Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-05-04
Chanuino the Name.

Changing the Name.
1t will be remembered that when
The Enquirer notified the public about
Mayor Wilborn's advising the town
council of the desire Of the Crust
breakers" to change the name Of the
town, we gave the people the first ac-
curate information that many Of them
had as to the mode Of procedure.
Our explanation was to the effect
that there must first be petition OF
majority Of the freeholders asking for
an election. which election would have
to be called on such petition. and if
majority of the qualified voters ex-
pressed themselves in favor Of the
proposition, the next step would be to
Apply to the secretary Of state for the
necessary change in the charter. Then
afterward the postoff1ce department
must be induced to change the name
of the postoffice. and so far as the
legal procedure is concerned the thing
will be accomplished.
This procedure. all except that re-
lating to the postoffice, with which
the state laws have nothing to do, has
been provided for in the statutes for
many years-in fact ever since 1899,
and It is about all that is necessary.
It developed later, however. that
those behind the scheme. had no no
ton of consulting the voters in the
matter. Their plan was to go to the
legislature with a snap judgment Pc
tition, signed on the spur of the mo-
ment by people who would be asked
to commit themselves before they had
had opportunity for either information
or reflection.
This petition was duly signed and
forwarded with wonderful recommen-
dations as to its earnest and repre-
sentative character, and the legisla-
tive delegation was asked to go right
ahead and do the thing up all at once.
In the meantime, The Enquirer had
already called attention to the fact
that a snap judgment change would
likely bring about no end of compli-
cations and probably many embar-
rassmeuts that had not been foreseen;
but which would rise up to plague the
signers and the town as a whole in the
future.
Presumably to guard against the
difficulties Of which warning had been
sounded some of the lawyers" pre-
pared a strange and wonderful bill
that was intended to guard against
every possible difficulty and contin-
gency: but which would have only
created more complications and add
ed to the aggravation of the situation.
and sent that along with the petition
in order to get the whole thing
through at once.
But as good luck would have it.,
there was on the legislative delegation
some level headed and prudent rep
resentativs who did not care to take
upon themselves such grave respon-
sibility. They had no way of know
ing just how much Importance was to
be attached to the petition-whether
it really represented the earnest de-
sire and sober judgment Of the major
Try of the qualified voters of the town,
so they very properly decided to tack
on to the pretty little law a proviso
that the whole thing must be submit
ted to the qualified voters at an elec-
tion to be called for the purpose.
Now this vote business had never
entered into the calculations Of the
"Crustbreakers" or the managers of
the get-together meeting Of the
Board of Trade" more recently be-
ing referred to as the Chamber of
Commerce. and the thing did rot
suit Before the legislature adjourn
ed therefore, the bill referred 10,
which was we'll on its passage, was
withdrawn from the calendar, and al
lowed to go dead.
If the delegation would not pass
the bill so as to change the name of
the town without a vote of the people,
the generous, democratic projectors o:
the movement did not want the bill to
go through at all.
Although none of those who know,
and who are in favor of the change,
are going to admit it, just as change
under ordinary procedure threaten ms
embarrassing and expensive complica-
tions, if the change had been voted
under that beautiful little gem of Il
bill, it would have made things many
times worse. The difficulty of straight
ening out the future confusion would
have been very much greater.
AS matters now stand the people are
called upon to vote on the proposition
as it stood before the mixup bill was
drafted or introduced. and since the