The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1895-08-21

ist as am, and God bless the day
| when it comes. But | want him now
to answer these questions:
rs prohibition morally right or
wrong"
WHY, in his own State, do they
apply prohibition to everything eS'
cepting the liquor traffic:
Can the liquor traffic, under the
United States Constitution, be recog,
nized and regulated:
Have not the people under the
United States Constitution the right to
prohibit liquor traffic?
81 want him to answer these ques-
tons. Governor St. John concluded,
and | wonder how man can come
here and plead before God and man
for giving this dampable business the
recognition of a State.
There was applause for the Cover.
nor as he ceased, but it soon lost itself
in the enthusiasm which greeted Sen,
ator Tillman as he walked toward the
front of the stage The, spectators
shouted and applauded, and for sew
eral minutes the Senator was unable
to begin his speech.
Il am glad to be here" he said,
particularly as I have been slandered
and lied on more than any man south
of the Mason and DiXons line. From
what YOU have heard and read of me,
| suppose you conceive me to be some
thing between an anarchist and an
IDIOT. | want you to take look at me
and see if am as black a devil as
have been painted.
Gov. St. John and / are here to
discuss in friendly way an abstract
question of government. | endorse
every word that Gov. Larrabee wrote
about the liquor traffic 1t causes
more crime, paupesism and vice than
anything else in the world. "
Senator Tiilman here read an eX-
tract from Gov Larrabees speech. As
he took his glasses from his pocket he
said
Il have to wear these things, you
see, because l have got only one eye,
and l have to carry the other old
thing around without seeing anything
through it.
But Gov. St. John makes mis-
take he continued, when he con-
founds the saloon with the dispensary.
They are not at all the same. l do
not find in anything that he has said
more than mere assertions in proof OF
prohibition. The question IS, Is pro-
hibition the best method of promoting
temperance reform!
"What is temperance? 1t is moder-
alton in the use of the pleasures OF
life. What is reform? 0, the sins
that have been committed in the name
of that word. To the crank it is his
specialism, but it is generally accepted
to mean making over for the better.
The question is, how can we teach
men 10 use intoxicants temperatelyf
"Gov. St. John is horri6ed at the
results of intoxication, but he forgets
that we are a self-governing people,
and must have the permission OF fifty
per cent. of the people before it can
be decided that men have not the
right to drink whiskey when they
want to. He says there is no licensing
in the Bible.
''I fail to find single instance in
which drinking is prohi oited there.
Certainly it is not prohibited in Mosaic
law. Men for thousands of years have
induleed in the use of intoxlcants.
Ever since they learned that alcohol
could be produced by fermentation,
they feel that they have a right to
drink, and you cannot convince them
otherwise.
Until you get men to believe that
they are better as hypocrites and liars
than in their own iniquity you can
never persuade them that they have
not right to drink. If this prohibi-
ton had been as great and wise a
thing as its followers claim, 1t would
have been the law of the whole land
instead of the exception.
Senator Tillman talked some more
about his diSpensary, and the chair
man reminded him that his twenty
minutes was drawing to an end.
LAS proof that the law has failed
wherever it was tried, he concluded,
'you can see that it was necessary,
even when sincere and conscientious
men were trying to enforce the law,
for the States to go back to licensing.
Iowa puts clause in its Constitution
forbidding the sale of liquor except
for medicinal, pharmaceutical, and
mechanical purposes.
What stretch was given to the
meaning of those words. | know from
nv own experience in enforcing the
law how impossible it was to prevent
the invasion of these laws. My expert
ence has taught me that the law must
depend on the governed for its en-
forcement.
eff you have not got public opin-
ion with you the law can never be en-
| forced. Where can you get the jurors,
the prosecutors and the witnesses
when the feeling of the public is SO
against them? 1t is only when the
feeling that the saloons must go IS
strong enough to support that they
will be accepted as substitutes.
The United States Government de-
mands tax from the people who sell
whiskey, and who can deny that there
| is a license to sell it. How can the
idea of prohibition be obtained when
there is no means of enforcing 1t? This
is self-governing country.
..Cnless law rests in the will OF
the people there is no power to enforce
it. The Supreme Court says the power
does not lie with any citizen to sell IL
quor contrary to the police power of
the State, but this relates to the selling
and not to the drinking.
Gov. st. John now read some statis-
tics showing how Kansas had increas-
ed in wealth since prohibition became
a law there, and how much the gov
ernors and other State officers, who
we're once opposed to it, had to say
in favor of the conditions that exist
now.
"Whv. in the town I live in, he