The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1913-10-22
should RETALIATE
UNFAIR Laws EXIST AGAINST
BONDS OF this STATE
PASSED In WAR TINE

State, County and Municipal Bonds
of Southern States Are Legislated
Against-McNIaster Annual Re.
port Advises That We Retaliate by
Legal Enactment.
"It is recommend that legislation
be enacted forbidding license to any
financial institution seeking the peo-
pies money which has on the statute
books of its home state any law
which prohibits it's insurance COM
panies from counting as security any
state, county or municipal securities" "
says F. H. McMaster, insurance COM
missioner of South Carolina, in his
annual report, discussing laws Of
certain states forbidding investments
south of the District of Columbia.
The commissioner says that cit mat
! ters not from what angle the subject
! is viewed. self-respect. safety or pub
lie funds, or market for investment
of home securities demand that South
Carolina no longer rest quietly under
such insulting statutes"
Search has not been made to dis
cover them" says the commissioner,
"but it is understood that several
other states have statutes similar to
that to be found in the insurance code
Of Connecticut, which forbides its
savings from investing in the state.
county or municipal bonds of any
state south Of the District of Colum-
bia and which foreign insurance COM
panies from using any of such secur-
tiles for purposes Of deposit in that
state. Such statutes were passed
about thirty or forty years ago.
at is we'll enough to recall some
of the facts of forty years ago. The
South Carolina state debit in 1868,
when the negro rule commenced, was
s5,4o7,ooO- r. K Scott, of Ohio, was
elected governor that year, with Niles
C. Parker, of Massachusetts,, as state
treasurer and D. H. Chamberlain, OF
Massachusetts,, as attorney general.
These three constituted the financial
board of the state. ]. J. Paterson, OF
Pennsylvania, was ringmaster and
partner Of the side.
"After four years Of control by
these creatures, an investigating COM
mittee reported to the legislature in
1872 that South Carolina was facing
total of s2S,977,000 actual and
contingnent liabilities of the state.
The next year the rag-tag bob
tail legislature repudiated one-half
of the actual debt because Of inability
to pay. But really, was this any worse
than the action Of the Federal gov
ernment itself. which in 1S66-6S,
had by act of congress, prohibited
South Carolina from paying debt OF
s2,241,0O0, contracted in 1861, for
the military defense of the state. The
difference between the two debts was
that the debt of 1861 represented dol
lar for dollar money loaned by the
people of this state under definite and
certain authority of the legislature;
the debt of 1872 was representedby
fraudulant issues of bonds brought
by persons. in the North at scandulous
discounts.
"Not only was the state robbed di-
.ectly, but by many indirect means.
as the sale of stock in the Columbia
E Greenville Railroad, which repre-
sented value to the state exceeding
100000 but sold to Patterson and
his gang for less than 100000. Like
wise with the municipalities. The
sS50.OO0 debt. placed upon Colum-
bia, the cauital during those days.
represents less than 100000 actual
value: 100000 of it was for city
hall. contract price S65,000 and when
completed had no roof because the
architect had not stipulated for one
in the specifications. Columbia has
never repudiated one dollar of this
great deebt. So with Charleston's
s4.l5O.O.O0 debt. not dollar of
Of it s3,75O,oOO represents nothing
on Gods green earth nor in the wat
ers beneath it.
During the forty years that the
| credit of the old secession states have
had this bar sinister written across 1t
by the statutes of Northern and East
ern states, agents Of the insurance
| companies form those states have
been most assiduously seeking South
Carolina money to be sent to trustees
in the North. Out of the money COL
lected here and, all of the expenses
incurred here and aftertaking out the
toll for home office expenses in the
home states of the companies, there
have remained over millions of dol
lars, which for the most part have
! ben invested elsewhere.
"And, sad to relate, many agents
employed by these foreign corpora
tions to gather South Carolina money
rarely hesitate to disparage or throt-
tie domestic companies which sought
to keep part of this money at home.
$50 while South Cardinals credit
has been damaged abroad, her own
institutions have been stifled and the
money of her people has been sent to
make great and still greater institu-
tions in unfriendly sections, and to
enrich people there and elsewhere.
IF such statutes are an expression
of the bitterness and hate of forty
years ago. South Cardinals self-re-
pect demands that she hold no COM
merce with such states until such IN
suits disappear from their statute
| .oo1.. 1f +l,oy ora evidences of dis