The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1900-08-08

can logically bring is that it is i'm
practicable; that it cannot be, and will
not be, enforced. shall say in reply
that the dispensary, SO far as its moral
aims are concerned, is not now en-
forced, and will inevitably be less and
less enforced as time goes by.
And again | say that if it could be
certified that with prohibition there
would be just as much liquor drunk to
a gill as without it should still favor
it; for the reason that it places the
business under the ban Of the law and
places the State in the right moral at
titudc towards the traffic.
And, again. consider this, that pro-
hibition would have this decided ad-
vantage over the dispcnsary in the
matter Of enforcement 1t would have
behind it the undivided support Of all
those people whose conscienccs are
opposed to the traffic, and that, think
IS matter worthy CT grave considcra-
ton. These forces are not behind the
dispcnsary to-day, not even so much
"a they were at one time. We can see
very clearly that if we do not advance
to prohibition We shall have gained no
point in moral principle, and that we
shall find ourselves in position Of
moral disaster on this liquor question,
| !, 1o,1, a.
liquor selling machine, manipulated
by unscrupulous politicians, who Sc.
cure by means Of it their own advant-
age rather than the restraint of vice,
and as corrupt political machine
Satan himself couldn't improve on it!
But they din in our ears that pro
hibition is impracticable. Impractica-
BILE! Let US have little common
sense about this question. 1t is no
more impracticable THAI many other
laws already on our statute book and
which no sane or civilized man would
see repealed. It is no more impracti-
cable than the law against murder.
doubt if there would be as many vio-
lations Of prohibition law, in the
County Of Greenville, S. c., in
year as there are violators of the
murder law. And there is 70 sort of
question that it would be better en-
forced-if all our policemen were to go
to sleep and sleep the sleep Of death
it would be, then, far better enforced
than the law against carrying con.
cealed weapons is now.
Now if we must not have prohibi-
tion law because some lawless persons
would violate it, by the same logic we
ought to repeal the laws against mur-
der and against pistol carrying because
they are violated almost every day in
] the year by anybody that chooses to
| do it. Will the Anti -Prohibitionists
advocate the repeal of these laws?
They dare not, and yet that is the
logic Of their position. If you oughn't
to put law on the statute book be-
cause it cannot be ideally enforced
then you ought to take off the statute
book all laws that are not likewise en-
forced. They advocate the retention
Of the law which has broken down in
its boasted moral aims, which is 7io-
lated every day in the year by any
body that sees fit to do it and which,
il addition TO that, is vicious IL moral
principle, but they oppose prohibition,
forsooth, because somebody would
violate it, although b they must admit
that it is correct in moral principle.
1t has been openly charged that the
preachers and the barkeepers are in an
alliance, led by Col. Hoyt, to defeat
the diopensary. That charge is too
absurdly false to receive moments
credence from any human being who
las the slightest lingering regard for
truth left in him. United States Sen
ator Tillman, who made that charge,
knew it to be false when he uttered it.
The charge cannot be interpreted as
anything else but a mean and con-
temptible effort to break the force Of
the almost unanimous advocacy Of
prohibition by the preachers, and serv-
ed its author as good occasion also
to throw contempt upon class Of men
for which he has in many other ways
expressed his contempt. It may be
true that some of the liquor men are
fighting the dispensary. I shall not
undertake to state what their reasons
are. I am not the keeper Of their
consciences and / am not in an alli-
ace with them. But will tell you
this much is clear: The State has
prohibited their selling liquor as in
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