The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1921-06-21
TAXES-THE "OLD
MAN" OF THE SEA
Calhoun Times.

erybody harps about high taxation.
Many are naked taX-dodgers but
when you try to lay the, axe at the
root of the tree there are always ben
efciaries and lieutenants on hand to
fight for the retention of every useless
office and bureau unless it is poor
little truant officer with no lobby at
his back. If there ever was time
when a retrenchment from the high
war levels was necessary it was last
winter. What happened? The legls-
lature did nothing. Governor Cooper,
a nice, handsome and pleasant gen
tleman, but sadly lacking in the gen
ius for interpreting the psychological
element of the people, recommended
an appropriation of ten millions of
dollars for state expenditures. When
a howl went up all over the state, a
taxpayers convention met in Column
bia and demanded relief. Those who
attended that convention brought
away some new angles of human ma
ture. They thought they had a right
as sovereign taxpayers to demand
economy from their accredited repre-
sentatives. One old gentleman by the
name of Leopard, a member of the
house from Pickens, snarlingly asked
Mr.. Dabbs why he did not offer for
the legislature from. Sumter cou ,ty,
if dissatisfied. Mr.. E. T. Hughes,
chairman of the ways and means COM
mittee from Marion, and Mr.. Claude
Sapp, another member from Richland
county also a member of the commit
tee, waxed hot and furious. Tears ran
down their forid cheeks. Their eyes
shot red like balls from a skyrocket
and the veins in their patriotic necks
bulged like huge pipe stems as they
ranted orer the efforts of the bolshe-
visits to MAIN and cripple our state
institutions. Brother Sapp immortal
lied spotted mule that he, as a
poor, industrious boy, rode bareback
to the little water mill with a peck of
corn on Saturday afternoon for the
. family grinding. What pity no urn
was available to preserve the tears
of weeping Hughes and that no dona-
tion of the bones of brother Sapp's
little mule was made to museum as
an inspiration to the struggling youth
Of the country. To show their con-
tempt for the wild and woody cru
saders, who paid their own expenses
in their journeyings to and from Co
lulnbia, in their efforts for relief,
Messrs. Hughes and 'Sapp the erst-
while barefoot, struggling, ''one-
gallus" boys, now full grown, well
groomed, shining lights of the elite
plutocracy, on the same night, rushed
their appropriation bill through the
house with practically no reduction
and refused to wait for further con-
sultation from the light weights of
the styx. Shakespeare says some
thing about these fellows who cut
such fantastic tricks before high hea-
ven that they make the angels weep
On one occasion Napoleon. when he
wanted more money appealed to Car
not, his minister of finance. 'Sire, y
said Carnot, ''the only way to pluck
this tax goose is to pluck up to the
point where he squawks no further
Then let him rest till feathers grow
again.
Our self constituted political bosses
are not as wise as Carnot and decid-
ed to let the goose squawk. There
may be some significance in the fact
that the Blease corpse is being re-
vived according to newspaper report.
For various reasons, however, Blease
is not the proper man and cannot
again lead a successful political rev.
olution. The harvest is ripe but the
reaper is yet to be found. Had Gov
ernor Cooper announced. like Gov
ernor Miller of New York, that the
exigencies of the people were ur-
gent and expenditures must come
back to pre-war levels he would have
dore the fair and equitable thing and
itrenched himself in the confidence
and gratitude of the people. Instead,
he recommended the utterly ridicu-
lous increase of three millions of dol
lars additional. He is the same gov
ernor who, in recent speech, advo-
Gated cancellation of the debts due
the United States by France and Eng
land, when magazines tell US that
France, already, is in the widest
frenzy of extravaganza in fashions
and dissipations ever known.