The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1914-03-25
HON. w. C. IRBY, JR.
ANNOUNCES PLATFORM
States Definitely that He will be a
Candidate for Governor and Gives
In Brief his Platform.


several newspapers in this state out
lining the platform on which he pro-
poses 20 stand In his campaign for
governor. 1t is as follows:
To the Democrats Of South Carolina:
I will be a candidate for Governor
and Will state briefly my views on
questions of vital interest to the peo-
pie. hope to meet the people in the
campaign and will ask them to judge
me by the PRINCIPLES for which |
stand and as to whether they believe
will have the honesty and courage
and ability to press them in the in
tcrest of the people. | have follow
ed but one rule in the twelve years Of
my public life namely: "Strive for
avs that will protect the poor and
The rich can take care Of themselves"
believe the cotton mill trust is
being formed and operated by the
northern majority stock holders (who
control practically all our cotton
mills) forcing their officials to stay
OF the market whcn We have cotton to
sell and purchase from them, by con
tract, when they have pooled their
interests and manipulated the cx-
changes. SO as to make big profits. !
believe these majority stockholders,
by manipulating the price OF cotton
and cXtorting cxhorbtant prices as
commission merchants for selling cot
ton goods are taking all the profits in
our cotton manufacturing industry
greatly to the injury Of small stock
holders, lowering wages in mills, de-
pressing the price Of your cotton, and
enabling them to cvadc Just taxation
by making it appear on their books
that cotton mills are losing money.
The cotton mills can shut down at
any time and We have no means of
finding out whether such action is
lustiliablc or conspiracy to dcprcss
tho price of cotton, lower wages, or
intimidate their employees.
therefore favor a law requiring
cotton mills to make full reports OF
their transactions to the Commission
er OF Agriculture to enable the Attor-
ney General to obtain facts with which
to prosecute in bur courts, viola
tons of law and prevent conspira-
ries against the welfare OF the peo-
pie. l believe this law would reveal
facts that would enable us to regulate
wages, so that the hours of labor
could be gradually reduced to eight
hours per day without working hard
ships on cotton mills and greatly to
the benefit Of the employees. The DOW
or OF corporate wealth makes it neccs-
Sary to regulate wages in order to
prevent them from grinding and op-
pressing their employees.
The House passed my bill rcQuir-
ing reports, but it had scarcely
reached the Senate before kilograms
or letters were being received by
Snators from all over the State, charg-
ing me with having slipped it through
the House and SO strong was the in
huencc of the cOtton mill lobby that
they obtained willing ear in the
Senate and the bill was killed If the
Commissioner Of Agriculture is not to
be required to obtain such facts of
such vital interest TO the people we
had Just as well abolish the Office.
believe much dissatisfaction
caused by dockage Of employees for
bad cloth is due to the fact that the
mills employ children to spin the |
thread and becoming tired and care
less spin defective thread which when |
1t goes into cloth, makes it hard for
weavers to prevent a defect in the
cloth. If the mills would pay their
employees just wage they could send
their children to school and give them
better opportunities to develop them
mentally and physically. and would
not have to work them in competition
with themselves, thereby enabling the
mills to lower the scale Of wages TO a
child standard.
One half the number OF our white !
Neople do not own their homes, thous-
ands are heavily mortgagcd, and we
are becoming more and more home
less people. The constant increase in !
the price Of land makes it harder and |
harder for young men to obtain
homes and we are fast approaching |
time when our white people will be
forced to endure whatever conditions |
they can obtain in cotton mills. cities