The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1902-04-30
THEDISPENSARY OCTOPUS.
Not Moral Institution and snot a Tax Re
ducer.
-. = ........,
.ducer.
'l.s 49, RI

-=.===...=.-.-=.-..==... -s.. M
tnres Of the law ara not being stress.
ed, but on the contrary they are being
lost sight Of. But five have lost
sight Of God and the question Of right
and wrong; If we will only view che
question from o standpoint Of busi-
ness and dollars and cents, let us view
the question from that position. Is
ths aispenssry good thing, viewed
frola q business standpoint Has it
decreased taxes2 Our people have
heard great deal Of late about econ
orny and the reductio Of taxes. What
does the record show? In the last ten
years manufacturing enterprises have
increased at a wonderful ratio in this
State; values have increased epor-
mously, fiifteen million last year, if
the writer is NOT mistakenly. Year by
year :Lis Las been going on, AMI the
increase in the value of real and per-
sonal property returned for taxation
has been tremendous. What about
taxes? How about the decrease in
mills? There has been none. We are
paying as many, if not more, mills now
than we have ever paid. The dispen-
sary has not reduced taxes single
dollar.
But suppose there had been d.
rect reduction in property taxation,
what would be the practical effeot?
Suppose we pay less school taxes, are
we practically benefited? The propo-
sition Of the dispensary people, view
ed from a business standpoint, when
we boil it down is about this: II We
will go 60 the dispensary and invest a
dollar in whiskey they will give US
back about the sixteenth Of one cent
to help educate our children. If we
pull dollar .out Of our right hand
pocket and give it to them they will
put the sixteenth Of ono cent in the
other pocket. They say to US buy a
dollars worth Of whiskey, drink it,
become drunkard, go to the devil
and we will give you the sixteenth Of
cent to help educate the children Of
a drunken father. How is that for q
business proposition2 Or, to put it
in another form, they say, invest q
dollar with us and we will give you
back the sixteenth Of cent to edu-
cate your boy, and then while we
are educating him, or after we get him
educated, we will sell him whiskey
and make him drunkard and spoil
the effect Of the education we have
given them. God save our people
from such business as well as from
such-morsls., Cannot our people see
that the dollar comes out of them and
that they get back the sixteenth Of 9
cent.
Ore 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 eduoa-
cation with drunkenness and then
when they commit crime in conse-
quence Of that drunkenness they are
tried in her Courts for the crime
which she assisted them to commit
and they are punished and sent to the
gallowasor the penitentiary. May God
save US from our guardian and prote ec-
tori
The State Of Louisiana had the same
fght several years ago that South
Carolina will have for the next twenty
years. The great Louisiana State lot
terry, that stencil in the nostrils Of all
good people, became fastened upon
that State. It's popularity waa. in a
large measure, due to the fact that ey-
cry yearsit contributed thousands to
the free school fund. For years the
people Of that. State were blind to any
other argument except that Of dollars
and cents. Her youn, people were
reduced and debapched by the gam
|}blins evil and Generalization, general
degradation was the result. Il took a
war waged for years to overthrow the
monster evil, but at Last it was done.
let a note of warning be sounded to
the Christian people Of South Caro-
lima. The dispensary has its fangs
deep into the State and they are being
put in deeper and deeper, year by year.
Two.thirds of the church members
can rise up and throw, of the evil.
Will they do il?
G. G. Featherstone.