The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1916-01-04

OF tne superintendent VI IHe stdCe 1Oo-
piJal to double the amount allowed
by law" He urged the people to stand
together and elect men to the legisla-
ture who would truly represent their
interests, and not serve only the cor
porations.
He briefly referred to his platform,
including the warehouse system! 2
cent passenger rate; local option by
counties for the control of the whiskey
question; liberal support Of Confeder-
ate veterans; ibertl support for the
state institutions for white boys and
girls; building up the free school sys-
tenn; 6 per cent interest; a rural credit
system; abolition of useless offices; re-
duction of taxation, decrease of pres
ent-day lawlessness; laws to protect
labor in legitimate purposes and cap
ital in lawful investments; repeating
the provision of the constitution paying
$4,000 to the family of a lynched negro,
and providing that no officer elected
by the people shall be removed from
office unless convicted by jury.
Senator JnO. L. McLaurin.
Senator iMcLaurin was introduced
b. Chairman Kelly, as the man who
has done more for the farmers of this
state in a snort period of time than
any other man since the war"
Senator McLaurin briefly sketched
the Inauguration of the system, and
told of the bitter fight which had been
waged against it by the financial inter
ests and the insurance trust. He told
of how the system mad reduced the in
surance rate on country cotton from
$3.50 per hundred dollars, on a short
term cancellation basis, to S1.9S per
hundred, on a pro rata cancellation
basis, a saving of considerably more
than 80 per cent, and of how the char
acter of the state receipt had been es-
tablished in the money centers, and
nancy secured upon the state receipt
at 5 and 6 per cent interest at time
when it was well-nigh impossible to
borrow money in South Carolina at
any rate of interest on any kind of
security.
The real fight against the state ware
house system, he said, had deeper
foundation, however, than the fact that
money could be borrowed on the state
receipt at 6 per cent, and tnat insur-
ance rates had been enormously re-
duced. Through all the ages" he
said, your forefathers and my fore
fathers have been waging a light Tor
personal liberty. People are now COM
ing to understand that the man who
controls your source of income, the
man wno controls your labor-Who
controls your means of subsistence
controls you, and that this control IS
being exercised through the subtle In
fuence of the money power; that there
is no liberation for the people until
Won can free them from financial slaV-
ery, and the moment you break the
chains of that bondage, tnen and then
only will We have, free citizenship.
Here is the reason they oppose the
state warehouse system: l said at
Spartanburg last summer that the
money of this country belongs to the
people Of this country; that nobody
mas any more right to monopoly OF
money than to exercise monopoly OF
ANYTHING else; that money is nothing
in the world but a medium of eX-
change, and that in a certain sense 1t
is a common carrier, like railroad or
telegraph company, and that intereT
rates are nothing but carrying charges,
like freight to railroad, or tolls to
telegraph or telephone company. That
is the movement of which the state
warehouse system is the exponent IN
the South, and if they can destroy 1t,
then they break the back of the move
ment and rivet the chains on you. That
is the reason l haven't been willing to
retire from the position which the
people of this state, through their leg
islature, put me in, for l have been
able to call every trick which the
money power has attempted to make,
and with the help of God l will never
stop until We have made the pound OF
cotton the unit of credit, and the same
in the hands of the poor man as in the
hands of the rich"
In the face of the disastrous condition
created by the war, he said, we had
been able to maintain the price of this
voor,c oron Of from II TO 13 cents a