The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1909-02-24
THE LIEN Law
HOW IT WORKED IN ONE
INSTANCE.
Here Is An Incident Related by
Mr.. Harris, President Of the Farm

ers' Alliance.
| 1t has been asserted that If the
lien law is repealed there will be
some good but poor people who will
be unable to get credit and who will
have an awful, awful hard time
because thereof, says the Anderson
Mail. Here is an incident, related
to US by Mr.. B. Harris, president Of
the State Farmers Union, which may
throw some light on the matter. MI.
Harris says the incident came under
his personal observation.
There was man-a middle aged
white man-in a county not far
from Anderson who got so poor that
he could not give a lien. He had
been giving liens for eight or ten
years, and had never been able to
get anything ahead. Finally he be-
gan to fall behind. He found it i'm
possible, with growing family Of
small children, to get along, although
his wife and the children who were
old enough worked in the fields with
him. Two years ago the merchant
who had been furnishing him for so
long declined to run him any longer.
No" said the merchant" you have
fallen behind now for two years,
and 7 do not care to handle your
account again. You do not owe me
a great deal, but am willing to
square off. But you must get some
other merchant to run you this
year."
The man tried other merchants
for a lien, but failed. The other
merchants it seemed, knew that the
man had not been able for two
years to fulfil his obligations, and
knew that this was why the other
merchants had dropped him.
The man went home to his wife
and children In the deepest dejec-
ton. He told Of his troubles and
then his wife counseled him. "You
must hire out as a day laborer,"
she said, land 1 will stay home with
the children and we will try to
make a little crop. You can send
us or bring US your wages for US
to live on. It is bad arrangement,
but 1t Is the best we can do"
The man got job In sawmill,
and his wife and children stayed on
the farm. The man sent his wages
home, and the children worked
small crop. This was no great hard
ship on them, for they had been
working in the fields before.
At the end Of the year the man
did not owe dollar. His wife
and children had made five bales
Of cotton and over hundred bush
els of corn, about seventy-hve bush
els of peas, besides potatoes, ETC.,
and they had two large hogs to kill.
They were in better circumstances
than ever before.
The man is an illiterate-he car
not read and write, and he had never
had much ambition. But the ac-
cumulation of so much wealth In one
year has changed his views Of things.
He is going to do better from now on.
He has commenced sending his
children to school; he had never
felt able to do so before. He has
enough supplies to run him this
year, with money ahead, and he con-
siders that his fortune is as good
as made.
The man says that the best
thing that ever happened to him in
his life was when he got too poor
to be able to give lien. He got
his nose away from the grindstone,
and he began to see the world. If
he had been able to give lien last
year he would still be in a net, and
his children would still be growing
up in ignorance.