Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1902-04-26


lars and cents, let us view the question
from that position. Is the dispensary
a good thing, viewed from a business
standpoint? Has it decreased taxes?
Our people have heard a great deal of
late about economy and the reduction
of taxes. What does the record show?
In the last ten years manufacturing
enterprises have increased at a won
derful ratio in ,this state; values have
increased enormously, (fifteen million
last year, If the writer is not mistak-
en- Year by year has this been going
on, and the increase in the value of
real and personal property returned for
taxation has Deen tremendous. What
about taxes? How about the decrease
in mills? There has been none. We
are paying as many, II not more, mills
now than we have ever paid. The
dispensary has not reduced taxes a
single dollar.
But suppose there had been direct
reduction in property taxation, what
would be the practical effect? Suppose
we pay less school taxes, are we prac-
tically benefited? The proposition of
the dispensary people, viewed from u
business standpoint, when we boil 1t
down is about this: If we will go to
the dispensary and invest a dollar In
whisky they will give us back about
the sixteenth of one cent to help cdu-.
cate our children. If we will pull 4
dollar out of our right hand pocket
and give 1t to them they will put TIE
sixteenth of a cent in the other pocket.
They say to us buy a dollars worth OF
whisky, drink it, become a drunkard,
go to the devil and we will give you
the sixteenth Of a cent to help educate
the children of a drunken father. How
is that for a business proposition?
Or, to put it in another form, they say
invest a dollar with US and we will
give you back sixteenth Of a cent to
help educate your boy, and then while
we are educating him, or rather after
we get him educated, we will sell him
whisky, make him a drunkard and
spoil the effect of the education we
have given him. God save our people
from such business as we'll as from
such morals (?). Cannot our people
see that the dollar comes out Of them
and that they get back the sixteenth
of cent?
One more inconsistency. The great
state of South Carolina, the natural
guardian and protector Of her chill
dren, helps to educate them with blood
money, ,spoils the effect Of the educa-
ton with drunkenness, and then when
they commit crime in consequence OF
that drunkenness, they are tried in her
courts for the crime which she assisted
them to commit and they are punish
ed and sent to the gallows or the pen
itentiary. May God save us from our
guardian and protector!
The state Of Louisiana had the same
fight several years ago that South
Carolina will have for the next 20
years. The great Louisiana State lot
good people, became fastened upon
that state. Its popularity was, In a
large measure, due to the fact that
every year it contributed thousands to
the free schools fund. For years the
people of that state were blind to any
other argument except that Of dollars
and cents. Her young people were re-
duced and debauched by the gambling
evil and demoralization, general de-
moralization, was the result. It took
war waged for years to overthrow
the monster evil; but at last 1t was
done. Let note Of warning be sound
ed to the Christian people of South
Carolina. The dispensary has its
fangs deep into our state and they are
being put in deeper and deeper, year by
year. Two-thirds Of the church men,
bers can rise up and throw off the evil.
Will they do It?