The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-06-02
BUTLER ON REBATES.
a LETTER FROM TIE EX-SENATOR
ON THE DISPENSARY.

He Refers to the Senatorial Campaign
Three Years Aeo-Com IN ents on the State
Government.
The Columbia State publishes the
following:
To the Editor OF The State. I OBJ
serve in the "modi6sd statement" of
B. R. Tillman published in The State
of the 23d instant. he lugs my name
into his .labored effort at vindication.
The statement from beginning to end
is more in the nature of 'confes sion
aud avoidance" than vindication.
Expletives and ISLANDERS, his favorite
weapons of controversy, will not sat
isfy an inquisitive public, which is
getting down TO more serious form
of inquiry.
He says "when these staple ISLANDERS
about rebates under my administra-
ton vera put into circulation by the
newspapers and taken up by General
Butler in the canvass three years ago,
I met them promptly and vigorously
at U Union and elsewhere, and last win
ter Joined with Governor Evans In
asking that the legislature should
appoint committee to look into the
dispensary's management and set the
charges of corruption at rest forever. "
This is very general, evasive and
erroneous. In the first place the
''stale ISLANDERS" were not taken up
by General Butler" by anything de
rived from ''the newspapers" Here
is what occurred at Union. I had re.
ceived communication from a gen
tleman in Charleston, not ssnewspa
per man, informing me that by the
terms of the whiskey trust agree.
meut, every member Of the trust was
bound to pay a rebate Of seven
cents a gallon to all who pur-
chased thousand gall ms or upward,
that is to say, was bound under
the trust agreement topay back seven
cents on every gallon thus boug ht;
that the Mill Creek distillery Of Ohio
was member of the trust, and there
fore bound to return this rebate that
as Governor Tillman, as chairman OF
the board of control, and understood
to be the sole responsible head, had
purchased large quantities of liquor
from the Mill Greek distillery, he
ought to have received large sums
from the Mill Creek distillory, run
ming up into the thousands of dollars.
This is substantially the information l
received from an entirely reliable, ex-
perienced source.
This communication got into The
News and Courier and can be found
in the files of that paper of that date,
before had an opportunity to Use it
on the stump, in this way.
At a meeting preceding the one at
Union, I do not now remember where,
Mr.. Kohn, the correspondent OF
The News and Courier, asked me if l
had any manuscript expected to use,
I would let him have it in advance,
so that he could make acopy at his
leisure, and thereby save him, the labor
when sending off his dispatches.
I give him the memorandum furn-
ished me as above stated, eDjoining
him not to publish it until had en-
braced it in some subsequent speech.
Mr.. Kohn. through inadvertence, l
suppose, forwarded it to his paper,
and it was published before had an
opportunity to refer to it.
Mr.. Kohn afterwards told me he
had informed Governor Gilman it
had been published without my
authority.
Notwithstanding this information,
Governor Tillman having the open
ing speech at Union, made this publica-
ton the text for a violent, coarse, vul.
gar attack on me, stirring up the pas
sions of e. few ruffians and black.
guards in the audience, and then
when I got up to reply, the rufians
attempted to browbeat and howl me
down. When the excitement was at
its height and trouble seemed immin'
ent, Governor Tillman, as usual, left
the stand and sought place of safe.
ty. In the course of his ribaldry and
vituperation he denied having col
lected the rebates and endeavored to
take refuge from the awkward dilem-
ma in which he found himself by rails.
ing other and false issues, having no
relevance to the rebate question.
When I replied, I said, among other
things, that there were but two alterna.
tives, either Governor Tillman had
collected the thousands of dollars OF
rebates from the Mill Creek distillery
and not accounted for them, or had
been guilty of a grave and censurable
dereliction of official duty in not col
lecting, the rebates and turning them
into the State treasury for the benefit
of the taxpayers.
No charges were made. but simple
enquiry which any taxpayer had q
right to make, and any honest man
would have invited and answered dis
passionstely and frankly. There was
no occasion for such an outburst OF
coarse ribaldry and unseemly passion.
TIE controversy stands today where
it was left off at Union nearly three
years ago, except that the suspicion of
crookedness in regard to the rebates
has been intensified by a remark
which Governor Evans, his friend and
colaborer in the dispensary business,
is charged with having made to Mr..
Mixson, late chief dispenser, to the ef-
feet that ben Tillman had lined his
pockets with rebates" And further,
by recent intimations and suggestions
on the same line from some of Cover.
nor Tillman's closest, and. as is gen.
orally supposed, most confidential per-
sonal and political friends. Now, the
simple and only QUESTION as to this
hna :. oh of the disnansaru rnanaoament