All males between the ages of twenty-one and sixty years, except those incapable of earning a support from being maimed or from any other cause, shall be deemed taxable polls.

It will be observed from the foregoing constitutional and statutory provisions that the tax is an educational one and used for educational purposes in the State. The same section of the constitution from which I quoted above provides that if the poll tax and a constitutional property tax of 3 mills on the dollar

shall not yield an amount equal to $3 per capita of the number of children enrolled in the public schools of each county—

certain other property taxes shall be levied annually to operate the schools for such time in each year as the central assembly may prescribe. It, therefore, is clear that the poll tax is a vital part of the revenue for the operation of the public schools in South Carolina.

The legislature has very carefully guarded the use of the poll tax for educational purposes by many statutes. Section 1.563 of the Criminal Code, volume I, Code of Laws for South Carolina, 1932, reads as follows:

The several county treasurers shall retain all the poll tax collected in their respective counties; and it is hereby made the duty of the said county treasurer, in collecting the poll tax, to keep an account of the exact amount of said tax collected in each school district in his county; and the city of Charleston, for the purpose of this section, shall be deemed a school district, and the county treasurer shall pay over to the city board of school commissioners the amount of poll tax collected in said city; and the poll tax collected therein shall be expended for school purposes in the school district from which it was collected; and any violation of this section by the county treasurer shall constitute, and is hereby declared, a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof, the said county treasurer shall pay a fine of not less than $500 nor more than $5,000, to be used for school purposes in the county suffering from such violation, or imprisonment in the discretion of the court.

Section 5394 of the Civil Code, volume II, reads almost identically. Other criminal statutes are sections 1564, 1565, and 1566 requiring county treasurers to report to the county superintendents of education all money collected, county treasurers to report to the State superintendent of education the amount of all other school taxes collected and the county auditor to forward to the board of trustees in each county a list of the taxable polls in the respective school districts in order that additional names may be added by the board of trustees. Similar provisions to the criminal statutes are found in the Civil Code.

It will be observed further from the constitutional provision and the statutes levying the poll tax in South Carolina that the same does not apply to women. Therefore, under no stretch of the imagination can it be said that the levying of a poll tax could in anywise restrict the right of suffrage of female voters.

I would like to digress for a moment from the prepared statement to say that there has been agitated in South Carolina for many years the question of levying a poll tax on women. Some of the leading women of the State and some of the women's clubs of the State have gone on record as strongly favoring such a tax, but the general assembly has not seen fit to levy any poll tax on women in South Carolina. So, it is very clear that our poll tax does not limit the right of women of any race, underprivileged, or otherwise, to vote in any and all elections.

Senator MURDOCK. Will you permit a question?

Governor JEFFERIES. Yes.

Senator MURDOCK. From your statement, is it a fair inference that it does restrict the male inhabitants of your State?

Governor JEFFERIES. I have stated previously that it did not, and I brought in the fact that we do not levy it on the women as an absolute clincher of the question, so far as the women voters are concerned. I stated in the first part of the statement that it did not restrict the vote. I am going further than that to state that as to the women, who I shall revert to in the prepared statement, it does not restrict the suffrage. First, the tax is only the sum of $1. Senator MURDOCK. Is it cumulative?

Governor JEFFERIES. No, sir. Second, the tax is enforced by a criminal statute. It is a crime in South Carolina for anybody to owe a poll tax and not pay it, therefore, he must do it, and if he must do it it follows that it does not restrict his right to vote. The constitutional provision, as I shall discuss in the prepared statement, requiring proof of the payment of taxes 30 days before an election is additional method of collecting the poll tax, which is an integral part of the revenue of South Carolina and used entirely for school purposes.

Senator MURDOCK. Are criminal prosecutions very numerous down there because of the failure to pay a poll tax?

Governor JEFFERIES. I would not say that they are numerous. In some counties-just as an illustration, in the county in which I am a legal resident, the schools wanted to furnish free textbooks to all schools attended by all races, and the legislature was petitioned to allow the poll tax to be used for furnishing free textbooks. It was so related to the educational work that everybody gladly paid the poll tax, in order to get the free textbooks for the use of the children. If you will study the situation in South Carolina you will find in many cases that the poll tax is the only tax some people pay for the support of the State government and schools, and that is the sum of $1, unless there are indirect taxes, like taxes on cigarettes-things like that. We do not have the general sales tax in South Carolina. We have a selective sales tax whereby commodities classed as luxuries are taxed. Of course, everybody that buys luxuries would pay some tax, but as a direct tax the poll tax in many instances is the only tax paid. A man may have a dozen children in school and he is only too glad to pay his dollar in order to get the free textbooks, in the illustration I mentioned a few moments ago. The constitution states it must be used for school purposes within the school district.

