Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1908-02-12
MATTERs IN THE SENATE.
The Railroads and the Trip to the
Great City of CharIeston.

General ASS s;;SSSTi5iiJ liz j. now begun ON
its fifth week of this session. There
have already been delivered on our
desks twenty-five different reports
from the different departments OF
the government. These reports em-,
body a great deal OF. information,
and Will make a book Of more than
"a Thousand pages. A great many,
of these departments of the govern
ment are not familiar to the peo-
pie OF the State. For instance, we
now have a Board of Fisheries, whose
duty 1t is to look after the shell fish.
OF the coast. This board has made;
Its report for this year and shows.
that the canning industry OF she'll
fsh amounts to more than $780,
600 per annum. There are eleven
cannerfes now in operation and two
others are being constructed. The
amount of money paid out for wages
In these cannertes last year was
$325,OOO. The amount of revenue
received by the State from the she'll
fish Industry amounted last year to
$11.729. This industry at present
is developed alone by homo capital
citizens Of the State--and the
Board of Fisheries recommends very
strongly that it be thrown open to
citizens OF other States. We have
many miles OF coast marsh lands
where oysters and other shell fish,
can be grown very profitably, and
1t only needs capital to plant and de-
velop these fields. This is at pres
ent great industry, and the same
might be said OF. the inland streams
Of this State were they properly,
protected. The Audubon Society, for
the protection of game, is extending
its operations to fish also, and 1t may
be that in few years all of the In
land waters of the State will be SO
protected as to prevent the indis-
criminate destruction of fish, so
that this may become source OF
great deal of profit to the people
of the State.> This is only one of
the departments of the State govern
,ment at present, and 1t will be seen
that there Is a great mass of infor-
nation that must be perused in the
departments in order to thoroughly
acquaint ones self with the condi-
tions that exist throughout the
State. These reports are all made
on the first of January of each year
and are printed and laid upon the
desks Of the members during the
layed. 1t certainly requires great
deal more time than one can give
while in Columbia to familiarize
himself with the workings of these
different departments of the govern
ment.
There is another department
which is called the Public Buildings
Insurance. This is carried to
large extent by the State. The
amount of insurance now in force
is over 100000, and this saves the
people of the State several thou
sand dollars year that would other
wise go out of the State and into
the Northern money centres.
Then there is the Military Depart
ment Of, the State, which Is under
the supervision of the Adjutant and
Inspector Generals office. His :.
port this year covers I50 pages. a
great many Of us thought. a few
years ago that the State could very
we'll do without this department of
the government, but the Spanish
American war gave an impetus to
the development of the militia of the
States, and all of them now have
adopted uniform laws, and the Uni
ted States government has contrib
uted largely to the maintenance of
the States militia. There was spent
last year for the maintenance of sie
militia of the State $33,293. There
are many other reports that make
very interesting reading matter,
but they are too numerous to men
tion.
The appropriation bill, mentioned
last week, seems not to have been at
that time complete, and since then
the committee has added toit enough
to make the grand total 81 900, 700.
do not believe that this amount
will be passed by the General AS
sembly, and i hope to see It re-
duced. The largest item on the
appropriation bill Is always the In
terest on the public debt, which
amounts to about 100000. The
total public debt now outstanding Is
OF this was funded under .illman's
administration at Az per cent. The
balance OF 1t Is still paying per
cent. The rest OF the appropriation
bill is made up of great many
items.
The greater amount of speech
making has been on the railroad
situation In this state, and it is not
yet ended. The railroads are COM
ing to the Legislature with q poor
mouth and asking that they be let
alone. But there seems TO be de-
Termination to do something that
win come nearer being Just between
the people who support the railroads
and the high fihanciers who do moth
ing but collect their tribute from
them. The income OF the railroads
last year amounted to $17,287.534.
Their total expenses amounted to