[4] When he was elected to the governorship in 1914, Manning brought many Progressive Era reforms to a state that had spent four years under the demagogic leadership of Coleman Livingston Blease.

During his first term in office, South Carolina prohibited alcohol, established the state's first compulsory education law, and raised the minimum age for employment to 14.

[5][6] Manning’s first term, as noted by one study, “was especially notable for the restoration of the enforcement of the law, for the upholding of the decrees of the courts and sustaining the verdict of the juries; for the banishing of race track gambling and other forms of vice; for the broadening of popular education for town and country, mill and farm, and for the inauguration of compulsory education; for shorter hours of labor and the adoption of a child labor law; for the creation of a Tax Commission and a State Board of Arbitration and conciliation; the equalization of taxes; the reinstatement and reorganization of the National Guard of South Carolina; reorganization in the management of the State Hospital for the Insane; and Establishment of the State Board and Charities and Corrections and the Institution for the Feeble Minded.”[7] Other reforms were introduced during Manning's time as governor.

Financial support for education was doubled, while additional funding was secured to improve the quality of teacher training at the state-supported black college at Orangeburg.

[10] An Act of February the 27th 1917 authorized all towns and cities in the State “to Regulate Markets, Hotels, Restaurants, Cafes, Lunch Counters, Etc., in the Interest of Public Health and Welfare.”[11] An Act of February the 13th 1917 provided for Section 1778 of the civil code to be amended in order to permit persons over the age of 21 to attend night schools “Which Are Free Public Schools.”[12] An Act of February the 27th 1917 provided for an equalizing fund “To Guarantee Adequate Facilities and Teaching Corps in Needy School Districts.”[13] Another Act of 1917 was aimed at preventing fire waste and ensure safety of life, “Regulating the Erecting and Repairing of Buildings, Providing for Inspections of Buildings and Premises, and Fixing the Punishment for Violation Thereof.”[14] An Act of February the 11th 1918 provided for all interurban railroads or interurban railways operating within the State to “furnish their cars, and the vestibule portions of their cars, for the carriage of passengers, with heating apparatuses or appliances necessary to the comfort of all passenger and operators using the same: Provided, This act shall not apply to any railway whose direct line is more than fifty miles long.”[15] A similar Act dated March the 9th 1918 provided that “All electric street railway companies doing business in this state shall, after November first, nineteen hundred and eighteen, provide and furnish all their street cars or electric cars with sufficient heat for all passengers and employees.”[16] In an address he made during his last month as governor, Manning spoke for the need for greater social justice, arguing that "We must concern ourselves also with the welfare of those about us less fortunate than ourselves.

Employers must awaken to a sense of the justice of more adequate pay in order that their employees may meet and solve their problems which multiply with the high cost of living, and selfish interest must give way to appreciation of faithful service.

The preacher, the teacher and the clerk, all salaried men and women as well as the labourer, to be able to keep their ideals clearly before them must receive compensation based upon fairness and in proportion to the services they perform.