The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1907-08-21

the other admitted increase in taxa
tion, they will have to tax themselves
to build the court house and Jail, ad-
mitting, for the sake of argument,
that ST. Matthews will put up $40, 900
for that purpose, for that amount will
not build and equip a modern court
house that is the kind the doc
tor proposes to have, because he be-
ieves $50 he says) in development
and progress. The new court house
at Sumter cost more than $4,000 and
the one at Camden more than $780, 900.
That will afford the people an idea of
what court houses cost.
The doctor harps on the idea that
people will be close to the court
house. Now, how many people, out
side of the politicians, really desire
to be close to a court house? What
benefit will it be to the average farm
er? Not much! The average man in
the country doesn't care half as much
about being close to the court house,
as he does about being close to his
school, his church, his lumber, flour,
and grist mills, his cotton gin, his
railroad station, from which he hauls
his fertilizers, his neighbors and his
market. Those are the places he
wants to get close to, and every SEN
sible man knows it; and there is but
one way to get close to them and that
is to build good roads. There is no
other way under the sun. And if the
good people who propose to cut them
selves off from Orangeburg and Lex
ington counties, will figure (taking
the Acts of South Carolina as their
guide) how much higher taxes will be
in new county, and set to work and
get the old counties to add that much
more tax for road improvement, we
would all be closer to the court houses
and other places. That cannot be
successfully denied. Not only that,
if new county is formed, the taxes
will be higher and there will be
no better roads either. We say let's
have more good roads and no more
expensive county governments.
When we called the peoples atten-
ton to the fact Zone the doctor can
not deny) that it would "require 10
to Is mills tax levy on their property
for the additional sum necessary to
put up their court house and jail"
He says ''it was nothing, more nor
less, than sly, court attempt to de-
ceive the people into believing that
this levy would be indefinite if forced
upon them" Perhaps if the DOCTORS
mind was not so full of "sly" ideas
and deception" he would not be SO
ready to accuse other people of the
like, and could the better understand
what he reads. He cannot put his
hand on single line in our recent
article that would justify his ground
less assertion. What we wrote is true
and he knows it, if he has figured it
out. He says they will not pay for
their court house and Jail all at once,
but they will bond their county for
that purpose. That is not a very
pleasant prospect for the man who
votes himself in the new county, if
he is seeking lower taxation. Let the
doctor say what ne pleases-we ad-
mire his enthusiasm in a poor cause
but we don't want him to misrepre-
sent us.
He refers TO the tax levy for all
purposes in the old counties of the
State and to the tax levy for all pur-
poses in Bamberg, Cherokee, Dor
chester, Florence, Greenwood and
Lee counties, giving what purports to
be the average tax levy in both. Now,
if we understood the difference be-
tween new and old counties as they
are commonly called, the old coun-
ties are the ones formed previous to
the formation of the constitution of
1895 and the new counties the ones
formed during and after the formation
of the constitution of 1895. That be-
ing the case, then the doctor has
Florence down as new county, when
as matter of fact, it belongs to the
column of old counties. He left out
Saluda from among the new counties
and it should have been there. When
the doctor consults the figures, he
will find that the charges indicated
will throw quite different light on
the matter. Of course he was not
attempting to deceive the people, he
just made big mistake.
The doctor seems to relv on the