IT SEEMS OBVIOUS that the Earle Morris Highway in Pickens and
Anderson counties should be renamed now that its namesake has been
sentenced to 44 months in prison for helping to defraud investors —
many of them ordinary citizens who regularly drive along that road —
as chairman of Carolina Investors.
But as The Greenville News recently reported, it’s not so obvious
to business owners along the highway, who would be forced to spend
money changing signs, business forms and other stationery and making
sure customers know they haven’t actually moved, even though they
have a new address.
We have long held that the Legislature should not be in the
business of naming highways, bridges, buildings and other public
properties after people who are still alive. The former state
comptroller general’s conviction is the most dramatic example in
recent years of the problem, but he’s certainly not the only honored
politician whose later actions made the honor inappropriate.
The fact that correcting the problem will cost businesses money
merely adds an exclamation point to the need to discontinue this
practice.
Certainly, the General Assembly needs to strip Mr. Morris’ name
from the highway. Then it needs to pass a law prohibiting the naming
of any public works after anyone who is still alive.
