The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1921-03-07
HAS
ADJOURNEDS|NED|E
END COMES ABOUT HALF AF-
TER EIGHT. O'CLOCK SUNDAY
MORNING-FINAL NIGHT OF
NINETEEN TWENTY-ONE SES-
SION NOT UNLIKE MANY IN
BYGONE YEARS-RUN TWO
WEEKS OVER TIME

WEEKS OVER TIME
After being in sesson for two
weeks over the usual 40 day session
and going through the accustomed.
jam and rush at the last moments,
at least on the part of the senate,
and being characterized largely by
fights to stand still and to keep,
from retrogressing, the general as
sembly adjourned sine die yesterday
morning at 8:27 o'clock .
The closing hours were marked
by only the necessary ratification Pc
riods and the usual long wait on the
free conference report. When the
adjournment was taken five men,
bers of the house were present and
seven senators were in their seats.
Sunday morning after l o'clock the
senate by one motion cleared it's "a
pages of statewide bills from the
calendar and began the waiting Pc
riod for the free conference report
on the appropriation bill, doing moth
ing in the wee small hours but ratify
number of acts passed during the
closing days. The house, having
largely completed its work earlier in
the session, had nothing to do but
wait on the senate, and consequently
spent all ,. Saturday and Saturday
night in somewhat light legislation.
The free conference committee
took the appropriation bill early in
the night and did not complete it's
work until around o'clock yester-
day morning. The, engrossing of the
measure was not completed until near
7:30 o'clock.
After ratifying the acts and COM
pleting the necessary action on the
appropriation measure, the president
of the senate sent message to the
house notifying that body that the
senate had completed it's work and
was ready to adjourn sine die. The
house, or the the five members present
was in the senate chamber at the
time and Mr.. Barnett announced that
the house accepted the notice. A
committee was. then appointed to
notify the governor that the general
assembly was about to adjourn. The
committee reported back that "every-
thing was o. K" and that the gov
ernor had no further messages to
transmit to the assembly.
AS to the session in its entirety
very little progressive legislation was
enacted, the assembly spending a
considerable portion of its time in
defending existing institutions and
! fighting back the wave to abolish
and cripple. Bills to abolish the tax
commission, the board of public well
fare, the highway commission, the
department of agriculture, the public
service commission and other such
measures consumed many hours and
days of the legislature, especially Of
the senate.
None of the measures recommend
ed by the joint legislative committee
on taxes, headed by Senator Marion,
were enacted. The proposed consti-
tutional convention was killed, the
bill to place tax onI gasoline ard
oils and the measure taxing inheri-
tances AID gifts were continued un-
til the next session. The income tax
law was introduced, but never got
as far as the senate. It was held up
in the house. It is true that the leg
islation recommended by the tax COM
mittee was not pushed, except the
inheritance and gasoline tax bills,
both these being lost in the general
slash to continue late Saturday night.
Not more than a dozen real acts
affecting the state as whole were
passed and ratified. Of course num-
erous ones were enacted amending
certain laws or referring to no i'm
portant matters.
Other measures of more than usual
Importance are the statewide stock
law, abolishing free range in South
Carolina forever after December 81
of this year and the raising Of the
age of consent to 16 years.