Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1922-02-01
A Farmers Commonwealth.

AGOUnu on per ceuI VI IhS PopuAo-
zion Of South Carolina, according to
she census of 1920, is rural. Four of
every five of our people live in the
country or small villages.
The public institutions of South
Carolina, including the colleges, the
schools, the asylums and hospitals,
receive sons and daughters or rural
people in proportion to their num-
Sers.
Wherever is a city, such as Column
bia, having conveniences superior to
those of the rural districts, it pays
out of its own pocket for them. City
taxes in Columbia and in Charleston
are % and As mills. The country peo-
pie in Greenville or S~partanburg get
probably So from the taxation of city
property to 81 that the city people
get from the taxation of country
property. If 100 miles of paved roads
be built through Richland county,
about four-ffths of the cost will be
paid by the taxpayers of this city.
Against that we do not complain. 1t
is expedient and right, but it is just
as we'll that the facts be understood.
The constitutional school tax of
three mills is shared more largely by
the rural than by the city schools and
not in proportion to the amount of
payment by city or country.
About one-third of all the proper
ty taxes are paid by railroads, cotton
mills and other corporations.
The country people not only a
but do elect the great majority of the
legislators and the legislators fix the
appropriations and levy the taxes. In
but two of the 46 counties, Richland
and Charleston, are the city popula-
lions large enough to dominate coun-.
ty affairs. South Carolina always has
been a rural state and it has never
had a Legislature in which the far
mer class was not predominant. If
the farmers run off after a lawyer
and professional politician to deliver
them from their affections, surely it is
no fault of the cities. In the statute
books is not a law for which farmers
are not in the main responsible, for
The simple and unacceptable reason
that they are t~hree-fourths or four
ffths of all the people. If they have
ever been deceived, the deception
has been practiced by their own rep
resentatives, by the men that they
choose for public Office. In The
States opinion they have, as a rule,
used their power well. In the United
States is nc commonwealth in which
less money is wasted, in which gov
eminent is more economical. In
Pennsylvania, for example, the
amount of public revenues wasted
or extravagantly spent, in proper
zion to the amount paid, is $50 to
ST wasted in South Carolina. In not
more than a half dozen states is gov
eminent as economical as it is in
South Carolina.
The state would have it known
that it raises no objections to reduc-
ton of taxes at this time, however
radical it may be. The farmers will
gain nothing by Gripping their own
institutions but there is no conces-
sion to the discomfort and disturbed
state of mind against which we enter
any project. If the legislature a see
salvation in reducing salaries, if it
can cut down the taxes by $25O,OO0
in that manner, let the legislature
set itself to The task. From the selfish
standpoint of a taxpayer, this news
paper can certainly endure without
pain as much reduction as the next
institution or citizen.
Above all things, the need of this
commonwealth is for the preserya-
lion of civil order and the enforce
ment OF law. They are more impor-
tant even than schools and roads. The
people should have safety if they
have nothing else. The protection of
the xerdicts of juries and the judg-
ments of courts is the first considera-
.tion and, if that we can have, we can
afford to go backward >or at least to
still in respect of public educa-
ton, hospitals and charities. Good
men could be found to perform the
duties of public servantsif the
were great. though no sal