The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1915-04-02


| price? We know that in the times
of the Great Teacher that men paid
taxes, and l believe that when He
laid down the golden rule as the stan
dard of relations that should govern
all men, He laid the foundations of
democracy and l am willing to stand
or fall by that rule. Take all the
taxes off the merchants and farmers
of Union county, and l am perfectly
willing that others may come i'm and
share with us without taxes or IL
| censes, but if the home merchant and
farmer has them to pay, you will
have to go further than the authority
of Gods word or the foundations of
democracy to get justification for
giving them free to outsiders, wheth-
er they be responsible citizens or ia
kris and quacks, which is the main
thing the bill is aimed to guard
! against.
AS my friend Orr puts all his
questions in such way that they
drive to practically the same point, l
believe that he will be fair enough to
acknowledge that l can answer all his
questions, with others, and will have
to admit that his position carried t.
its logical conclusion, would disrupt
all organized government, destroy
every school in the county and leave
him facing starvation, without a
chance of making living.
l don't know what they pay now
to the town of Union, but the fact
that they may pay a license to the
town of Union, does not justify them
in not paying license to Union
county any more than any other citi-
zen of Union. They every one pay
tax to the town of Union-on your
basis-then every man in Union who
pays tax to the town of Union
should be exempted from paying a
tax to Union county, carry it out and
you will have just about half the
taxes you now have to run Union
county and every part of the county
will suffer as consequence. You
ask If this is not more than the av-
erage merchant pays, l cannot ans
wer for the average, but | can say
1T is about one tenth of what some
of your merchants pay, in fact abou.
as much per year as some of your
merchants pay per month, and even
If 1T were more, it should be more, for
the reason that the home merchant
stays in one place and pays his taxes
and licenses for the privilege of do
ing business in that one place, the
other man is allowed to go all over
the county and even to the door Of
the home man, and rob him of the
privilege he has paid for. How
would you feel, Mr.. Orr if the Jap
or Chinaman, who may or may not
pay a small tax to China or Japan,
were to sit down next door to YOU.
send his children to your school and
pay nothing for it, and you pay as
you do now; get his fertilizer with
all tax off, and you pay as you do
now; ride over and haul over your
roads and do no work and pay no
road tax, and you pay as you do now;
be protected by your sheriff and
courts free, and you pay as you do
now; have his cotton ginned free and
his corn ground without toll, and you
pay as you do now; have his cotton
| and produce hauled to market free
while you drag through the mud and
pay for the privilege, as you do now?
Would you call that democracy,
would you think you were getting
equal rights with the Jap and China
man? Would you condemn a farmer
who went to the legislature as your
servant, and passed law saying to
the Jap and Chinaman-not that YOU
shall not live here, not that you shall
not have chance with the rest of
us to make living and sell your
stuff like the rest of us, but saying
to him, if you want to live here in
democratic Union county, we will be
glad to have you, but you must pay
your share of taxes like Orr and
Wagnon, and every other farmer and
merchant in Union. l believe you
and every farmer in Union county
would rise up to condemn the special
privilege given the Jap, Chinese or
other alien and it would not make
any difference to you if he did pay
taxes to China and Japan, if he was
making his living off of Union county
people and they all paying for them
selves and him too, and he going
free-you would rise up and call the
farmer who went to the legislature
blessed" who tried to give you this
relief. Well that is exactly what |
have tried to do, friend Orr, with
this difference, l happen to be mer-
chant and not farmer, and the peo-
pie who are enjoying these free privi-
leges are not Chinaman or Japs, but
good honest men, who l believe will
themselves acknowledge the justice
democracy and equity of the license
law, once they understand it, and will
be glad to pay for the privileges they
enjoy, like the balance of the white
democrats of Union county do. So,
don't allow the fact that l happen to
merchant prejudice you, friend
Orr, the bill may do the Union Gro
Gerry Company some good indirectly,