The Topeka state journal., 1897-08-09

himself the first choice of his auditors,
and that the colleague given him would
be one of his liking.
Leaving this question, Senator Till
man entered the one nearest his heart
the dispensary question. None of
these candida teS,'' said he, appear to
be friends of the dispensary law. There
is many a politician hiding out in the
bushes to see how the people stand -
Senator Tillman went on to describe
the war which had been made upon the
dispenSary law by the cities, in which
they had openly fought its operations,
so much so, he declared, that Charles
ton had seeded from South Carolina
on the liquor law. 1T was then" said
he, that 1 made up nay mind that the
state should take charge of the police
force of these cities. As governor, 1
always asked, is such a thing right?
is it for the benefit of the people? and
when the answer was in the affirmative
there was nothing in sight to prevent
my performance of it. want one law
for South Carolina-one which Charles
ton will have to respect just as well as
Abbeville." Senator Tillman went into
detail as to how the dispensary law
originated. There was an attempt be-
ing made to commit South Carolina to
prohibition, as was the case in Maine.
That prohibition simply furnished an
excuse for prescriptions by doctors to
build up generation of hypocrites,
who were always sick when they want
ed drink. Il preferred the dispen-
sary system" said he. "A prohibition
ing purely political, it would go the
way of all political measures. There
is an old expression that the best way
TO light the devil is with his own tools,
and L argued that the best way to
fight liquor is with liquor. do not
agree with ministers who make out that
the drinking of whisky is a crime 1t
IS the abuse of whisky that is wrong.
We cannot treat with men as we would
like to have them, but as they are
Now, what is the giant evil in the
ic al -
personal profit, the greed of men who
make money out of it. The dispensary
wiped that class out of existence. It
is personal profit that opens up brilliant
saloons by which to seduce men 1t
buys politicians, it bribes policemen. AS
result of the dispensary we have to-
day less drinking in South Carolina
than was ever before known in the
state. But now" said he, I'VE hear of
the appeal to CaeSar-the federal court.
Newspapers have fought the system
and little politicians have belied it, say
ing that the officers have had rebates
and have even attempted to mention
my name in connection with it. 1 will
stand up in the face of God and man
and say that they are liars. cannot
go into the indecency of our present
federal judge. In all the iniquities
which marked the career of Judge
Bond, and God knows they were bad
enough, yet he never equalled Simon
ton aSsa a tyrant. To free liquor from
state monopoly is only to build up that
personal monopoly which has damned
so many communities. If the decision
of the supreme court is right, even un-
der high license or low license, or any
other plan, the legislature may adopt
original packages can still be brought
in and distributed throughout the state.
One of the candidates for the senate,
Mr.. Mayfield, has criticised the bill
which 1 introduced which commands
SimontOn to take his dirty hands off
the throat of South Carolina. This
aaY nd 60t is T0la 70 COW fba n
sary system is rotten. If that be true,
it is the fault of the administration and
not of the law. We must" said the SEN
ator, stamping the floor, put the dis
pensary either in politics again or out
of it. Make the county dispensers
elective, as are your clerks and treas
urers and sheriffs; and if you are cap
able of electing those other county Off
GERS you should be equally capable to
elect the right kind of dispensers. The
trout BILE with us now is that there is a.
divided responsibility; that politics has
got into the state board. 1t was here
that Senator Tillman spoke of the posi-
ton taken against the dispehsary by
Mr.. Gonzales and declared his purpose,
if necessary to keep the dispensary to
the 'front.' of resigning his seat and en-
tering the fight for the governorship
next year with that question as his sole
platform.
ent place. said he. "I am doing very
we'll where am. Whenever get up to
speak every one of them comes in from
the cloak-room or wherever else they
may be, and they crane their necks to
hear every word may say. And let me
tell you" said he, amid the laughter of
the audience, that I pitch rocks up
there as we'll as here. I went up to
Washington to speak for you and I am
doing it, At this point a persistent
gentleman with red hair insisted upon
Mr. Tillman's taking up the tariff bill,
which he did, saying: ''The whole
scheme of the Dingley bill was public
theft I so described it in my place in
the senate said it's purpose was Grim
inaI: that I was against it in all its
shapes and forms, but if these people,
having the power to enforce the pro-
tective tariff insisted upon so doing,
wanted my share for my people"