Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-11-13
THE GREAT WHISKY STATE.
Poor South Caroiina's UnenviabIe No.
toriety.

|
lima by this time had not the dispen-
sary law been enacted. That was per-
haps the single expedient by which
the life of the business could have
been perpetuated in this state. The
history Of neighboring southern states
for the last ten years proves it.
Texas and Misr.ssippi are practically
prohibition states. Only in a few
counties is the whisky trade permitted.
The same Is true Of Tennessee. Fifty
counties are dry" in Alabama Thirty
Of the forty counties In Florida prohi-
bit the sale of intoxicants. Fifty Ar
kansas counties are dry" OF 137
counties in Georgia probably not more
than ten or a dozen have barrooms.
More than a hundred have absolute
prohibition. In North Carolina sixty
of the ninety-seven counties have pro-
hibition. In both North Carolina and
Georgia some counties have local dis
pensaries similar to ours. except that
each is an independent county concern
and there are no state dispensaries.
In these states the people vote as be-
tween dispensaries. barrooms and pro-
hibition. The latter prevails in nearly
all the counties.
In other words, 1t Is the simple fact
that within the last ten or fifteer yeerS
almost the whole south has voted itself
| dry" In the larger towns and cities,
like Augusta, Atlanta, Birmingham,
Savannah and Jacksonville. the bar
rooms are retained, but whisky has
been driven almost entirely from the
smaller towns and the rural districts.
The prohibition sentiment has grown
rapidly, and what is more to the point,
the laws are enforced. One may go to
dry" towns Of North Carolina, for ex-
ample, as we did this summer, and new
er hear of blind tiger" The New
York Sun points out that In the south.
following the elimination Of the Negro
vote by suffrage qualifications, prohi-
bition has been generally adopted as
the law.
In South Carolina the dispensary
was accepted by the Prohibitionists in
the legislature Of 1892 as a compro-
mise measure-as a "step toward pro-
hibition." After the people had voted
for prohibition their representatives
gave them a state whisky selling sys-
tenn Of saloons.
What are the results?
In the first place, we have the legal
ICED sale Of whisky more generally es-
tablished in South Carolina than in
any other southern state. North Care
lima has thirty-seven whisky selling
counties (many Of these having local
dispensaries) out Of ninety-seven coun-
ties, South Carolina has about thirty
nine whisky selling counties out OF
forty lone.
South Carolina has about two dry
counties. Georgia has over one hun
dred.
How is that for "step towards pro-
hibition%
The city of Charleston has about
fifteen legal places for the sale Of whis-
ky and beer and the illegal places
number in the hundreds. Is Angus
ia, Ca. or Atlanta, Ca, in any worse
condition. with open barrooms? In the
city Of Columbia there are five or six
or more legal beer and whisky places
and tigers" are plentiful. In short,
there has been no improvement In
South Carolina in the large towns as
compared with the large towns Of other
southern states. Nothing has been
gained for temperance by the dispen-
sary system in them. In the small
towns in South Carolina we have the
dispensary. as against prohibition
throughout the south.
The dispensary has probably made
South Carolina the leader Of southern
states in the consumption Of whisky.
That is the distinction that our state
has won and Is maintaining.
In the second place, the dispensary
has firmly engrafted the whisky busi-
ness on the state. 1t has scared and
blunted and cauterized the sentiment
for prohibition. It would be almost
Impossible for South Carolina to adopt
prohibition now, by counties or as
whole. The dispensary Is paying. 1t
is paying Laurens county and town.
about $4,000 or more each year. Ten
years ago Laurens town was unanl-
nous against the dispensary. 1t was
necessary to create Negro land owners
| by gift in order to vote dispensary on
the town. Now, however, 1t is proba-
BILE that the people would vote for the
dispensary rather than prohibition.
The dispensary pays. The people who
drink dispensary whisky are paying
our taxes. The pocket nerve has been
touched not only in Laurens but
throughout the state. The outlook Is
that South Carolina will hold her place
as the great whisky state Of the south,
because she is making money out Of
the business.
Twenty years ago prohibition was
not practicable In this town. Condi-
tions were not settled. Law and order
had not assumed their sway and the
decentralization following the war and
reconstruction still fingered. All that
has changed. Prohibition would be
practicable here now, just as 1t is in
hundreds Of towns from North Caro-
lima to California.
Ten years ago the prohibition wave
began to sweep over the south. Pro-
hibition captured the south. It was
checked in South Carolina-"checked
by a COMPROMISE" Its own friends