The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-05-12
More Light Wanted on the Dispcnsary
%COrruptiG:.

COLUMBIA, SAY ct has been a long
time since there has been anything so
much talked of as the Beckroge trunk
and its developments. The investigation
did not attempt to find out anything more
than what became of the Beckroge trunk
and it's contents. More could have been
ascertained, and the affidavit on which
Col. CASTOR was arrested, in which the
coffee transaction was brought out, indi-
dicates n of many other transactions
that could have been developed. For
good and sufficient reasons. as we'll as by
direction, the Beckroge trunk affair was
the sole topic for investigation, and If
some one else wants to make investiga-
ton it can be done, and, nc doubt, with
the slightest intention Of rejecting upon
the integrity or honesty of those under
taking the Beckroge investigation, as
has been intimated in the Greenville
News and other papers, the inquiries
thus far have only been towards the
sleetle fellows" There is no end of talk
that there are others, and if there are
then it would seem for the best interest
of the dispensary not to stop at the "leetle
fellows" Why not take up the offer of
Col. CAN'T to make further Investigation?
All that is wanted is for someone with
authority to get evidence under oath, and
II the ball Is once started the chances are
that things will be made "mighty inter-
esting." The whole thing is to get those
who think they know something started.
and when n Larry, who thinks he
knows something, will make up his
mind there is likely to be what they call
elimination and recrimination, and in the
mass of chaf there are likely to be found
some valuable grains Of wheat.
This ~dispensary business has been one
Of the closest things, anyway, that has
State, and the very air of mystery about
the whole institution has made many
people suspicious of it.
One can hear no end Of rumors about
rebates, about commissions, about tricks,
about influences that are rot altogether
proper and the like, but they are not in
shape for publication.
Indeed, the friends of the dispensary
are beginning to ask where it will end.
There are some few people who seem to
think that all of these reports are fancies
of the newspapers, and when the press
started out on the Beckroge trunk affair
n paper suggested that had it not been
for the 'hungry newspaper reporters in
Columbia the whole matter would have
ended" and another suggested that the
affair was an ;'irregularity," and that the
'saloon element seems to be delighted"
If there is now a paper in the State,
whether it belong to n faction or an
other, which does not concur in the opin-
ion that there was something more than
an irregularity, but instead very much
that is rotten, it has not been found.
If the facts are allowed to be brought
out-and there is no reason why they
should not be-there will be some mighty
interesting evidence about who got much
of the perquisities of the clark closet"
and other pickings of the dispensary.
AS to the samples the contention likely
to be pursued is that the samples sent
here by liquor houses cannot under any
consideration belong to the State. The
the liquor houses sending them here for
the purpose of getting orders, or to the
State board Of control, to whom they are
sent for the sole purpose of securing Or
ders. The contention is that if the State
sold these samples that it would be IN
fair to the liquor houses, and that it
would look too much like the State was
getting samples from liquor dealers to
make money out Of them. The samples
are the property of the liquor-frms, and
if they see fit to let the State board of con-
troll keep them, they have, it is commended,
a right to dispose Of Them as they sec fit.
This, to say the least, is an interesting
position to take, and the Courts of the
State may yet have to decide as to what
Is the legal distribution of the samples
that are submitted to the State board OF
control. But the row is not 80 much over
the samples as it is over the spoils of the
contraband room, or the "dark closet"
There can be no doubt about the fact
that the recent and coming revelations
are doing the dispensary system a great
deal of harm. It is making its best friends
very sick Of the whole affair. While
Governor Ellerbe is doing all he can, in
his way, to purge the system of its rotten
ness, such things have been undertaken
before, and the fact that they now or have
recently been rampant, does not prove
the glowing success Of the previous un-
dertakings.
With the recent expose, and on the top
of this the dynamite Vandercock suit, the
friends of the dispensary are getting de-
| cidedly weak.
They are naturally very much alarmed
at the scope Of the Vandercock sui,
brought by Mr.. IF. K. Bryan, and, what
is more to the point, the general eXpecta
ton is that the temporary injunction viii
be granted, and then, in turn, it will BIZ
made permanentand will be sustained by
the Supreme Court of the United States
Here is the clause in the decision Of the
United States Supreme Court which gives
the State authorities the most alarm, and
which it Is thought the United States
Courts will hold that liquor can be ship
ped into the State in original packages,
| and not interfered with in any mapner
SIT is not a law purporting to forbid
the importation, manufacture, sale and
use Of Intoxicating liquors, as articles
detrimental to the welfare of the State
| and to the health Of the Inhabitants, and
hence is not without the scope and ope.
ration Of the'Act of Congress of August
1890. That law was not intended to con,
fer upon any State the power to discrimi'
nate ipjuriously against the products o.
| other States in articles whose manufacture
and use are not forbidden, and which are
therefore the subjects Of legitimate com
merce."
This extract is taken from the opinion
in the Donald case, and 1t is on this thai
the State is likely to lose its case.
1t is stated that a number of parties
nave alreduy peSau prospecting DIS " lut
establishment OF agencies for Interstate
liquor firms, il the event the Vandercock
suit is decided against the State, and
prominent dispensary advocate holds thai
as soon as the temporary injunction is
granted the State might as we'll dismiss
its constabulary force, and try to save the
$4,000 a year, which seems necessary tc
keep the force in existence, and add that
much to the otherwise small profits of the
d~ispensary.
Altogether things are getting very in.
terestiDg in AMI about the great "moral
institution" known as the dispensary.-
NeWS and Courier.
Ali the People were AstOniSlled.
NASHVILLE, May G.-An airship. on