Senator MURDOCK. Is there any rule about interrupting the witnesses during the giving of their testimony or their prepared statement? Senator O'MAHONEY. This is like any other hearing.

Governor JEFFERIES. I have no objection, gentlemen. I am here to answer questions that the committee would like to ask. You can throw it open, as far as I am concerned.

Senator NORRIS. If the gentleman prefers not to be interrupted, I do not think we ought to interrupt him.

Senator O'MAHONEY. The Governor made no such request. Governor JEFFERIES. I have no objection to any question. I am here to give you, if I can, the South Carolina viewpoint on this matter. Senator O'MAHONEY. Governor, may I ask you what the revenue is in South Carolina from the poll tax?

Governor JEFFERIES. The attorney general has the exact figures. Senator O'MAHONEY. Very well.

Governor JEFFERIES. It is in the neighborhood of $275,000 to $300,000 a year. To get that straight, while we have the man here who can tell us; that is substantially correct, is it, General?

Mr. DANIEL. About $294,000 assessed and a little over $200,000 collected?

Senator O'MAHONEY. What is the average vote cast?

Governor JEFFRIES. In the general elections we poll from 65,000 to 100,000, when we have any interest like the election of 1936. Normally, the general election of South Carolina will not run over 50,000 votes. The average of the last six elections shows 67,350 votes.

Senator O'MAHONEY. Then, you levy and collect a larger number of poll taxes than votes are cast in the general election?

Governor JEFFRIES. Yes, sir. Just frankly, if the question here is one of suffrage, you would have to go much further than this bill. This poll tax does not keep anybody from voting; that is one thing certain.

If you investigate the way South Carolina handles its affairs with regard to its suffrage, you will have to go into other constitutional provisions having to do with the right of registration. When you get through with that then South Carolina will have no rights whatsoever; we might as well turn over the elections to the Federal Government.

The poll tax is not what keeps them from voting.

Now, we have the primary election, the democratic primary, and the Republican Party, if it wishes, or any other party that may want a primary. Normally, when it comes to the general election there is not much interest in the matter. South Carolina, you remember, was the No. 1 democratic State a few years ago when we won the donkey that was given by Mississippi, I believe. They claimed to beat us at the elections. The vote-I do not remember the exact figure. The vote was 98,000, as I recall it, or 100,000.

Senator MAYBANK. It was more than that. It was 102,000, I believe.

Governor JEFFERIES. We are sort of democratic in South Carolina. Senator O'MAHONEY. That is pretty generally understood.

Governor JEFFERIES. Because we believe the Democratic Party is a party of State rights. We believe that Jefferson believed in an association of State rather than a strong central government. We are State Righters in South Carolina, which I shall attempt to stress in my prepared statement a little later on.

Senator O'MAHONEY. Of course, this committee is not investigating anything except the bill which was given to it to conduct hearings upon.

Governor JEFFERIES. That is right.

Senator O'MAHONEY. This hearing this morning was directed by the full committee for the purpose of allowing you and several other representatives of the so-called poll-tax States to make whatever statement you desired to make to the committee.

Governor JEFFERIES. Yes, sir.

Senator O'MAHONEY. The questions which will be propounded here for the most part are simply those which are suggested to members of the committee by the testimony of the witnesses.

70942-42-pt. 2- -2

Governor JEFFERIES. I will be glad to try to answer any questions. that you may ask. If I can throw any light on it, I will be only too too glad to do it.

Senator O'MAHONEY. Following up the question I asked you with respect to the number of poll taxes levied and collected and the number of votes cast in the general election, do I understand from the statement of Senator Maybank that the right to cast a vote in the primary, either Democratic or Republican, is not in any way restricted by the payment of a poll tax?

Governor JEFFERIES. That is correct. There is no poll-tax requirement for voting in the primary elections.

Senator MAYBANK. Mr. Chairman, may I add this? We even go so far as to send the books around to the houses and beg the people to enroll, and if they cannot write their names they can make a

cross.

