Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1922-02-22
Legislating for Farmers.

The appropriation Dill as present.
ed to the house of representatives
contemplates a state tax levy of five
mills, which is exactly the levy made
by the reform" legislature after
the election of Captain Tillman to
be governor in 1890. That is to say,
if the bill shall pass, the taxation of
farms, houses and other visible prop
erty will be nc larger than it was
after the Farmers movement" had
swept the state.
It will be said, however, that more
than 100000 is to be raised by
other kinds of taxation, and that is
true, but it is also true that in 1890
the public schools were receiving no
assistance from state taxation, that
the Conferedate veterans were receiv-
ing about one-thirteenth of the sum
provided for them now, that Clemson
college was not open, that the ap-
preparation for Winthrop was then
under $4,000, that the Medical col
lege received no state support, that
numerous other educational and char
liable institutions have been opened
since then and that the people of
South Carolina are receiving the ben
efts from them. Further, while the
people are now to be indirectly taxed,
it is recalled that, through the state
dispensary a large indirect tax was
collected three years after 1890 and
thenceforward till 1907.
The new taxes to be imposed by
the present General Assembly will
fall lightly on the farming class.
Even those farmers who ordinarily
are well-to-do, if they have had heavy
losses from the boil weevil infesta-
ton and from other causes, will pay
little or no income tax. That burden
will for the most part fall upon men
and mn who draw salaries or
whose income is derived from divi-
dends and interest on money lent,
from professional fees, manufacture
ing and merchandising. By far the
larger proportion of the gasoline to
be taxed is consumed in the cities
and towns and the luxury taxes, too,
will be paid in the main by the inhab-
itants of towns and cities.
AS The States already has said, this
General Assembly is a Farmers
movement body" if ever was n in
South Carolina. 1t is extending "spe-
cial privileges" to the farmers as, in
a veritable agricultural crisis, it
ought to do. Not many people engag-
ed in the other pursuits are complain
ing about it.
The State does not know how the
farmers of South Carolina will accept
these measures. 1t. has been limited
that many of them will be %resentfu.
toward the legislature because it does
not abolish taxes altogether, and that
resentment will be stirred in the bus,
mess classes besides. Be that as il
may, the General Assembly is doing
its duty. 1t is proceeding with a cor.
rect and patriotic understanding OF
the emergency. It is doing what is
right-and it can do no more. 1t is
certain, we repeat, that no body OF
Legislators has ever assembled in this
state that was more bent on favorine
the farming people, of relieving them
of every possible ounce of the tax
load consistent with carrying on with,
out the destruction of the institutions
and activities that define the state as
civilized and as progressive.
The new methods of taxation are
discriminatory. They shift radically,
heavily and severely a great part OF
the tax load to the business and pro,
fessional classes. If the farmers are
not grateful they have their recourse.
They are a tremendous majority of
the electorate of South Carolina. 1t
is in their power OF turn out every
legislator, not a farmer, to elect a
farmer governor and to fill every
other Office with a farmer.-The
State.
I;ne in HEAVY Soils Facilitate