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ask myself what rightful place was
there on these historic walls for
the portrait of a country lawyer
from Barnwell County?
“What justification might there
be for a likeness of Sol Blatt to
hang there with immortal South
Carolinians like John Rutledge,
Francis Marion and Thomas Sum
ter?
“Believe me, these were ques
tions which tormented me—ques
tions which I took with me into
my prayers.
“It was a difficult decision for
me to reach as to whether I
should not, actually, decline this
great honor.
“Then gradually the faint out
lines of some justifications did be
gin to appear—justifications not
for me as an individual, but for
what my great good fortune had
made it possible for me to be a
part of.
“Finally, these impressions be
came clearer. Two outstanding
justifications took shape, both in
which I was little more than a
symbol.
“First, I realized that I was the
first of my faith ever to serve
as Speaker of the House and that
I have been honored with tenure
longer than any other man, having
already served as Speaker for six
teen of the twenty-four years of
my membership in the House.
“My parents, before my birth
had immigrated to the new world
from Russia. They had come with
great hope and faith, possessing
hardly more than the clothes upon
their backs, pursuing the Amer
ican ideal of individual freedom
and happiness.
“In this pursuit they arrived in
Blackville, Barnwell County, and
settled there, for which I have
many times thanked God.
“I would like for the whole
world to know that my parents
did find freedom and happiness
and a reasonable amount of pros
perity; their son and daughter
have fared likewise; so have their
grandsons, and now there are
great grandchildren coming along.
“I feel that I, so often honored
and trusted with high public serv
ice, am very much a symbol of
the great and abiding tolerance
which is inherent ip the hearts
and souls of the guiding forces
of South Carolina; the same forces
which can be depended upon, and
must be depended upon, to bring
all of our people forward with
every feasible degree of peaceful
and judicious haste.
“All of this I believe from the
bottom of my heart.
“I declare this with my mother
listening in at home, and in the
presence of my wife, to whom I
owe so much—one who has pa
tiently and lovingly helped me
through many hours of crisis and
personal weakness. I could never,
never thank her enough. Her part
in what good I have done is im
measurable.
“I declare this also in the pres
ence of my son and his wife, and
in the presence of my grandchil
dren.
“I declare that South Carolina,
if permitted to do so without out
side interference will properly at
tend to all of her responsibilities
to all of her people.
“My second strong conviction
of justification for the honor being
conferred rests in the knowledge
that I symbolize, in the sense that
I have so long been their Speaker,
the devoted, tolerant and progres
sive spirit of all of those men and
women who have served in this
House of Representatives during
the last twenty-four years—the
period in which South Carolina
has enjoyed the greatest economic
development in its long and often
difficult history.
“And there have been difficult
The Southern Israelite
times during our era. Don’t ever
forget that.
“In my mind’s eye, I can look
back into the darkness of my first
days in the House—into the very
depths of the appalling depression
in 1933. Those were frightful days!
“Bank failures had wiped out
the fortunes, large and small, of
thousands of our people; busi
nesses were collapsing; cotton was
selling for six cents a pound;
mortgages were due and past due
on homes and farms; school teach
ers were being paid in scrip; pris
oners with good records were
being released ahead of time from
the penitentiary because the State
could not afford to feed them;
the relatively few industries we
had at that time were barely able
to keep going, and thousands upon
thousands of men and women were
unemployed and actually penni
less.
“President Hoover on the day I
was sworn in as a House Member,
January 10, 1933, was advocating
drastic revision of the nation's
bankruptcy laws ‘to alleviate
wholesale business foreclosures.’
“Yes, it is an under-statement
to say that times were hard.
“For a moment, let’s pause to
make several pertinent contrasts
between then and now—
“Listen to this: In 1932 the
Legislature had appropriated $9,-
500,000 for general purposes, and
the Highway Department, whose
funds were separately accounted,
had received $9,900,000 in revenue
a grand total of $19,400,000 for all
state purposes as compared to the
current year’s total of $178,300,-
000, or roughly one-ninth of what
we are now spending.
“We were concerned only with
the $9,500,000 for general pur
poses, and the state had, mind
you, a deficit of $9,000,000. We
were running, therefore, almost
exactly a year behind in finances.
Our credit had been exhausted
and we could not borrow a dime.
“The Farmers’ and Taxpayers’
League met the new Legislature
with mass demonstrations on the
State House steps, demanding that
we cut 1933 appropriations in half.
As a matter of fact, during the
opening week the House, by a vote
of 79 to 34, resolved to hold ap
propriations below the $5,000,0.j0
level. That was less for all pur
poses than the single item in our
current appropriations of $5,193,-
000 for the State Hospital.
State aid to public schools had
amounted to only $3,600,000 in
1932, but the Budget Commission,
under pressure was recommend
ing just $2,042,000 for 1933. Think
of that!
It was being charged on the
floor of the Senate that ‘education
was bankrupting the State.’
Conditions were like that only
24 years ago.
“1 was a rather young member
during the Highway controversy
which became acute in 1935. We
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were still fighting over the High
way Department when I was elect
ed Speaker for the first time in
January, 1937.
“But we had weathered the de
pression and we were going to
weather the Highway controver
sy, and in every year since, during
war and peace, we have weather
ed problems, all of the time mov
ing forward in this era of de
velopment.
“The restoration of South Caro
lina most certainly has had rea
lization during the past quarter
of a century.
“It has taken a tremendous
amount of working together, and
of putting first things first.
“What has been accomplished
already and what we have reason
to believe will continue to be ac-
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