The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1893-11-21
Statistical I~nfcrenccs.

The Herald of last week, comment
ing or the statistics of drunkenness
taken by this paper from the Mayors
criminal docket, finds that during the
time that the town was dry only one
case of drunkenness was entered
whereas THE ADVERTISER placed the
number at three. THE ADVERTISER
was correct, as the Herald or anybody
else will find by examining the entries
for August II and September % ult.
THE ADVERTISER stated the number
of cases of drunkenness occurring from
October3 to November IL of last year as
IL. 1t should have been II, one having
been entered as drinking" which The
ADVERTISER overlooked.
If we should undertake to go outside
of what actually appears on the mayors
books to obtain facts to the discredit Of
the ~dispensary system we could men,
ton various cases of drunkenness
which have come under our own Obser-
walton. We do not regard the evidences
of the mayors books as conclusive of
anything: we merely take them, as
Gov. Tillman does, for indicators worth
something, in IL opinion a good deal.
OF course we have no idea that when
the cases were entered that the mayor,
marshals on clerk thought of the exis-
tence of the dispensary. We doubt if
any body else believes that they did or
is prepared to make the charge.
Since the dispensary has beer open,
numerous cases, u1), have bcen entered
as "disorderly conduct" and the distinc-
tiOn between that offence is maintained
just as it has been heretofore. 1t NAV
happen that q case is so entered and
that afterwards it transpires on the
trial that drinking vas at the bottom
of the disorder and no change is then
made in the entry. This may have
happened in particular instances since
the dispensary has been open or before.
If there are as many cases attribute
Bile to whiskey on the books for
the time thai the dispensary has
been open as there are for the COR
responding period of last year, that
tends to prove that the dispensary sys-
tenn does not diminish the evils of whis-
key. If the Herald is correct in its es-
innate that during the three months
and three days that the town was dry
there were six cases attributable to
whiskey before the mayor and that
during the five dispensary weeks
there were eleven then the Indication
is that the opening of the dispensary
increased the rate of drunkenness over
the rate for dry times by about ITO per
SSiip' IL Sioih Ollou oOIlC Vi UllC
drunkenness under the %dispcnsary
regime is due to blind tiger whiskcy
is "a confession that to that extent
the ~dispensary laws regulativc fca-
ture lacks enforcement.
The Herald says:
ga comparison, however, with the
bar room days, the interim between
the closing of the bar rooms and the
opening of ~dispensary, and the dispen-
sary times, shows that when there wore
neither bar rooms nor dispensary, 6
cases directly attributable to whiskey
were docketed; when the bar rooms
tiourished, lS cases of drunk: during
the ~dispensaly era, 9-or just half the
number of DRINKS as during the bar
room times, and only 3 more than dur
Ing the period when there were neither
bar o nor dispensary,"
1t should be borne in mind that the
{" DRINKS referred to occurred in u
period of 5 weeks and 3 days and that
the ''lS" under the bar system occurred
during Ii weeks and 4 days of last year,
1--WE suppose the Herald refers to the
months of July, August and September
with 3 days of October, 1927 If. we
admit these figures then the COMPARE
son is clearly In favor of the bar room
system, indicating that drunkenness
was less common then than now.