The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-10-04
SOUTH cARoLrNA's STATE DispENsARY.

ury of $3.50. 900 a year. 1t has now been
in operation for something like eighteen
| months, and no profit worth speaking of
is in sight, although the dispensary sys
tenn is able to pay back the $4,000
originally appropriated by the State.
Private Enterprise Favored.
Should the United s ates Supreme
Court annul this dispensary law, not a
drop of liquor could be sold in the State.
That would be the only alternative under
the present law. 1t is this fact that has
brought about the present agreement be-
| tween the Tillman and anti Tillman fac
| tions. re it is decided that State mo-
| nopoly of the saloon business is viola
ton of the Federal Constitution, the new
Constitution of South Corolina will per-
NIT the Legislature to choose between
prohibition pure and simple or the dis
pensary system conducted by private en-
| terprise. AT the same time the State
d'spensary system will be recognized in
the Constitution, so that if the tribunal
at Washington does not condemn it the
State courts will be prevented from
| again interfering.
| / am satisfied that the bulk Of the
people who oppose dispensary system
| in the hands of the State would gladly
support it in the hands of private indi-
| viduals. There are two strong objections
to State ownership. 1t violates an &C
cepted canon of American political econ
| oIny. that no business should be under
taken by the government which can be
equally well carried on by the people;
that monopolies are odious, and that If
the State can own and operate saloon
in the exercise of its police power, it can
also own and operate grocery store on
| the ground that the sale of foods is
necessary TO the health and safety of the
community.
| The other objection and it is the one
| which is argued most strongly by the
| anti -Tillmanites that the ownership
of saloons pats dangerous power into
| the hands Of the party which controls
| the State government and creates new
form of saloon politics.
Nv own opinion is that, aside from
these two ideas, the system works well.
The dispensary system would be popu-
lar were it conducted by licensed in
| diyiduals
Anti-Sai0on Sentiment Strong.
The average Northerner looks upon
the South as region reeking with
| drunkenness and disorder, but the fact
| is that nowhere in the country is the
anti-saloon sentiment stronger. 1t is
| growing and spreading in all directions.
/ II = ~F h. of~ faa4r1uag Of tho
| new industrial South. 1t constitutes a
promise The sloth and slatternliness of
the country south of Mason and Dixon's
line will soon disappear If only the
education of the negro were assured
there would be no blur on the horizon,
but even this difficulty exists only in
spots.
What | am witnessing in South Caro-.
lima to day had to come. The civil war
did it, The abolition of the slave system
meant the downfall Of the aristocracy.
For few years the Bourbons retained
their hold upon the State, but 1t was
inevitable that the great white middle
class, which consists principally of farm
ers, should rise.
Tillman headed the insurrection
against the old families. Rough, I'M
couth, and at times violently personal in
his methods, he understood apparently
better than any other man that the time
had come for the inauguration OF new
epoch. He saw signs in other States
The white agricu'turists Of the South
were awake and alert. At first he LED
the mob, now he lgns over compact
and thoroughly disciplined body.
what Tiiiman Represents.
The unfortunate thing is that Tillmar
represents Populism and crankism IL
its EXTREMIST forms, while claiming t.
be a Democrat. He denounces bankers
as robbers, lawyers as tricksters anc
cities as hotbeds of vice. One Of his fa
J vorite objects of attack is the Supreme
! court of the United States, which ht
fiercely denounces as treacherous, un
! patriotic and sometimes corrupt body
] / have myself heard him declare, in the
presence Of the Governor Of the State
that at least one Of the judges who pro
: n0unced the Income Tax law unconstitu
0 tional, was secretly and corruptly inhu
4 | enced.
: Tillman may be honest III all this