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MESSAGE No. 8.

State of South Carolina, Executive Department. Gentlemen of the General Assembly:

I do not know that it is necessary for me to call the matter to your attention, and do so merely in order that, if you so desire, you may investigate it. As the result of dereliction of duty on his part, and what I considered gross negligence in the discharge of his duties, I notified the State Bank Examiner, B. J. Rhame, of his removal from office, and named in his stead H. W. Fraser, who, I understood, had been endorsed by the State bankers for this position. The matter was carried to the Supreme Court. The Court did not pass upon the merits of the case as to whether I was right in removing Rhame, but simply passed upon the legal question of my right to remove him, and held that he could not be removed. I hold in my possession the Bank Examiner's reports on the Lexington Savings Bank, which, along with other facts leading me to attempt to remove Rhame from office, I will be glad to show to any of your committees. I would advise that you have this matter thoroughly investigated in order to save the State of South Carolina and the county of Lexington from losses in that institution.

While a number of able lawyers took the same view of the law I did, I shall not criticize the majority opinion of the Court which held against that view, notwithstanding the fact that the writer of the opinion went considerably out of the record to hold that I was not England's King. I might remark in passing, however, that this fact, in view of the information before me, under the well settled rules of logic, was not unknown to me even before it was judicially and laboriously evolved by the learned writer of the opinion.

I did not know Mr. Rhame, and do not know him now. I have never seen him that I know of. I had only seen Mr. Fraser once, and did not know what his politics were, nor did I care. I was simply seeking service.

I would like for you to look into the matter and pass your judgment as to whether I was justified in removing Rhame. Whether you see fit to go into this matter or not, however, I would respectfully suggest and urge that it is important, in view of the decision of the Supreme Court, that some change be made in our law. Under this decision, even if an officer should prove to be a drunkard, a gambler, an embezzler, or anything else covered by the criminal statutes, there is no power which could get him out of

office until the General Assembly should meet and request his removal by a two-thirds vote. This is a condition which, I submit, is not for the best interests of the State, no matter who may hold the office or by whom he may have been appointed, or may hereafter be appointed. Very respectfully,

COLE. L. BLEASE,

Columbia, S. C., January 20, 1913.

Governor.

On motion of Mr. APPELT, the message was referred to the Committee on Judiciary.

MESSAGE No. 9.

State of South Carolina, Executive Department.

Gentlemen of the General Assembly:

At the last session of the General Assembly appropriations for

the Governor's office were made, in part, as follows:

For the enforcement of law and order..
For Contingent Fund ....

For stationery and stamps

.$5,000 00

5,000 00

350 00

I beg leave to inform your honorable bodies that out of these sums I returned to the State Treasury, or leave therein unexpended, the fallowing amounts:

For enforcement of law and order...

For Contingent Fund ....

For stationery and stamps

.$2,993 34

1,586 24

50 00

. Hence, you will see that I have not by any means used the amounts allowed me by that body.

From these amounts should be deducted a small amount due W. P. Beard and P. H. Corley, appointed by me under Sections 658 and 659, Code of Laws of South Carolina, 1902, Volume I, which are Sections 721 and 722, Code of Laws of South Carolina, 1912, Volume I, paper volume, but which I do not find in the bound volume (I), 1912.

These gentlemen were appointed under these sections, which you will see gave me authority to appoint them, but were refused their pay by the Comptroller General upon some imaginary technical ground in order to annoy me. These claims have not been paid by the Comptroller General, and I respectfully request your Committee on Claims to provide for their payment. The Comptroller General, in his report, says that other claims of Mr. Corley

10 S. J. (500)

have been paid. If so, then why did not the Comptroller General pay this one? He paid claims for Mr. Creighton throughout the entire year of 1911, but after he fell out with me after the session of 1912, he refused to pay Creighton's claims until they were itemized, which were displayed with great headlines in the newspapers, thereby not only trying to reflect upon me, but hampering me in the enforcement of the law by exposing to the world that Mr. Creighton was working in that capacity.

Neither the claims of Corley nor Beard have been paid, and I, therefore, respectfully request that you make provision for their payment.

I have already called these matters to your attention in my annual message, and would not refer to them again except for the report of the Comptroller General.

