The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-02-15
law which provides for such traffic must

law which provides Tor sucn trahc must
of necessity be opposed to prohibition.
It makes no difference whether the State
sanctions the sale by issuing license to
the citizen to engage therein, or, as in
the case of this law, takes the sale into
its own hands. When the State does
this it compromises principle and con.
sistency constrains me to condemn it.
To what extent, then, do the claims
above stated commend the Dispensary
law to the cooperation or support of the
prohibitionists? It is true that most of
the provisions of the Dispensary law are
taken from the Roper bill: without change,
and that thus many OF the features of the
bill framed by your committee have now
the force of law. Bnt it is also true of
the Dispensary law that it makes the
sale of liquor as beverage by the State
practically without limitation as to use
and Quantity in order that the profits
therefrom. blood money as it is, shall 60
to enrich the revenue of the State and
Counties.
It seems to me. therefore, that the duty
of all true prohibitioaists will be: first,
to use their influence to prevent the
establishment Of Dispeussries by refus-
ing themselves, and inducing others to
refuse, to sign the petitions which are
necessary to their establishment under
section of the Act. The result of this
course, if successful, will bs to give us
real prohibition-no Dispenasry-no le-
gal sales of intoxicauts.
If the Dispensary part of the Evans
experiment fails to 60 into operation it
will be because the people who are to
ask for it do not choose to do 80, and
this was certainly contemplated by the
authors of the scheme when they provid-
ed that the dispensers could only be ap-
pointed on "a petition signed by a ma
iority of the freehold voters Of the incor.
porated town or city in which the permit
is to be issued" Now, if these voters
are not to exercise their choice in this
matter, why this provision? And if
they are expected to use their judgment
iu the matter, where is the occasion for
Governor Tillmsn's recently published
reflection on them for 80 doing, and his
implied threats that prohibitioniss will
regret their refusal to establish these
dispensaries.
The step toward prohibition which the
prohibitionists see in the Dispensary law,
is the possible power which it gives them
to prohibit the Dispenaary, which they
can do, if in sufficient numbers they re-
frain from asking for it.
It will then be prohibition indeed in
its fullest sense, and that is what every
true prohibitionist has been working and
praying for. Can it be that Governor
Tiliman does not credit the prohibition
lists who differ from him on this point
with acting from moral principle, and
that he cannot realize that they are
bound to repudiate the Dispensary for
the same reason that they would the sale
of liquors as beverage under any other
plan, because such sale is morally wrong?
"The threatened Alliance between the
whskey men and other political oppo
nents who are bitterly opposed to the law
and the prohibitiouists who are in favor
of it" can have no application to the class
of prohibilionists represented by our COM
mittee.
The truth is, however, that the Dis
pensary experiment has features in it
which naturally enough arouse the antag.
onism of so many distinct classes of citi-
zeDs that it need not surprise Governor
Tillman or any one else if 1t fails to run
smoothly. The whiskey men oppose it
because it breaks up their business.
Many sincere patriots are horri6ed at
the spectacles of the State becoming the
successor to the business from which it
has driven these citizens. MAN, astute
lawyers and others find in these provi-
sions of the law most dangerous exer-
else of the powers Of the State and an in.
vasion of the private rights OF the citizen
to engage in any business, not declared
to be wrong while the prohibitionists
who voted to have the sale of into1icants
as beverage prohibited are justly indig-
nant at the Legislation which 80 perverted
the meaning Of their demand as to make
it one for unlimited whiskey revenue and
themselves unwilling partners in the
unholy traffic. If in spite of these
elements of the opposition the Dispensary
goes into operation 1t becomes the duty
of prohibitionsts to aid in every proper
way the enforcement of the Law against
violators, and making as far as practica-
BILE the good features of the law effective.
To do this will require that our organiza
ton as a committee, and the effective
County organizations which were so sue.
cessful in the local campaign, should be
maintained and strengthened, having also
in view the securing of such legislation
in the future as shall eventually rid our
State from the curse of the liquor traffic.
Some plan for future operations is very
desirable, aud I should be glad to have
from the members Of the committee sug
gestions IS to the methods best suited to
effect our purpose.
Respectfully,
l.. D. CHILDs,
Chm. State Pro. Ex. Com.
Columbia, S. c., Feb. Z, 1898.
Deafness Cannot be Cured
by local applications, as they cannot
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