The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-02-19
THE DISPENSARY LAW,
GOVERNOR EVANS SPECIAL MESSAGE
ON THAT SUBJECT.

ON THAT SUBJECT.
Review of the Operations of the System.
Suggestions Looking to Its Better Eo-
forcement.
COLUMBIA, Feb. II 11.-Special: Gov
ernor Evans message on the Dispen-
sary law was read in the General As
sembly yesterday. 1t embodies an
exhaustive review Of the operation and
the effects of the system: He says:
Gentlemen of the General Assembly:
In 1892 the dispensary Law was enact
ed as a solution of the vexed and
much discussed whiskey problem. All
reasonable men acting in the light of
the experience of other States, ac-
knowledge that prohibition is imprac-
ticable so long as whiskey is regarded
as legitimate article of commerce
by the national government. It can
only be cherished as an ideal theory
and must be classed with other utopi-
an ideas. The drinking habit is re-
cognized by all civilized governments
as an evil, nd one that is peculiarly
within the province of legislative ac-
ton. This action must be from the
nature of the evil directed to the
removal OF the cause, as we can not
prohibit men from gratifying their
tastes and thirsts. We can punish
men for destroying the life. limb or
property OF others and to some extent
restrain their actions, but we can no
more legislate the taste for whiskey
out of an old topper than we can jeal-
ousy ou. of the human heart. AS
long as stimulant is craved b. the
human appetite and as long as whis-
key is distilled in North Carolina the
drinkers of South Carolina will have
it, law or no law. I have never
dreamed OF reforming druukard by
law or moral suasion. For the habit
once formed is disease, a physical
condition which cannot cure. We
must address ourselves then to the con-
dition that confronts US and not theo-
rize on ideal government. The first
object should be to prevent this habit
from being formed BY the young citi-
zens; second, tc eliminate drunken
ness; third, to so crafty the thirst Of
the old topper as to make the unobjec-
tionable to sober citizens.
We claim that the dispensary law
has practically accomplished the first
and second objects; the third can only
be fully accomplished by the death of
the subject.
When death occurs and the nation
al government outlaws whiskey and
alcoholic beverage, then, and not un-
til then, will prohibition be practica-
BILE. The law in this State has had a
hard road. It has been opposed by
the United States courts with partisan
judges and by few OF our own citi.
zens with rifles and shotguns, but so
far it has prevailed, and is now writ
ten in the organic law of this State,
and better, on the hearts ef the people.
It may be said now to be the settled
policy of the State. Its experimental
stage is over and I am happy to inform
you that in only one city of the State
have the people refused to accept it as
such.
I have been requested by a represen-
tatire of the Gospel Temperance league
to ask you to amend the law so as to
allow whiskey to be sold only for med.
icinal, pharmaceutical and mechanical
purposes, or in other words, to repeal
the dispensary law and adopt what
was rejected by your honorable body
and known as the Nettles bill. I can
not do this for reasons which must be
apparent to you and which I stated
while a member of the senate and for
the further reason that the dispensary
is succeeding beyond the expectations
of its friends, and to pass such law
as requested would not accomplish
what the dispensary is now doing, but
would simply increase the crime of
perjury and false representation in the
State. I would not be understood as
objecting to the agitation of prohibit
ton nor to restricting thesale of whis.
key by any means. 1t is beneficial to
all governments to have idealists, for
if not, we might lose sight of the prin-
ciple and cease striving for the covet-
ed goal.
As moral reform measure the dis
pensary must commend itself to any
unprecedented mind. The temptations
to the youths OF the State offered by
the saloon have been swept away and
with it have gone the games of bill
lizards, pool, the faro , banks
of the barkeeper in municipal and
State elections. During the late holi-
days there occurred only one homi-
eide in the State and this was not from
wniskey, but an old feud. This re-
cord has never been known before.
Not case of the crime sor which
lynching is resorted to or an attempt
at such has occurred within the past
year. Two circuses travresed the
State during the past year, visiting all
large towns of importance, and with
the exception of Spartanburg not an
arrest was made for drunkenness Or
disorderly conduct In Greenville one
arrest was made for drunkenness and
he was exhibited as a curiosity. It
was the invariable practice of the col
ored population to drink on circus
days, but it passed away with bar
room customs. despatched four con-
stables to follow the circuses in their
tour through the State, but they were
not needed to preserve the peace, and
not an accident of any kind was re-
ported.
The Governor then sums up the re-
ports of mayors, intendants and otner
municipal officers to whom he applied
for information, as follows: 1t ap-
pears from these reports that drunk
enness has decreased for the entire
State so per cent; the number of
cases tried in mayors courts for
drunkenness and disorderly conduct
has decreased &C and 9-16ths per cent.
The consumption of whiskey has de-
creased 47 GO per cent.
It must be observed that this decrease