The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1914-09-15

WeditnleSt mdn III IL, anu Shouhu iS-
ceive the same protection from its
laws; in my opinion, 1t is great
deal better for the state as whole
TO be In debt than 1t is for the indi-
vidual to have every little thing he
has forced upon the market and his
wife and children turned out Of
homo; and, as the state has borrow
! ed this year all the money she wants
at 3h per cent, and no individual
can borrow money at all, or il so, for
therefore, II is better for all OF the
individuals, AS ONE, called the
state, to borrow money to run the
government on until April 1st at
31a per cent, or even at per cent,
than to force the one individual cit
izen to mortgage all he has to bor-
row money A. eight or ten per cent
in order to pay his pro lrta share
| OF the running pypeTHSS OF the gov
ernment. OF which government he is
one. l have repeatedly called the at
tention cf the le.aslGrurn TO the fact
that eXtravagant appropriations
made extravagant levies, and if the
legislature had listened to me at its
last session, and sustained all my
vetoes, the levy this year could have
been much less than it is, however,
it is too late now to discuss that sit
uation. We must discuss the one
that faces us. There is many a poor
man who VII not be able to p2y his
ttxes this fall-in fact. he VIII not
be able to LAY for what Re al! his
family have already necessarily had
to consume in order to sustain life,
ard will have a hard time to make
arrangements to continue to get the
necessities of life under the present
ly would be unjust, unfair a"d ty-
rarnical for the whole tC say to the
on. we will take your property and
force 1t on the market and force your
wife and children ont In the street
IL you do not pay your taxes by a
car'ain date, particularly when the
whole knows that II is impossible for
the one, the individual, to make such
arrangements, or II he does make it,
TO do so by the payment OF an eA-
orbitant profit to the money lender
To illustrate-suppose a corporation
is composed OF ten men and they owe
500, 0,O00-each being required to
pay in $4,000. II the corporation
could borrow the amount needed at
3 u per cent and no individual could
borrow his $4,000 for less than 10
per cent by mortgaging all he had,
would 1t not be better for the cor
poration, as a whole to borrow the
100000 than for each individual to
be forced to borrow his $40, 900?
Any one Will answer Yes for the
individuals make the corporation.
Just so with the state. 1t is much
cheaper for the state, as whole, to
borrow the amount needed to run the
government than it is to force each
individual to pay an exorbitanL rate
Of interest by mortgaging all OF his
property to pay his pro rata share;
and, as with the corporation, the in
dividual makes the great corpora
tion-namely the state.
LAS l stated in my inaugural ad-
dress, in 1910, which l repeat now
it is far better to have a poor govern
ment and a wealthy people titan 1t
is to have a wealthy government ana
poor people. II our general as
sembly had listened to me then. ard
acted upon that presumption, ghich
is absolutely true, our people would
not be as closely pinched as We are
in the present crisis; but the lesfs-
lature, being overwhelmingly oppos-
ed to me, carried out its usual poll
cies and showed to cne world that
anti-Bleaseism was the oppression of
the poor, while Bleaseism was then
as it is today, the refuge of the poor
and the oppressed"
1t will be noted that Governor
Blease places special stress upon the
idea of conference between a non
factional committee from the South
Carolina assembly and a similar COM
mittee from other states. He thinks
this will accomplish more in the way
OF results than conference of gov
ernors.
If the people of the state and the
general assembly want a stav law or
its equivalent, Governor Blease
thinks IL can be done