Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1899-03-23
AND 1T MUsT roI,Low AS DAY, THOU cANg1
headed by time-servibg demagogues,
became entranched at Columbia,

L
with outposts in almost every county,
backed by an army of subsidized
officials, armed With the ready re.
volver and Winchester to shoot down
oil opposition, and right thoroughly
have they done their work. Unof
Tending men and women have beel,
wayiaid by swaggering, irresponsi.
blo constabulary, and shot to death
The private baggage of ladies has
been searched without even probable
cause, improperly confisoated on sus.
pioion, and converted to the use of
dispensary officials, contents of trunks
divided among them as highwaymen
divide their booty and plunder. The
homes of families, tho most ire
proaohable, have been violated and
invaded by bandits sustained and
supported by the powers of the State,
and yet they tell us this is the best
solution of the whiskey traffic.
Whatever of disgrace and discredit
that has heretofore attached to whis-
hey selling by individuals has been
condoned by transferring it to the
State. 1t is made respectable by
putting on it the imprimatur of the
States authority and by making the
State the vendor of whiskey to her
own children to debauch and degrade
them. A new function for sover-
eign State hitherto supposed to be
the enemy of degrading traffic and
the guardian and protector of the
welfare of her citizens. 1t has even
been Christianized by members of
Christian churches being employed
to sell the vile stuff to members of
their flock. Under the rule of ..ocal
option the cause of temperance was
making most satisfactory progress in
all parts of the State when this mon
strous fraud was launched by the
Legislature and enforced by reckless
demagogues and rinosters in open
defiance of the sensibilities and wishes
of the people. The bloodshed in
this miserable crusade against the
rights and liberties of the citizen will
have to be atoned for some day.
The sincere advocates of temper
ance, the ministers of the Gospel, the
good women, were moulding public
opinion--the only safe guarantee of
success in any against
the saloon traffic in whiskey. They
were gradually advancing their lines
Of attack in all parts of the State and
making it impossible for even blind
tigers to exist, when they unfortu-
nately, and think foolishly, fell into
the trap set for them by tho dispen-
sary ringsters, and were thrown back
for years in their good work. They
have renewed their fight, and may
God speed them in their warfare.
have never believed in tho efli-
cacy of prohibition az o remedy for
intemperance, but az between that
and the dispensary I would support
prohibition every day in the year. I
would take the purchase and sale Of
whiskey out of the hands of State
officials where it is sapping and min
ing the very foundation of society
and degrading the high and sacred
functions Of government. / would
take this dangerous power out of the
hands of everybody, Governor, Board
of Control, dispensers, constables and
all, and return to the good old Dem
ocratic doctrine of home rule, local
self-government. Let the people of
each municipality, community, town
ship, county decide for. themselves
whether they will have prohibition,
local option, high license or dispen-
sary. Why not Are the people
not to be trusted? Wrench the
grasp Of the ring from tho throats of
the people. Turn them loose to de-
eide for themselves. The best gov.
erned people are those who are least
governed. Popular sovereignty
means the rule of the people, not the
rule of dispensary whiskey ring.
The so-called reform movement
was inaugurated on the theory that
there was ring which was sitting
and throttling the people in the free
exercise of their sovereign power.
Why erect another ring on the ruins
of the ring then existing, if it ever
had any existence? If there is no
dispensary whiskey ring in existence
why not let the people have a chance
to decide iii their local primaries {?
The reform, farmers movement, needs
reforming. We were promised lower
taxes, higher prices, general peace,
prosperity and happiness, sort of
political, financial, social elysium.
What have we realizcdp The farm
ers have been reformed into four
cent cotton, and increase of assess
ment of property, higher taxes, blood
shed, riots and rascality. The re-
formers need reforming. Tho phos-
phato interests belonging to all the
people of the State, paying into their
treasury under the operations of the
former ring from two hund dred to
three hundred thousand dollars an
nually, relieving private property to
that extent from taxation, have been
practically destroyed, all in tho into
rests of reform. The dispensary was
to supply the deficiency; we were to
get anywhere from half to a mil
lion dollars profit from the sale of
whiskey. Where arc those profits ?
Buried in the pockets of somebody.