists. and such a proposition might
change materially the regularly estab-
lished plans of the college. However,
T am not we'll posted on the matter yet,
and have not fully made up my mind.
There was a proposition also for the
State penitentiary to go into the manu-
featuring of fertilizers for sale, but the
proposition fell through. as it should
have, as such 2 scheme would soon
bankrupt the State.
BY the way, / thought that commit
tee from the farmers convention were
to send up some recommendations to
our delegation, but we have heard no.h-
ing from them as yet. Senator Davis
and Messrs. Lanham and DesChamps,
as we'll as myself, are always glad to be
informed as to the peoples needs and
there isn't man on the delegation but
who will vote for anything reasonably
calculated to help the masses. Our
delegation usually splits npon votes and
vote as we all please, but we are always
harmonious.
The TAX levy for our county has not
yet been made, but it will not be raised.
am satisfied that we can make the
poor farm Improvements which men
toned above without any additional
levy.
But have written more than start
ed out to write, so I'll quit until an
other time.
Yours,
J. H. LESEsNs.
Columbia, S. c., Jan. 25 1904