Omaha daily bee., 1893-04-16
THE STATE TO LADLE BULGE
South Carolina Takes Hold Of the Saloon
Business for the Profits Thereof,
SOMETHING NEW IN THE LIQUOR LINE
Bar Rooms and club Houses Dispensed
with and a Monopoly Conferred on the
State-PrincipaI Features of the
Law-Limlt of Profit.

A few months ago a South Dakota
town talked seriously Of going into the
saloon business as u municipal invest
ment Under the benign influence of
prohibition, groggeries and still alarm
joints hourished and the drug store
prospered as never before. The traffic
was beyond regulation, and being
or license it under the law,
the city fathers conceived plan of
establishing municipal saloon or two
and turning the profits into the treasury.
But the plan was ridiculed and hooted
into oblivion.
What Sioux Falls originated and
dropped, the commonwealth of South
Carolina, under sanction of law passed
by the last legislature, proposes to put
into execution on and after the 1st OF
July.
The law will close up all bar rooms
and club houses, for the act expressly
outlaws such establishments. 1t will
create monopoly on trade that has
hitherto been free as the air. 1t will
make the sign, For rent, bar room y
become an all too familiar one espec-
tally in towns and cities, and last, but by
no means least, it will change the dig
nitied and honorable chief executive of
the sovereign state of South Carolina
from plain B. II. Tillman. governor of
the state of South Carolina, into b. r.
| Tillman, wholesale dealer in and dis
! penser of wines, liquors, beer and all
| kinds of Intoxicating drinks and incl
| dentally governor of the state.
The supreme power of the new order
of things alcoholic will be vested in a
state board of control, consisting of
| the governor, the comptroller general
| and the attorney general. This board
is to make rules for the proper COVER
nance of the state commissioner, who is
appointed by the governor. Each county
is to have its board of control, consisting
of three discreet persons appointed by
the state board. The members of the
county boards must all be total abb
stainers, and they in turn are to appoint
one dispenser for each county
except Richland, which will have
three and Charleston, which will have
ten. Ironclad rules are made, so there
will be no dallying with the provisions
| of the act. One of the most peculiar
parts of the law is the phrase that was
inserted at the last minute saying that
| in all cases the state dispenser, who
! buys all the liquor, is to give the ad-
vantage to the home manufacturers
| This clause, it is said, was inserted at
| the instance of the representatives of
the Palmetto brewery, Charleston, who
offered decided inducements in consid-
| Grafton therefor.
The state board of control will in
turn be controlled by Governor Tillman,
who will thus become, in fact, the boss
! bartender of the state. He is taking the
| greatest interest in all the preparations
for the establishment of the system and
is himself personally experimenting the
work.
During the past ten days he, in COM
pany with his recently appointed state
commissioner, D. NJ. Traxler, started
out on trip to the west to see about
buying good stock of the stuff for
! opening up on July |. There We're sew
eral condemned murderers waiting to be
hanged, but the governor, just before
his departure, respited all those about
whom there was any doubt for sufficient
| time to allow him to look into their
cases after his return, and he and his
first lieutenant went on their way re-
joicing.
They WILL it is presumed, try all the
brands of liquor in Cincinnati, then
sample thoroughly the st. Louis beer,
and on their return trip will come by
Kentucky and see what kind of mountain
country. AS there is but one way to
test whisky, and that by tasting, it may
be naturally concluded that the governor
will have quite time of it before he gets
back, especially considering the fact that
he has never been much addicted to the
use of strong drink of any kind.
When his eXcellency gets back from
his sampling expedition, he will imme-
diately set about to choose the right kind
of men to whom should be intrusted
the most important Office of guarding
and dispensing the wares of the state
bar rooms. He will look to all these
little points himself. At some time in
the near future the chief executive will
visit every town and city in the state tc
choose the proper person to conduct the
dispensaries and the most advantageous
place for their location. This last will
be an all-important matter in the con
quot of the business, for the dispensaries
will have to be put in such places thai
they will be able successfully to com
pete with the blind tigers with which
every hamlet will abound.
All the large towns and cities will OF
course, suffer to an alarming extent, be
cause the municipalities will be deprived
of their chief source of taxes, and many
places of business will be closed up en-
tirely. But the railroad companies viii
not suffer much. Whisky will be
shipped in rice barrels and cheese boxes
and lard firkins and every other con
ceivable kind of shape. 1t will, in fact
be return to the old system of blockad,
running so largely practiced here during
the sos.
Some considerable trouble IL antici
pated at the very outset of the new sys
tenn. BY the terms of the novel Law
only $50, 600 is set aside for the establish
ment of the dispensaries system, and i
is supposed it will be more than self-sup
porting thereafter. A glance at the fig
ures will show that this amount will b,
far too small to start the dispcnsaries OF
business principles and purchase tn,
necessary stock of liquor. At the yer,
lowest estimate it will take 100 barrel
of rye at S5j barrel, and the bette
grade at Sll0 barrel; then in corr
liquor 500 barrels would be but "drol
in the bucket" It will be seen that i
thaSa estimates arc in any wav nOrrac