Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-04-09
GREAT PIECE OF LEGISLATION
WILLIAMSBURG Senator on the State
Warehouse System.

Warehouse System.
To the Editor Of the News and Cou-
rier: The extra session of the gen.
eral assembly passed the law known
as the state warehouse act. There
are many men in South Carolina who
look upon that extra session as a
huge joke. There are many men also
in South Carolina who do precious
little thinking Of their own accord,
and who are usually led into action
through some device, plan or cunning
Of others practiced in the art Of serV-
ing indirectly.
Honest minds are often innocently
led away from paths Of truth ana
loyalty and purpose by reason OF IN
geniouS argument which unconscious
ly influences and acts as an inteuectu-
al opiate. My short experience III
public life has convinced me that a
people Is without representation tnat
sends to the general assembly a leg.
islator who has not the power OF
discernment, who cannot analyze the
orators rhetoric and separate there
from outside influences-if there be
any-or who indifferently neglects to
study conditions and to deduct there
from cause, effect and a remedy, or
who permits political whims to bias
and prejudice and stultify what
ought to be his honest service.
The only remaining souvenir OF the
extra session is the state warehouse
act, but this relic in time Will m
mortalize the history Of the extra SEES
sion. There are many men In Soutn
Carolina who will laugh at this sug.
gestion, but there are q few who Will
believe II. Those who do not are the
men, who for one cause or another,
have wilfully neglected or purposeiy
refused to study the merits or the
system and have absolutely no insight
into its great possibilities. This law
is a love child Of fate-G result OF
opportunity and circumstance. None
other than the extra session coulo
have produced 1t, and nothing ave
moral obligation has preserved is
young life even h u far.
TIE author Of the law, or its father
has spent restless nights, has dream
ed dreams, seen visions, experiences
remorse defed criticsEall this TOT
the sake Of the success which TO MS
mind, Is assured, and for the sake OF
the friends Of the law who REGARD II
as the greatest friend Of the people
of South Carolina and OF all the
south.
Columbus believed in a shorter route
and had faith to find 1t, but pre1udiced
ana 1oalOuS pOllliCidlio oiAe NNS
fiuence, schemed for other purposes
deferred the great achievement.
The next general assembly Oudg--
ing from the inclination OF the past)
NAV strip the warehouse act OF It's
present authority or may lrcum-
scribe 1t with less limited power, or
may repeal 1t outright. But birth 10
this great idea has been given TO
it life again would be borne. II Soutn
Carolina should fail to support TINS
system some other sovereign state
would reap where we nave sowh'
would achieve attainment unparaiiei-
ed in time or history or nance.
The law Is far more practical
throughout the south and would be OF
far greater benefit and profit to our
people than any possible system OF
rural credit that might be devised by
mankind under existing circumstances
and conditions. The great Federal re-
serve act, admitted in banking circles
to be the greatest piece or legislatl0n
since Jefferson's time, the
underlying principles upon which the
warehouse act is built, and as one
comprehends 1t, It's p~ossiplnt1es uI. ns
in endless and i~mmeasurable values
1t is the one thing which the state
has done for its agricultural people
and which Is the beginning OF a great
marketing system which will insure
stable, uniform and profitable prices
for the king Of commercial products
which is the balance Of European gold
that enters the American fnance' the
one thing which will produce con-
ditions enabling the south to fix the
price Of her choicest product, and not
England, as now; the one thing whlch
will enable southern bankers to Sc
cure foreign credits as easily as they
now secure northern credits, which
will cut out the present four or five
profits rake-off Of cotton between the
gin house and the export point; the
one thing which will establish for the
southern states, in time, it's great re-
serve system as strong and as q
pendent and as defiant as Gibraltar;
which would do away with the unde-
sirable necessity Of rural credits. bas-
ed upon the questionable value OF
land, mortgages, n which Woulo
produce other innumerable advantage
es.
The details Of the great system, now
in it's infancy, should be agitated In
every section Of the state that the
people may learn Of he benefits which
are to be derived therefrom-
The things which heretofore have
hindered the development and the
progress of this new but greatest de-
parture of our states government,
should be hushed, and Senator Nc
Laurin should be invited to every
county seat in the state to discuss
and explain to farmers and business
men the great things Of importance
to them embodied in the provisions OF
his commission. The people, when
they understand, will subscribe their
undivided support to the warehouse
act. E. G.. Epps.
Kingstree, S. c., March q, 1915.