The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1897-09-24
FATE OF The DISPENNSARY.
WITHDRAWAL OF CONSTABULARY
coNFEssION OFsYsTEnI's FAILURE,
WIN Ben .T!&ssan Kesign9-The Senator
FDeciared That, II Necessary TO Save
<<<sIt,. Ito VIII Leave tho Senate and
Take tho Stump in its Defenae.
Has Governor Ellerbe Given
Up tho System?

is to be the fate Of the dispensary
systemf" is the question uppermost
in this State, now that the senatorial
succession has been settled. Gov
ernor Ellerbe's announcement that
he will withdraw the constabulary,
which has been considered an in
despensable adjunct Of the law, on
the lst of October, has brought a
crisis upon the people and the poll
ticians and they are puzzled.
-Four years ago, on tho 1st of
July, 1893, the dispensary law went
into effect. Fathered by Tillman,
who was then governor, it WAS really
an expedient, ga ,cowardly make
shift" seized upon by the reformers
to save them from being engulfea by
a prohibition wave which was sweep
ing the State. The prohibitionists,
led by l.. D. Childs, of this city, had
radical prohibitory measure before
the Legislature. AT the election at
which the general assembly thon in
session had been chosen a plebiscite
had been taken and the majority
was in favor Of prohibition. Under
this pressure the assembly was on
the point of passing the prohibition
bill. Tillman saw that if his legis-
lature passed the measure he would
have to sign it, and if he signed it
defeat might be his portion in the
next appeal to the people. In this
emergency Tillman heard of "dis-
pensary" which had been for years
in operation in Athens, Ga. He
seized on it as way out of the diff
fculty. A bill incorporating the
main features of the Athens dispen
sary was drawn up, introduced in
the house by John Gary Evans,
who afterwards became governor and
passed..
Though thrown as a sop to the
Total Abstinence Cerberus, the dis
pensary was loudly heralded asa rev.
enue- raising measure. Governor
Tillman himself declared that the
State would clear $50O,OOO from the
experiment tho first year, and the
taxpayers, who had seen their bur
den steadily increasing under the
reform and retrenchment" admins
tration, began to indulge visions of
the States paying all it's running
expenses }out -ef~the profits of it's H.
quar traffic.
STATE BOARD OF CONTROL.
The administration Of the dispen-
sary was intrusted to State board
of control and State commissioner,
to hold Office two years and receive q
salary Of $1,000. The State board
appointed county board of control
in each county and these in turn ap-
pointed the local dispensers on the
recommendation of majority of the
freeholders of the town where the
dispensary was located. Only one
diapensary was allowed in each
county, except in Columbia, where
three were permitted, and in Char
lesion, which was vouchsafed two. At
these dispensaries only chemically
pure liquors, tested by the State
chemist, were to be sold, prospective
purchasers were required to present
written requests, giving the date,
the age and residence Of the
signer.| for whom and whose use the
lig}xor was wanted, and the kind and
fdantity desired. Only unbroken
packages, none loss than pint,
re to be sold, and there was to be
no drinking on the premises. The
net profits of the county dispensaries
were to 60 one-half to the county
and one-half to the municipal corpo.
ration. The State dispenser was not
allowed to charge the local dispen.
sers more than so per cont net profit,
all of aich, of course, was to 60 to
tho State.
With this elaborate machinery
and wealth of rules and regulations,
tho much. .beralded dispensary sys-
tom was set in operation. But the
predictions Of huge profits were
never realized and the beneficial ef-
fects of the law in the direction OF
reducing the amount of drinking,
which were undoubtedly considern-