The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1916-03-01
What Senator DuRans Did.

people of the county Of my acts in the
discharge of the duties imposed on me.
l have visited the Legislature so
many times while it was in session that
thought | had working idea of it,
but soon found that I had much to
learn, and although | a atended regu-
larly and did my best to learn, | must
confess that there is great deal yet
that do not know.
am impressed with the fact that the
Senate is composed. in the main, Of
bright men who are really destrous OF
doiog their best for the benefit OF the
State. They all play politics. more or
less, but I have much higher opinion
OF the Body as whole than I did be-
! fore the session.
Altho the people of this county have
Snown me as ProhibitioniSt for sew
eral years, the first interest l took in
legislation was 10 toning down Prohi-
bition measure The Lilies BIZ made
it chain-gang offense for q person to
violate any of the laws against the
selling, storing or transporting" OF
LIQUOR. l moved to strike out the
words. storing and transporting. l
explained that I thought the man who
sod whiskey should go on the chain
gang, but there were cases IN which
punishment for violation OF the law
as to storing and transporting should
be in the discretion Of the presiding
Judge. For instance, man would Vi
olate the law as TO storing by keeping
bottle of whiskey in his office. and #
an Express Agent delivered package
OF whiskey after sundown his would
be a, violation of the aW ae Inst trans
porting. and the Judge should fix the
! punishment. I lost on this. but later
the Carlisle Bill came up regulating
storing and Transporting and | renew
ed the fight on it and Won I then call
ed up the Lilies Bill and got the
change l desired made in 1t. The Bills
as originally introduced. were, in my
opinion too severe. and l an GLAD that
other amendments were made which
served still further TO make them mild
er. Iopposed the amendment TO allow
the bringing in of FIVE dozen pints OF
beer at a time instead Of the TWO quarts
of whiskey. but it was adopted. The
reason of my opposition was that l
thought it would be easy for whiskey
TO be shipped in to blind tigers labeled
beer. When the amendment was
adopted I offered an amendment which
was also accepted to the effect that the
beer should not contain more than 5
per cent alcohol and should only be
shipped in open crates 10 which the
bottles could be seen.
got nv bill for the taxation OF TIM
Der in course of preparation 10 the En-
crossing DEPARTMENT. on the first day
of the term. As originally prepared
it had a hard time before the Commit
tee and we had two or three hearings
on it at which large number OF tim
Der men interested were present. Find
ing it was impractibIe TO pass it IN
that shape agreed with them that a
law like the one nov of force in Berke.
lev county should be enacted here Mr..
Rush and I worked in connection
through the whole matter. We pre-
pared bill carrying out she Berkese!
county idea, but curing number OF
defects ir it which had been discover
ed in its practical operation. This he
introduced 10 the House, while start
ed an amendment TO tho old bill so as
to rike out the exemption OF Claren-
don c,unty, in the Senate. Owing TO-
the food of bills in both Houses Mr..
Rush was unable to get bis bill up for
consideration there. and it was late IN
the session before succeeded in get
ting nv amendment through the Sen
ate and across to the House II got t'
the House ali right, but the latter part
60
tights on the Insurance and lax Com
missions bills and other Important mat
ters and this bill failed OF consideration
along with hundreds OF others. This
session OF the legislature has broken
all records in the number OF bills 10
troduced. They run up into the thous-
auds and It was impossible for all OF
them to receive attention. think we
have the way paved SO that at another
session there will be no doubt OF our
getting this law into effect in this
county.
I voted for the Child Labor Bill. !
do not think that little children under
14years of age should be required 10
work around dangerous machinery in
the dust and lint of these cotton mills.
a good look at the hundreds OF little
pale faced, poor, weak children tnat
can be seen coming from any OF the
mills is sufficient argument for me.
l had the pleasure OF helping pass
the Torrens Land Registration Law:
It has some defects that think should
be cured. but it has been before the
Legislature 50 long and defeated SO
many times that I thought the best
plan was TO vote for the bill 10 the
Shape it was, with the idea OF makiog
any necessary amendments later. Ot-
teutineS the easiest way TO kill Oil
is bv making numerous amendments.
There were four Rural Credits Bulls
in the Senate and all referred 10 the
Finance Committee, OF which was
member. I studied all carefully aod
was very much impressed with the enc
introduced By Senator Snerard of An
derson. To him | discussed its proTis-
ious several times with him and gave
such aid as I could and | regretted very
much that It was not passed. think
we would probably have had some leg
islation of this kind but for the con-
geSted coudi5ion OF the Calendar TO
which | have referred heretofore A
commission was appointed to study the
matter and prepare and Introduce
bill next year, when hope something
eau be done.
The delegation after discussion,
agreed upon bill requiring all auto
mobiles of the county 10 pay Incense,
graduated according to weight. 81 o0:
$1,000 and Sl2 so per pear, respectively,
aud motorcycles TO pay So 90. The pro
c eds TO be used in dragging the roads
OF the county. These licenses will have
TO be obtained by May lst OF this year
aui annually hereafter in January.
We made little other change IN our
county affairs, except that we raised
the tax levy one-half mill. The rea-
son of this is that enough money was
not being received 10 pay the county
expenses and the county has been go
| ;,,, r,..di1y IN DOH In fact last wear