The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-01-19

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We have, then, to face the follow
ing condition of affairs Under the
protection of Circuit Judge of the
Unised States Court liquor is being
sold throughout the State, in the
country as we'll as in the municipali-
ties, and in defiance Of the laws of the
State. The rights Of a sovereign
State to police and regulate the liquor
traffic in its own way is nullified and
trampled under foot. The Act of
Congress of July 8, 1890, has been, so
far as South Carolina is concerned,
repealed, and We are told that the en-
actment Of prohibition alone gives a
State the right to exclude "original
package" dealers, unless the profit
feature Of the dispensary is destroyed.
The language Of Judge Simonton in
the Vandercook case is as follows
''If all alcoholic liquors, by whomso-
ever held, are declared contraband
they ceased to belong to commerce.
and are within the jurisdiction Of the
police power But SO long as their
manufacture, purchase or sale, or
their use as q beverage in any form or
by any person, are recognized, they
belong to commerce, and are without
the domain Of the police power" The
power to license the sale Of liquor, to
the exclusion Of these Interstate
commerce dealers in original packa-
ges," has been therefore destroyed by
this decision, unless it should be re-
versed by the Supreme Court. The
Attorney General of the State has ap-
pealed, but the appeal will not be
heard until March Z, too late for you
to know what the decision will be, in
time to legislate in accordance there
with,
It cannot be doubted that large
majority of our people favor the dis
pensary law, if it can be secured
against the interference Of the Fed
eral Courts. Three successive Gen
eral Assemblies have declared in favor
Of the dispensary as the best method
Of dealing with the liquor question.
Our Representatives in Congress are
at work seeking to secure additional
legislation for the protection Of the
State against the interference Of the
United States judiciary. The United
States Senate has already passed bill
by unanimous vote giving the complete
control Of intoxicants to the State,
and it is hoped that the House also
will pass it. But we must have i'm
mediate relief from the present intol-
erable conditions. Free liquor, with
its accompanying increase Of drunk
enness and the consequent increase of
crime must, at all hazards, be. got rid
Of. AS / have said, a license law will
nos secure immunity from this evil.
Judge Simonton has destroyed, along
with the dispensary, the license sys-
TEN when run fer profit. What, then,
is left TO do? We must either enact
prohibition or continue the dispensary
system without the profit feature.
Many-s majority, [ believe--do not
:hink prohibition is practicable; and
many have opposed the dispensary
system because Of the profit feature.
We can certainly get rid Of the "orig-
inal package" dealers and their de-
moralizing traffic by continuing the
dispensary, shorn Of all profits and
administered only as a police regula-
ton to control and reduce the liquor
evil. The Federal Judge will have
neither occasion nor excuse for his
ever-Yeady injunction, if that system
shall be inaugurated, unless he shall
again reverse his own previous decis-
ion. This, then, appears to me the
best and almost the only thing left US
to do. We might try this policy for a
year, and next winter, after Congress
shall have acted, or failed to act, and
after the Supreme Court at Washing
ton shall have decided what is to be-
come Of the States power to control
liquor under the Wilson bill of 1890,
we shall be in position to take final
action.
It is useless for me to make an e1-
tended argument to show that our sys-
TEN Of liquor control is a proper e1er-
else Of the police power, aud that
Judge Simonton is wrong in his decis-
ion denying this power to the State.
Bus as facts speak louder than words,
/ will give the testimony Of ministers
Of the Gospel in the State as to the
effect of the dispensary law on the
| morele of The raon1o and on tho ra.