The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1905-02-15
OUR COLUMBIA LETTER.
Columbia, February 13, 1905.

week of tho legislative session, NUM-
Der of very important measures being
disposed Of by both Houses. In addl-
ton to the consideration Of tho routine
bills, as the appropriation and supply
bills, tue legislature determined its
policy in regard to such matters as the
judicial system, the colleges, the dis
pensary and the immigration depart
ment.
The appropriation bill, the most i'm
portant of all, was passed by the House
without serious division on any Of the
items. This is evidence of the careful
work done OH the bill by the ways and
means committee, Of which Hon. AL
lamont Moses, of Sumter, is the very
efficient chairman. The bill fixes tho
appropriations the same as for the year
just closed. There was All attempt on
the part of Josh Ashley to knock out
the appropriation tor tho immigration
department and to reduce tho apprO
priation OF the South Carolina College,
but both propositions were rejected.
1t is impossible in the space Uf this
letter to give the amounts provided
| for every purpose 0i State govern
ment.
The supply bill" lie the bilI which
| fixes the rate OF taxation for the State
and the separate counties. This has
also passed the House. 1t raises the
State levy by one half mill, making 1t
| 8! mills. This is done in order to get
tho State on q cash basis. For the
last few years the appropriations have
been greater than the amount raised by
tho levy OF mills, and consequently
the State has been running behind
every year. 1t is estimated that by
raising the levy one-h half mill enough
can be raised to pay off some of tho
outstanding Indebtedness as we'll as
the current expenses OF the govern
ment. 1t requires one mill to raise
| the amount of &20O,000 appropriated
| for pensions, 30 that the levy for gen.
eral purposes is really 4a mills. In ad-
dition there is the levy Of three mills
| fixed for school purposes by the con-
stitutiOn, making the total State levy
| 81 mills. Some of the counties have u
levy almost as high, Greenville's being
Saluda's mills Anderson, however,
has only & tour mill levy for county
purposes.
There was considerable difference
between the House and Senate on the
bill to create two additional judicial
circuits and the Senate in the end had
its way. The bill mas now been agreed
| W anu tue uEIduBemeuG VI LILO ChCuHo
is as follows:
First-Berklcy, Georgetown, Dor
chester and Orangeburg.
Hampton, Aiken, Bamberg
and Barnwell.
Third-Clurendon. Florence, Lee,
Sumter and Williamsburg.
Fourth-ChesteIt Itield, Darlington,
Horny, Marion and Marlboro.
Fifth-Kershaw, Richland, Lexing-
| ton and EtHetieid
Sixth-Chester, Fairfield, Lancaster
and York.
Seventh-Cherokee, Spartanbug,
f.; Union and Laurens.
Eighth-Abbeville, Greenwood, Sa-
ludn and Newberry.
Ninth-ChariestOn, Colleton and
Beaufort.
Tenth-AndersOn, GreCITi!le, PICK
ems and Oconee.
The elections for the two places as
judge and solicitor created by this bill
will be held this week. 1t is consider
ed certain that as judge Of the new
Of Charleston. will be elected. The
other judgeship is for the tenth, and
the candidates are Representatives
Prince, Of Anderson, and Cothran, of
Greenville, and Solicitor BOggs, of
Pickens. A solicitor for she eighth
and one for the ninth will also be
clcCtCuS anu IL 40 CudiS SoU luuu tnO Ol1A
was 80 amended in this Senate that
Saluda should be placed in thecircuit
with Newberry, Abbeville and Green
wood in order that Senator Eugene s..
Blease, of Saluda, might be O Candi-
date for solicitor, this charge being
made in debate In tho House.
The House as mentioned before in
this correspondence, has passed the
Toole bill which lie almost identical
with the famous 5Tiio0 bill, permitting
counties having dispensaries to close
them on majority vote. But the House
has done moro than that. 1t has re-
jeoted by an overwhelming majority
was ostensibly intended to prevent
corruption in the buying of liquor by
the State board OF directors. These
two votes show that the House Ia by no
means dispensary House. The
straightout opponents Of the dispen-
sary opposed the Senate bill OH the
ground that they did not want to i'm
Is the chance to xiii it, and with the
aid of those who are friendly to the
board as now constituted the anti-dis-
pensary members were able to prevent
The passage of the bill, which provided
for. the purchase Of whiskey through
s9nh ssasa aPa md ss bids TO- be rsen seo
who Voted e. he Dill. the minority,
were: Speaker Smith, Representative
Bradham, Brantley. Clifton. Foster,
CASTOR, Gnuze, Is. L. Green, VIM
l-Green, Giles, d. y. Herbert, Laney,
McFadden, Otis, Pittman. Pollock,
Poston, Rawlinson, Richards. Stoll
and Whatley. There were 78 men,
bers who voted against the bill.
Against the objections of its author,
Josh Ashley. the bill to abolish the
department of immigration was called
the House refused to pass the bill.
The vote was 67 to 30. in favor of the
motion to indefinitely postpone the
bill. Those who voted against the
motion nnd therefore in favor of
abolishing, the department. were
hiessrs; Arnold. Ashley, Boyd. Brad
ridge, Gauze, w. J. Gibson, Graham,