The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1913-01-15
THE ANNUAL MESSAGE
OF GOV. BLEASE
CONTINUED from Page One.l

L,
floor of the house, whatever the bill J
or appropriation may be, SO as to !
present in the house an undivided
committee" Now, new members. |
warn you that you may not be caught |
this little subterfuge in your com
mittee room. Your constituents at |
home do not know Of the discussions |
and the action in your committee
room; those are not published and
are not presented to the people. But
your vote in tho house is recorded In |
the public journals and when you 20
home and your people say, ''I see you
voted for such and such large eppro-
priation," you say. "Oh, yes, but / |
voted against it In the committee"
your people cannot understand this.
and your opponents turn 1t to your
disadvantage, and they should; for It
is not what you do In the committee.
but 1t is what you do on the floor of
the house and your votes in public
session, that carry the appropriations
and make the laws. The majority of
your committee may be six; If it be
a committee OF eleven, the other five
have their hands tied by those six;
when you go into the house an ap-
preparation may be carried by only
three or four votes, and if those five
members had stood on the
members had stood on the
committee, that appropriation could
not carry, or the bill could not pass.
and tie people OF South Carolina
would be saved the increase in their
taxes.
Now, new members, you have been
warned: 1T Is matter for you to act
upon, and the final arbiter will be
your constituents, who are looking to
you to represent them and their in
terests.
South Carolina Prosperous,
Our State has prospered wonder
fully in the past twelve months. Four
millions Of dollars have come in as in
vestments in cotton mills alone, as
will be shown by the reports The re-
port OF the secretary of state will show
a large increase in the investment of
capital in many other enterprises of
various kinds; and the receipts of his
Office from charter fees will give some
idea Of this era of prosperity upon
which South Carolina has entered.
I am delighted to say that not a
State officer or county officer in the
entire State has been charged with
being short in his accounts, or with
any conduct unbecoming his position,
knowledge with the lone exception of
the State Bank Examiner which case
will be brought more directly to your
attention later.
All this is gratifying to me, espec-
tally In view of the fact that it was
heralded throughout the country by
certain newspapers that If Blease was
elected the State would be financially
ruined, that the Northern capitalists
would not invest their money here,
and that our people would suffer gen
orally. More Northern capital has
come into the State under my admin
istration than under that OF any other
governor, and the march OF material
progress has gone steadily forward"
In his message as to education,
Gov. Blease recommends a levy OF one
mill tax on all personal property and
real estate for the free public schools
and that improvements on the state
colleges be stopped until the common
schools are provided for He also
recommends an appropriation for the
Medical College of South Carolina and
that it be made part Of the state un-
iversity and that Clemson college be
changed to Calhoun university
He recommends the continuation Of
the board of pardons, but at an in
creased salary.
Gov. Blease again called attention
to the Parker mill merger and other
trusts, notably the South Carolina
Public Service Corporation, exclusive
franchises granted by cities and
towns and to tax on the states water
powers.
He recommends that the legal rate
of interest be reduced to six per cent.
He also has something to say about
the increasing price Of farming land