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SOUTH CAROLINA. 



Education, to confer and correspond with the gov- 

 ernors and superintendents of education of other 

 Southern States as to the adoption of a uniform sys- 

 tem of text-books used in the free schools of the State. 



Education. For the school year ending Aug. 

 31, the public-school statistics are as follow: 

 School districts, 707 ; public schools. 3,948 ; pu- 

 pils enrolled, 201,260 ; average attendance, 147,- 

 799 ; teachers employed, 4,364 ; school-houses, 3,- 

 155 ; value of school buildings, $487.252. In the 

 past few years there has been a marked increase 

 in the number of school-houses annually con- 

 structed. At the Clemson Agricultural College, 

 a laboratory, two houses for professors, and a 

 building for the experiment station have been 

 completed. Further appropriations were granted 

 by the Legislature in December, with the aid of 

 which it is expected that the college can be par- 

 tially opened in October, 1891. 



Charities. At the State Lunatic Asylum 

 there were 722 patients at the beginning of the 

 fiscal year in November, 1889. During the year 

 359 patients were admitted and 303 discharged, 

 leaving 778 remaining in November, 1890. Of 

 this number, 445 are white and 333 colored pa- 

 tients. The institution is overcrowded. 



At the School for the Deaf and Dumb there 

 was an enrollment of 118 pupils during the year 

 and an average attendance of 90. The cost to 

 the State per pupil for the year was $146.54. 



Penitentiary. On Oct. 31 there were con- 

 fined at the State Penitentiary 791 persons, 59 

 being white and 732 colored. Of these, 50 are 

 required by law to work at the Clemson Agri- 

 cultural College and 5 are employed about the 

 State Capitol. During the year an average of 

 196 were employed on the Columbia Canal, and 

 an average of 281 on the various agricultural 

 contracts. The average of women and infirm 

 was about 79, and the balance were employed at 

 necessary work about the institution, there being 

 also a detail of 54 at work on the Charleston, Sum- 

 ter, and Northern Railroad, in Sumter County. 



The cash receipts of the institution for the 

 year, including the balance of $1,104.52 from 

 the previous year, amounted to $83,643.82, and 

 the expenditures for all purposes aggregated 

 $77,388.10. leaving a balance of $6,055.72, be- 

 sides nearly $40,000 worth of farm products. 



Late in the year the board of directors, under 

 authority of an act passed at the legislative ses- 

 sion in 1889, decided to purchase a farm in Sum- 

 ter County known as the De Saussure place, 

 containing 3,000 acres, the price being $25,000. 

 To this place a large number of the convicts will 

 be transferred for employment in agriculture. 



State Capitol. The various appropriations 

 made for completing the State Capitol aggre- 

 gate $341,599.90, of which there had been ex- 

 pended up to Oct. 31, 1889, the sum of $280,105.- 

 27. During the year ending Oct. 31, 1890, there 

 was expended the sum. of $47,203.75 making the 

 total outlay $327,309.02 and leaving a balance of 

 $14.290.88 unexpended at the latter dale. 



Phosphate. During the year ending Aug. 

 31, 237,150 tons of phosphate rock were re- 

 moved from the navigable streams of the State, 

 against 212,181 tons in the year preceding. Of 

 this rock, 158,215 tons were shipped to foreign 

 ports, 55,470 to domestic ports outside the State, 

 and 23,465 tons were manufactured into fertilizer 



within the State. The royalty paid into the 

 State treasury was 237,150. 



Political. The political contest of this year 

 continued more than nine months. The first 

 important step in this contest was taken late in 

 January, when the executive committee of the 

 Farmers' Association of South Carolina issued 

 a manifesto, in which it arraigned for corrup- 

 tion and ineompetency the existing State Ad- 

 ministration, charged it with hostility to the 

 interests of the farmers, and urged all dissatis- 

 fied Democrats to meet in each county on sales 

 day in March and select delegates to a State 

 convention to be held at Columbia on March 27. 

 At this convention the demands of the farmer 

 were to be formulated and a ticket for State offi- 

 cers put in the field, for ratification or rejection 

 by the regular Democratic State Convention. 

 Nearly all the counties selected delegates, a few 

 being instructed to vote for Benjamin R. Till- 

 man, of Edgefield, for Governor, but the major- 

 ity being uninstructed. The convention adopted 

 a platform which recognized the allegiance of 

 the delegates to the Democratic party. 



The convention selected Benjamin R. Tillman 

 as its candidate for Governor, and James C. Coit 

 for Lieutenant-Go vernor, it being understood that 

 these nominations were subject to approval or re- 

 jection by the Democratic State Convention. No 

 nominations were made for other State officers. 

 One week later candidate Coit announced his 

 withdrawal from the ticket, on the ground that 

 he could not subscribe to the platform, although 

 he was in sympathy with the farmers' movement. 

 Some of the party leaders hostile to Tillman is- 

 sued a call for a conference of his opponents, at 

 Columbia, on April 23. The conference adopted 

 an address to the people, protesting against the 

 unprecedented action of the Tillman party in 

 calling a convention to forestall and dictate the 

 action of the regular State Convention, and re- 

 pelling the charges of extravagance and corrup- 

 tion made against the State government. No 

 further action was taken. Early in May Till- 

 man began an active canvass for the gubernato- 

 rial nomination, his appearance on the stump 

 creating much enthusiasm. He vigorously at- 

 tacked the State Administration, and sought to 

 unite the farmers under his leadership against 

 what he termed the ruling aristocracy of the 

 State. To these attacks Attorney-General Earle 

 replied at a meeting at Anderson, where he met 

 Tillman in debate. It was understood that the 

 Attorney-General would be a candidate against 

 the Edgefield champion, and late in May Gen. 

 John Bratton announced that he. too, would sock 

 the nomination. A series of meetings, according 

 to the usual custom, was arranged in the differ- 

 ent counties by the Democratic State Committee, 

 at which the candidates should present their 

 claims. At these meetings, the first of which 

 was held on June 10. Gen. Bratton and the 

 Attorney-General, who were in sympathy with 

 the " straight-outs," appeared in defense of the 

 past State administrations, while Till man con- 

 tinued to find fault and to demand changes in 

 methods of administration. To avoid a division 

 in the party the Democratic State Committee 

 suggested that the delegates to the State Nom- 

 inating Convention, instead of being elected in 

 ward meetings or conventions, and by viva voce 



