Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1903-09-23
99sSs2 sS. s:s ssi;ss1 :F
I>@W. G. t. US
AsixXAs&sXsS 1SxsxsiSA%S &NaSN1S,
Liquor Business as Prosecuted In this State.


l desire to give expression to some
thoughts on this question which in
my judgment is the most serious
problem that is waiting solution by
the people of South Carolina. l
want to say in the outset that | at
first was a strong friend of the dis
pensary system and voted for it, be-
cause l honestly believed that it
would destroy the open saloons, and
would go long way to minimize the
use of intoxicating liquors. The
law was framed ostensibly for that
purpose, and the system established
with this claim, and the law as first
enacted, if strictly adhered to and
enforced, would have accomplished
this result.
At first the dispensaIies were sup
piled with high grade of liquor at
a high price. This was wise and
should have been continued as a
permanent policy. But this policy
was found to be unpopular with a
large class of liquor drinkers who
had been accustomed to cheap. whis-
key, and in order to mollify this
class and % keep them in line in the
primaries the cheap "Fuss x" stuff,
or in other words, the very lowest,
poorest class of liquor, was supplied.
We don't need to go far to ascertain
the motive for this.
Every thinking man of practical
common sense knows that if the
policy of high grade liquor at high
price had been the policy and ad-
hered to, the use of intoxicating
liquor among the poorer classes of
our people would have been de-
creased fifty per cent. But time has
proved that small sales was not the
object or purpose of the astute poll
ticians who foisted this system upon
the people of the State. So far as
the people are concerned, it was a
leap in the dark, and was rash ex-
pertinent by politicians who were
woefully lacking in the elements of
true craftsmanship. We hear it
said on all sides that this system is
better than the barrooms. In some
respects that is true, but in some
others it is not true. Is it not hu-
initiating position and disgraceful
spectacle to the view of enlightened
Christian men and women the world
over, that the people of the proud
old Palmetto State, with her glorious
history of the past, should go bodily
into the business and deal out to her
citizens this beverage of hell for the
sake of the revenue, thus placing
money above the manhood and wo-
manhood of the State? | hear it
said by the advocates of this system,
that the State had as we'll sell it as
to farm out the privilege to private
individuals to sell it. This is a
specious argument, and is based
upon false premise. The State did
no such thing, but under lie local
option law that existed prior to the
institution of the dispensary system,
the incorporated towns and cities G!
the State were allowed to issue
licenses to retail liquor if it was the
expressed will of their citizens to dc
80. My recollection of the law is
that one hundred dollars of every
license fee was to 60 to the counties,
but nothing to the State. Many OF
us contended that one-half should &c
to the counties, then the towns would
not have been so ready to grant the
licenses. With this provision il
would have been the best liquor law
that the State has ever had.
Now, what are the good features
of the dispensary system q don't
mean the law, but as the business il
operated) The liquor is sold il
pockages of not less than half pintt
and is not sold after sunset nor be
fore sunrise and is not drum IN the
premises. All the other good pro
visions of the law are ignored anG
don't count in the reckoning. Wha
are the bad features of the system
In the first place, it is a huge, cum
bersome, expensive business, which
costs an enormous amount o
money to run it. In othe1
words, the profits are exceed
ingly small in proportion to the ex
penditures, when we consider th'
vast amount Of liquor sold, and espe
cially when we consider the higl
price and low quality of the goods
Tho State Conn miaainnar tho Stat,