The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1915-04-07
Would Have Us Bring Suit.
April 5gh, 1915.
Mr.. Louis Appel,
Editor Manning Times:

Editor Manning LINES.
Dear Sir
In last weeks issue Of your paper,
under the caption sit is the law" you
gave nearly three columns OF your val
liable editorial space in an effort to
answer my letter. and went so far afe}d
from its subject matter, that feel con-
strained to trespass once more upon
your kindness and the uolic's!patience.
10 your caption you assume as q fact
the very point in issue between your
self and at least three Banks of this
County. You say your amendment
requiring US to publish our statements
in both papers and give you one half
the legal rate ther-f )" is the law we
say, in our judgmenG it is not the law,
and in my former letter l set out my
reasons for so believing, and practically
challenged you to sho" me-
AS we expected. and as we wrote the
Bank Examiner, this is not your way
of fighting, and although YOU are the
only interested person. in this matter,
YOU prefer to hide behind the Bank
Examiner and let him do your fighting.
Our Bank again challenges you to go
into Court and make US publish our
statements in your paper. and il you
lick US, we Will feel so much better
over it than if the Bank Examiner
makes US come across; at least we will
enjoy the fight so much more.
When our Bank contends you are
the only interested person in this mat
ter, | am not unmindful of the fact
that in your editorial upon me you en-.
deavored to convince the public that
some of our stockholders and the public
at large had a right to know what was
going on in our Bank, and therefore
wanted to see the statements in your
paper. A complete answer to this is
that the public now gets the same ln-
formation the public gets in every 9th
er County of our State, and every stock
hold er Of this Bank knows our Books
are open to him at ali times. But sou
know. and I know, that when this
amendment was conceived in your
mind, you did not have our Stockhold-
ers or the public in the back side OF
YOUR head. save as an argument to use
with the members of our delegation to
accomplish your purpose, and to de-
fend yourself with if taken to task
about such pernicious legislation. Own
up now; If your purpose was not to ln-
lure Il competitor who was making
serious inroads into your profits in the
newspaper business, was not your real
purpose to get even with some one
here? Else why did you tell the Gov
ernor, when he had before him the
question of vetoing this Act, in the
presence of Messrs. Joseph Sprott. A.
c. Bradham and J. K. Breedin. that
you had this Act passed in effect to
get even with Jake Weinberg and 9TH
er persons here who were fighting
you9'
If this is true, and have these gen.
tlemen's word for it, where does your
deep concern COR the public and our
stockholders come 10, to say nothing
of such motives animating Il. rrpr Il
tative of the people?
You are apparently unable to IN
derstand that Banks and individuals
may stand up some time and fight en-
croachments upon their rights as a
matter of principle, even it their pock-
cts are not affected, but here you are
attempting to mislead the public In
order to show the pubic that this is a
personal fight on you and not matter
of business, you urge in effect that 1t
does not cost US one cent more, but
both papers publish for what one now
gets This is not what your Acs says.
Your Act says each paper is to get
'one-half the legal rate as now provided
by law The legal rate IS one dollar an
inch. Our statements up to this time
have been published by The Herald at
ten cents per inch, and your Act, If it
stands, would make US pay ninety cents
more per inch, or at an additional ex-
pense of around thirty dollars year to
our Bank, which I hardly think our
stockholders would relish if they cared
nothing about the principle. So you see
here another reason for the uncpnstitu-
tionality of your Act; 1t impalrs our
contract and takes away the power OF
private contract, for after all that has
been said our Bank could scarcely ex-
pect any favors, in the way OF CONNER
cial rates, at your hand in the future.
but we would be told 'it is the law,
and you must pay to the last farthing.
You refer to my position not being
backed by all Of our Directors; only
one out of nine takes different view,
and as I recolect his position he could
see no advantage 10 US in making the
6ght, when it did not cost the Bank
apy more to publish in both papers.
Had we presented the above figures to
him I believe the Board would have
been unanimous. You see we have
nothing to conceal.
You are certainly hard pressed for
argument to show my inconsistency
when you bring the lynching case into
this discussion, for here you hang your
self and show your own inconsistency
rather than mine. You are arguing
that ought to obey your Act, altho' 10
direct violation of the Constitution, be-
cause in that case I was urging upon
the jury obedience to the law, thereby
being inconsistent, and according to
you a fee or the prospect OF fee max
ing me see matters in different light ,
Such petty aings are beneath the
notice of gentlemen in public dis
cussion. I attribute whatever success
I may have attained at the bar in nv
twenty years practice to the fact thlt
our jurors believe I was presenting TO
them my conscientious convictions IS
to the law and evidence, you TO the
contrary Notwithstanding, and I am
not afraid of your destroying this con-
fdence ip me however much you may
desire it. At any rate Messrs. Purdy
& O'Bryan certainly thought the ac-
ton was based upon good law-it be-
ing written not only in the statute
Books but as part of the Constitution
itself-else they lost mighty fine op-
portuni,y to upset it. Over against my
argument for law and order in that
case aud 10 the matter we are low dis.
cussing, (for l will argue resistance to
an illegal and unlawful Act as strongly
as do obedience to a lawful Act,) let
US look at your conduct. No sooner
had the papers in that case been serv-
ed than you began an effort to prelu.
dice and prejudge the case. Knowing
your paper would be read by prospec-
tive jurors you began. writing about