Governor JEFFERIES. As I have stated in the prepared statement on that point, our constitutional provision is the poll tax must be paid 30 days ahead of the election only. So, it will not keep anybody from voting if they really want to vote. It is not one of those things where you have got to pay a year in advance, and all those other things, just so it is paid 30 days in advance, that is all that is necessary. It is a very salutary provision, and I shall point out in my statement later on, it is not to keep the eligible people from voting, but it will keep people from other States going there to vote, and it will keep fraudulent votes from being cast.

The soldiers, for example, we have many thousands of soldiers in South Carolina today. Of course, they have not tried to vote, but if we did not have devices like the poll tax, things of that kind, as restrictions they would go right ahead and vote and run the South Carolina elections like they did the Ohio elections in 1863, as I shall quote from a discussion on that matter a little later on in the prepared statement.

Now, if there are no further questions at this stage, I will return to the prepared statement, but interrupt me at any stage, gentlemen, that you may desire. I am here, if I can, to assist and not to retard. Senator O'MAHONEY. Go ahead, Governor.

Governor JEFFERIES. It will be interesting to note the methods used in South Carolina for enforcing the payment of the poll tax and the first method is the one that insofar as my State is concerned probably causes the ill-informed and misguided reformers to sponsor such legislation as that now before this committee.

Paragraph (e) of section 4 of article 2 of the Constitution of South Carolina of 1895 reads as follows:

Managers of election shall require of every elector offering to vote at any election, before allowing him to vote, proof of the payment 30 days before any election of any poll tax then due and payable. The production of a certificate or of the receipt of the officer authorized to collect such taxes shall be conclusive proof of the payment thereof.

Section 4 containing the provision just above quoted related to the qualifications for suffrage but in reality the provision is useful in enforcing the collection of the poll tax in South Carolina. Its value is far greater in assisting the State in collecting necessary revenue than it is as a qualification for suffrage. It is certain that in South Carolina the poll tax does not prevent anyone from voting

because in the first place it applies only to a certain number of males, in the second place the tax is only $1 and, in the third place, as we shall later see, the failure to pay the tax is a violation of the criminal law of the State.

The above-quoted paragraph (e) of section 4, article 2 of the Constitution of 1895 is the section as amended by the act of February 26, 1931, ratifying the constitutional amendment. The section as it originally appeared in the constitution of 1895 reads as follows:

Managers of election shall require of every elector offering to vote at any election, before allowing him to vote, proof of the payment of all taxes, including poll tax, assessed against him and collectible during the previous year. The production of a certificate or of the receipt of the officer authorized to collect such taxes shall be conclusive proof of the payment thereof.

Digressing for a moment, I would emphasize the original constitutional amendment included the payment of all property taxes of any kind as well as the poll tax, but the people of the State thought it well to repeal that portion having to do with property tax as a prerequisite for voting. It was often inconvenient for people with small incomes to pay even the personal property taxes.

Senator O'MAHONEY. When was that?

Governor JEFFERIES. In 1931. The General Assembly ratified the constitutional amendment revising the constitutional provisions so as to require the payment of poll tax only instead of all taxes assessed against the citizen.

Senator O'MAHONEY. Did the abolition of the payment of the property tax qualification result in any increase in votes?

Governor JEFFERIES. I do not think it resulted from that. There was an increase, as I stated, in the 1936 election when South Carolina was held up to the Nation as the greatest democratic State in the United States. It increased then, but it was just a great interest in the nominations of the Democratic Party at that particular time. That, incidentally, was the year that the Republican Party cast the lowest number of votes it had cast in quite a number of years. If it helped anybody it helped the Democrats.

Senator MAYBANK. Mr. Chairman, I would like to mention here that last year, in the general election, there were not any offices filed for by the Republican Party, no nominees for offices.

Governor JEFFERIES. So far we have no nominees this year, of the Republican Party, for the election coming on in November. We have two Republican parties down there. Both of them have held conventions in the last month. It was suggested that they might put some candidates, and the executive committee could name them. They did not have any primary and up to the present time we have not heard of any Republican from either one of the two Republican parties there being nominated for office.

Senator NORRIS. You haven't got enough Republicans down there to fill out the ticket, if you have got two Republican parties, have you? Governor JEFFERIES. They cannot fill the whole ticket for the members of the general assembly. It would take all they have down there. They have a big split on the Negro issue down there. Mr. Talbot's faction had been in charge of the Republican Party many years. They always carried in the conventions quite a number of Negroes. It was the Republican Party, no doubt about it-it was the Negro Party. Then, they formed the Lily White Party down there,