The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1915-12-03
HONORABLE AND CONMENDABLE
RECORD OF THE NEWBERRY BAR
CONTINUED from Page 223

and CaldW ell and it is memorable
case in the annals Of the county.
After tae period of reconstruction,
Wien tne state began to develop in
dustria.ly and commercially, and
changes in conditions and sentiment
were growing, the bar of NeWberry
was a powerful influence for con-
servatism and older and higher ideals
of citizen hip and public service. New
men, young and progressive, came to
the bar here, sons Of Newberry and
sons of other sections, who cast tnelr
fortune with US here in Newb2rry, and
all drank of The same fountain OF in
spiration and gave their talents and
energy to the service of the community.
One very notable case that originated
in Newberry and was founght to a
srcce. sful issue wa5 that of the resist
ance of the banks of the state to the
unjust method of taxation imposed
on them as corporations and public
servants at tbs time when the masses
! oi the people rose in revolt against
The old order and established new
order in the s.ate under the leadership
! Of the present Senator Ben Tillman.
without a discussion of the phases o.
! that revolution and the merits OF those
ideals stri1ed for in the beginning, or
accomplished after the close, it may be
said with assurance that hostility to-
wards banks and corporations was one
prominent feature that was unreason-
able. The Bank of Newberry deter
mined to resist the reassessment OF It's
assets by the state officials as unWar-
ranted in law. Every bank in the
state was interested-but the New
berry bank, nispite of advice of dis
tinguished lawyers from all over the
state, entered into the fight and won it.
It was one of those cases in which
there was no precedent, and the mod
ern lawyer is rather lost without his
precedent. Mr.. J. F. J. Caldwell IN
dertook the case, however, on the same
basis that he had learned in the out
set Of his career, the principles of law
and justice. He did find before he
completed his fight, a parallel case
that had been decided in one of the
courts of the Northwest, but that was
more to help the court in South Caro-
lima than to help himself. He was sus-
tanned by botn the lower and the su-
prene court and this case caused a
revi ion of the laws in regard to banks
and corporations. The gist of the
question involved was the taxing OF
the surplus of banks maintained for
the strengthening of the security OF
/ the depositors and convenience of the
clients of the bank
Mr.. Geo. S. Mower was one of the
attorneys for the state that secured the
! wrestling of the valuable franchises OF
! the Coosaw Mining company from the
wealthy capitalists who were controI1-
ing the states phosphate beds. 1t was
a. hard fought case. Hon. Augustine T.
Smythe of Charleston was the leading
! counsel of a splendid bank of lawyers
! who opposed the action, and Mr.. Mower
assisted Y. J..Pope, then attorney gen
eral. A striking feature of this great
| fight was that Mr.. Smythe himself, IN
presenting the claim for modest fee
for MIR. Mower to the state, remarked
that he, as one of the attorneys who
/ had lost the suit received nearly fifty
times as much as the claim Of Mr.
Mower, so that Mr.. Mowers services
were repaid largely in the honors that
he received from this notable case that
has set a precedent. While it killed a
great industry in the state, the section
of country that nad come to depend on
it, and on the sad conditions that it
produced in the community, has since
bravely recovered and is now an in
dependent and progressive section OF
South Carolina, and those who cursed
the state most bitterly then, are the
most ready to praise and bless their
fate now.
In these latter years the bar of New
berry has furnished some OF the most
efficient and distinguished law makers
of the state, whose influence at the
capital has been of the greatest benent
to South Carolina. This bar has also
fcrnished the state governor whose
personal following in the state has
been larger and more devoted to him
than that of any man since the days OF