The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-01-27
A GOOD DOCUMENT.
IcoNTINUED FROM PAGE ONE.

Ier Generals, Office satisfies me that
the business can be conducted IN such
q way as to prevent stealing or detect
and punish it if the dispensers or other
officers connected with the dispensary
attempt it. There is no reason why
such checks and safeguards cannot be
devised as will protect the States in
terest as thoroughly as in the collec,
ton and disbursement OF taxes and
other public money. The dlspensIasry
has become part of the fixed policy
of the State, and as long as our pres
ent Constitution remains intact 1t is
the duty of the Governor to see that
laws governing it are enforced, ana
it is the duty of all law abiding cltlzens
to labor for the same end, or at least
to submit to the provisions of the law.
I believe the dispensary comes nearer
to the solution of the liquor problem
than any other scheme yet proposed
by man. It may be necessary to mo-
dify the law, but constant changes are
to be deplored. The dispensers should
be honest men, selected without re-
gard to party affiliations, and when
convicted of crime, should be handled
like other criminals. The chief dis,
penser, the board of control and all
the higher officials should be men
whose honesty cannot be. reasonably
questioned and who should hold their
places on account of fitness and not
for political reasons. An institution
is known by its fruits, and tits simply
a question whether prohibition or the
dispensary system will do most to d1-
minish drunkenness and its accom-
panying ills. Upon moral grounds
and only upon moral grounds the dis,
pensary must stand or fail. The profit
feature is of secondary consideration.
DUCATIoN-THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
That it is the duty of the State to
provide for the education of her chill
dren is now almost universally con-
ceded. He belongs to the past, and
not to the present, who hopes to check
the growing demand for popular edu-
cation. The enemies of the public
school will find the entire drift OF
modern civilization against them. All
the leading nations of the earth have
founded and are still endeavoring to
perfect systems of popular education.
Witness Germany with 19 per cent.
and France and England each with
16} per cent of their population in the
schools. To be relegated to the rear
is the fate of every State that fails to
provide for the training OF her chill
dren.
Witness Spain, once the leading
Power of Europe. with only 10 per
cent; Italy, once the home of art and
science and culture, with9 per cent;
Turkey, at once the shame and dis
grace of Europe, with d per cent /;
Mexico, with Al, and Brazil, with
only 8 per cent of her population at
school.
The whole history of modern civili-
zation teaches that in the struggle for
supremacy the sceptre of dominion
passes not to the Stale most richly
blessed by nature, but to the State
that best succeeds in training its citl-
zens for all the duties of life, both
public and private. in peace and in
war. In comparison with cold and
bleak, New England the South is a
paradise. And yet it must be cenfess'
ed by all fair MINDED men that long
before the desolating cyclone of war
had swept over our fair fields power
and dominion were already rapidly
passing to the North. We were al
ready approaching condition Of in
tellectual bondage in the South. 1t
has been estimated by eminent anthor.
ity this section paid annually to the
North, for many years before the war,
not less than FIVE million dollars for
books and education. When New
England established her free public
schools and strengthened her system
Of popular instruction she armed her
self with the power to wrest suprema.
>ey from the South, which was content
with private and parochial schools, and
to make good her claim to leadership
far more efectually than she subse.
quently secured in the surrender of
Leo at Appomattox.
This is said in no harsh criticism of
the generation of men now rapidly
passing from the stage, whose cour-
age and fortitude were tested in a hun
dred hard fought fields, whose ''ener-
gy made bricks without straw, and
spread splendor amid the ruins Of
their war wasted homes" but for the
purpose of emphasizing a truth which
cannot be too deeply impressed upon
the minds OF the men into whose
hands is committed the solemn respon-
sibility of moulding the destiny of the
State and of making her future not
unworthy of her proud, inspiring
past. To see our own shortcomings
and to rise with firm will to correct
past mistakes is the part of wisdom.
Vain conceit in State is no more to
be admired than in an Individual.
Our schools are not what they ought
to be. In the opportunities they offer
their youth for education the Northern
and Western States have left us far
behind, and this for reasons beyond
our control. The war left us con-
frontsd by the most serious education
al problem ever thrust upon q free
people-the problem, it has been well
laid of educating three times the num-
Der of children with one-third the
money. The war not only robbed us
of more than 80 per cent Of our taxa.
BILE property, but it added, at single
stroke, to our school population hun
dreds of thousands of illiterate ex-
slaves. In spite of desperate odds we
have peen moving forward, but the
battle is not yet won. South Carolina
has not yet regained her once proud
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