The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1909-03-03
CAPITOL CORRESPONDENCE.
Senate Chamber.

South Carolina for the year
1909 has adjourned sine die. 1t
was indeed most remarkable
session, Notwithstanding the
number OF matters involving IN
tense interest, there was not q
ripple OF bitterness; all was
serene, good humor prevailed
always.
There was very little general
legislation done, because, in the
first place. the legislators OF ex-
perience realize that we have
now upon the Statute books
enough law, in fact. more ,gen-
eral laws than are properly exc
cuted, therefore to prevent more
laws being enacted was as much
the purpose of an experienced
legislator as it was the purpose
Of new men to get into the lime
light by the Introduction Of new
bills. which in operation ano et.
feet would be general.
What was done in this most
strenuous session Of 1909: Nat
urally this question is in many
minds, and to the actors in the
drama it will require time to
gather up the details TO ascertain
what was done. Nearly all bills
of a local nature were permitted
to be enacted into law, and this
was accomplished by rnse
worked while the Prohibition
leaders were attempting to BLOCK
legislation to force the consider
alton of the prohibition bills IN
advance OF all other bills on the
calendar. Besides otherlmportant
bills had a place on the calendar
far in advance Of the prohibition
matters. A motion was made dur
inc the ilibuster to devote one
hour each session to local and
uncontested matters. Of course,
the Prohibition leaders realized
their efforts to block would be fu-
tile If this motion was adopted,
and at once set about to defeat
it, but the ':previous question"
was demanded which forced
an immediate vote, and all
of the members being ~.
terested in getting their local
bills through, the motion was
adopted by a large majority: had
the Prohibition leaders been Civ
en- an opportunity to weld the
whip over their followers the
probability is an adjournment
would not have been reached up
to now, and there would have
been but little or no local legisla-
ton. It was the taking up Of the
local bills which was the begin
ming Of the end Of the House fill
buster.
The Clarendon delegation in
the House did not introduce many
bills, Mr.. Scarborough's bill re.
lating to the punishment for a
certain heinous crime was killed,
because of there having been al
ready similar bill introduced by
Senator Wharton adopted. Mr..
Green secured the enactment Of
a iaw<providing for authority to
issue bonds n the amount Of SlO.-
900 for school district No. 20.
(Pine Grove. This bill was in
troduced by me in the senate at
Mr.. Green's request, originally
for $1,000, but amended by Mr..
Gree in the House to SO. .00OO.
He was the author Of the bill but
to more rapidly get it through I
started it in the senate.
Mr.. Dingle did not introduce
any bills, but I relied greatly up
on his attention to such bills as [
was interested in to see they
were acted upon in the House:
my experience is, that unless the
House members of the delegation
become interested and Watchfui,
it matters not how active q sena-
tor might be there will be moth
ing doing, therefore it is abso-
lutely essential for the people to
have at least one man on the
House delegation who knows how
to legislate, and who understands
the ms and outs, or intricacies Of
accomplishing results-anybody
can warm a chair and vote. Our
delegation got along harmonious
", We had but slight differences,
the principal one was when we
were considering the taxlevy, Mr..
Scarborough did not agree with
the rest of US about providing for
a part of the deficit, the differ
ence between Us was. that we
wanted to let the people pay the
deficit in broken doses, and he
was opposed to making any pro
vision at all. Everybody knows
the county's debts must be paid
there is no avoiding it, hence IN
the Judgment Of the rest OF the
delegation, it was better to pay it
off in instalmentS than to allow
the deficit to grow larger. and
then be forced to levy a tax to
pay at one time with prooa bly, in-
terest added.
The records credit me with
amending a number Of bills. to-
gether with the introduction Of a
number of resolutions, and very
few OF my amendments: resolu
tions and motions were rejected.
introduced the following bills