I notice he calls special attention to the fact that he refused to pay a claim out of my Contingent Fund that was for an advertisement in regard to my not vetoing an appropriation made by the General Assembly for free antitoxin. In this he was exactly correct the only time I have known him to be so in the discharge of his official duties since I began my administration as Governor, and I wish to pay him this acknowledgment. My former Secretary, Mr. Rowland, in some way, when this bill was received from the Record Publishing Company, made the claim out against the State, and it was handed to me with a bunch of other claims, which were signed and passed on through the office without my noticing, at the time, what the claim covered. When I was informed of the matter I took it up with Mr. Rowland and immediately wrote the Columbia Record a letter, of which the following is a copy:

"September 30, 1912.

"Mr. Thomas M. Kennedy, Business Manager The Record Publishing Company,

"Columbia, South Carolina.

"Dear Sir: Your letter of September 26 received. Aside from what I saw in the newspapers, I know nothing about the matter you mention. If you had sent the bill back to me instead of trying to injure me politically by giving it publicity I would have done then, as I will do, look into it; and, if Mr. Rowland made a mistake in giving a State check, when it should have been a personal check, I would have immediately given you my personal check for the money. If Mr. Rowland did not make a mistake, I have done all I could by giving you an order for the money, and a further

settlement of the matter will have to be made with the Comptroller General. Very respectfully,

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I paid the News and Courier and other papers, out of my own pocket, for publishing the same article, and this letter shows what my intentions were towards the Record Publishing Company. I am sorry Mr. Rowland made this mistake. It is the only one of its character that he made that has come within my knowledge in reference to payment of claims, and I think, during the rush of the campaign last summer, that if this small amount was the only thing overlooked in the transactions of the campaign and the Governor's office, that we all should be complimented for our efficiency, and not held up, or attempted to be held up to ridicule, for political spite, by a bitterly prejudiced Comptroller General.

I am perfectly willing, and would be glad for your two Houses to appoint a committee to investigate thoroughly every transaction in the Comptroller General's office and every transaction in the Governor's office and report to the General Assembly which of the two is more efficient in the discharge of its public duties; and, if the Governor's office should be, in the minds of that committee, not more efficiently managed than the Comptroller General's Department, I will pay, out of my personal pocket, the expenses of such investigation with a great deal of pleasure.

I am very sorry to have had to call this matter any more to your attention, but the Comptroller General's report was headlined, with big type, in the newspapers, calling attention to this matter, while my report has not even been printed in said papers at all. It, therefore, makes it necessary for me to call these matters directly to your attention in order that the records may be kept straight.

There is now in the Governor's office a new and complete and perfectly handsome outfit; water works have been installed, ice water is kept, new carpets and new furniture put in, the walls of both offices painted, and I pride myself in saying that I do not believe that there is another Governor's office in the Union that is more neatly kept or is more neatly furnished, without extravagance or without attempt at luxury, than the office of Governor of South Carolina.

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When I came into the office it was in a deplorable condition. At a very small expense the change has been brought about, and I would be pleased for you to come down and inspect it. Trusting that I have not unduly imposed upon your time, Very respectfully,

COLE. L. BLEASE,

Columbia, S. C., January 20, 1913.

Governor.

On motion of Mr. APPELT the message was returned to the Committee on Claims.

PETITION PRESENTED.

Mr. CARLISLE presented a petition numerously signed by the operatives of the D. L. Converse Company, of Glendale, S. C., and the Woodruff Cotton Mills, of Woodruff, S. C., to leave the Child Labor Law unchanged.

TIME FIXED.

Mr. CARLISLE moved that when the Senate adjourn it stand adjourned to meet Tuesday at 11 a. m., which motion was adopted.

ADJOURNMENT.

At 8:25 p. m. the Senate, on motion of Mr. SHARPE, adjourned.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1913.

The Senate assembled at 11 a. m., the hour to which it stood adjourned, and was called to order by the PRESIDENT.

The roll was called, and, a quorum answering to their names, the PRESIDENT announced the Senate ready to proceed to business. The proceedings were opened with prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. C. A. Freed.

The Clerk proceeded to read the Journal of yesterday, whereupon, on motion of Mr. GOODWIN, the further reading of the Journal was dispensed with.

The PRESIDENT called for Petitions, Memorials, Presentments of Grand Juries and such like papers.

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