Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1893-02-15

the establishment Of dispensaries by
refusing themselves, and inducing 9TH
crs to refuse, to sign the petitions which
are necessary to their establishment
under section Of the act. The re-
suit of this course, if successful, will
be to give us real prohibition; no dis
pensary-no legal sale of intoxicants.
If the dispensary part of the Evans
experiment fails to 80 into operation it
will be because. the people who are to
ask for it do not choose TO do so, and
this was certainly contemplated by the
authors of the scheme when they pro-
vided that the dispenser could only be
appointed on petition signed by
majority of the freehold voters of the
incorporated town or city in which
the permit is to be issued.
Now, ifthcse voters are not to cXer-
else their choice in this matter, why
this provision, and in the face Of it,
where the occasion for Governor Till
mans recently published reflections on
them for so doing, and his threat i'm
piled in the remark that the prohibi-
tionists will regret their refusal to es-
tablish these dispensaries?
The "stcp toward prohibition"
which the prohibitionists can see in
the dispensary law, is the possible
power which it gives them to prohibit
the dispcnsary, which they can do, if
in sufficient numbers they refrain from
asking for it.
Prohibition can only come out of the
dispcnsary. 1t will then be prohibi-
ton, indeed in the fullest sense, and
that it is what every true prohibition
ist has been working and praying for.
The threatened alliance between
the whisky men and the other politi-
cal opponents, who are bitterly OPP
posed to the law, and the prohibition
lists who are in favor of it, spoken of
by Governor Tillman, can have no ap-
plication to the class of prohibitionists
represented by our committee.
Can it be that Governor Tillman
does not credit the prohibtionists, who
differ from him OH this point, with act
ing upon principle, and that he cannot
realize that they are bound to repudi-
ate the dispensary for the same reason
that they would the sale Of liquors as
beverage under any other plan, be-
cause such sale is morally wrong?
The truth is, however, that the dis
pensary experiment has features i'll
it which, naturally enough, arouse the
antagonism of so many distinct class
es of citizens, that it need not surprise
Governor Tillman, or anyone else, if
it fails to run smoothly. The whisky
men oppose it because it breaks up
their business; many sincere patriots
are Mortified at the spectacle of
the State becoming a successor to
the business from which it has
driven these citizens many astute
lawyers and others find in these pro-
visions most dangerous exercise of
the powers Of the State and invasion
of the private right Of the citizen to
engage in any business not declared to
be wrong; while the prohibitionist who
voted to have the sale of intoxicants
as beverage prohibited, arc justly
indignant at the legislation which so
perverted the meaning of their de-
mand as to make it one for unlimited
whisky for revenue, and themselves
unwilling partners in the unholy
traffic.
If, in spite of these elements of op-
position, the dispensary goes into OPP
Grafton, it becomes the duty of prohi-
bitionists to aid in every proper way
the enforcement of the law against Vi
oIators, thus making as far as practi-
cable the good features of the law ef-
fcctivc.
TO do this will require that our or
ganization as committee, and the
effective county organizations which
were so successful in the last campaign,
should be maintained and strengthen
ed, having also in view the securing of
such legislation in the future as shall
eventually rid our State of the curse
of the liquor traffic.
Some plan for future operations is
very desirable, and | should be glad
to have from the members Of the COM
mittce suggestions as to the methods
best suited to effect our purpose.
Respectfully, i. ID. CHILDs,
Charm State Pro. Elk. Com.
Columbia. s. c.. Feb. Z, 1898.