Lancaster enterprise. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1891-1905, 1900-07-28
Memo in News and Courier.


license, and low license, too, who
are supporting CuI Hoyt, do so
because they know that prohibi.
tion Will fail mIserably here, as
1T has failed every where else it
has been tried. They know that
even II the prohibition element
proves the stronger in the anti
dhPensary combination, and
secures the enactment Of law
purportlng to prohibit the man
ufacture and sale of whiskey, but
little time will intervene be-
fore the people of the State rise
In their might and wipe from
their statute books every vestige
of prohibition. and that we will
settle back into the old channel.
to the days of the bar room
when the barkeeper dominated
our politics and blazened the sale
of his wares on every hand-to
the days when mans wife or
daughter could not 90 on the
streets of the average court house
town on Saturday evening. Itls
true that the State will no longer
be in the bar room business, but
the barkeeper will be In the
State, the county and the mum.
cipal business all over South Gar
DINA.
Of course, no law can be per-
fectly enforced and no one
pretends that by any system the
illegitimste sale Of liquor can be
prevented. But that there is less
liquor consumed to the popula
ton, fewer dives, greater sobrie-
ty and more law a biding commu
mites in South Carolina than in
Maine or any prohibition state in
the Union any minded man
must admit. Then what are the
Prohibitionists-the radical tenn
perance reformers-misinformed
dreamers-working to accom-
plish2 They certainly cannot
keep liquor away from a man
who wants to buy and has the
money to pay for it. They can
only make sneak and hypocrite
of him. Why cannot the Prohi-
tlonists realize that they but hide
the head of the liquor traffic, like
the ostrich, when they enact any
prohibitory law in a munity
where public sentiment does not
overwhelmingly sustain it. We
can only accomplish permanent
good and maintain the law we
enrct when we guage our meas
ures by the public mind. The
dispensary law is fully abreast
with public sentiment in South
Carolina and is as radical in its
terms as public sentiment will
sustain. 1t is not, | admit, quite
as good as theoretical prohibi.
ton, but is incomparably more
of a temperance measure, more
practical and bears better fruit
than any example of practical
prohibition In existence.
The people can elect Col. Hoyt
and may have the Legislature pass
bill declaring that hereafter the
various .dispensaries can sell
whiskSy only for medicine, and
then call the result of their eff
forts prohibition-but | warn
them that if they do they will
plant the tares that will bring
forth a plentiful harvest of dives
and dens and blind tigers, which
In turn will bear the natural
fruit of corruption, perjury and
depravity. Many of our preach
ers and misguided people believe
that this would be for the best,
but they know not what they do.
Upon the result of the pending
election Of governor of the
State Of South Carolina hangs
the future policy Of the State in
dealing with the liquor traffic.
That the defeat of Governor Nc
Sweeney and the election of Col.
Hoyt will mean the ultimate dis
ruption and overflow of the dis.
pensary law no reasonable man
can truly deny. The issue is
sGuSrely made and the line
clearly drawn. Governor Nc.
Sweeney stands for the con tinu-
ance of the dispensary law Col.
Hoyt stands for it's repeal and
for the substitution for it of any
system upon which the discord.
ant claimant that he renreaenfs