Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1904-07-27
Theory, Practice and Prohibition.

may be misled by its teaching, l
wish to tax their patience with a
few remarks in reply on the subject
at the head of this article.
l propose to discuss the subject,
not from the standpoint of either the
moralist, politician or religionist,
alone, but as strong supporter of
the principles of Democracy, because
its principles are my principles also
4 as loyal citizen of South Carolina,
because her welfare is my welfare.
In order to do this justly, / must
see the question from all three stand :
points, viz: that of the moralisy,
politician and religionist.
Having established my position,
the question remains, how am | 60
ing to discuss the subject? There is
only one way to meet the issue
squarely, and that is to put before
ourselves the query, is the liquor
traffic right or wrong? To answer
that fairly, we cannot dodge behind
"high license" ",ispensary" nor
any other so-called "solution,'' for
there is no halfway ground between
right and wrong. The writer of the
first article stated that he is a minis
ter. 1t seems strange that believer
in Christianity should advocate any
compromise whatever with the
devil or his agencies, but when it
comes to not only a believer, but also
minister, encouraging such by his
writing, l am amazed.
He says, "The dispensary law of
South Carolina is The very best solu-
tion of the whiskey problem" :"
Granted that the whiskey question is
a "problem for solution," instead of
the dispensary law being the solu-
ton, it merely confuses the statement
of tho question until many of our
good citizens do not know where
they stand. But if we only stop to
think moment, we can readily see
that it is not one for solution; it is
)ne for decision and has two answers,
"right or "wrong." Which shall we
make it? If it is right to deal in
whiskey at all, why need we bother
about whether it shall be by high
license or dispensary ; either is good
enough. On the other hand, if it is
wrong, which it is, then nothing
short of prohibition will do.
The writer of that article gave
several instances that ought ordi-
narily to be enough to convince one.
But they were only general state
ments of local conditions which he
failed to support by State statistics.
He has evidently not kept up with
the course of events in North Caro-
lima, one of his strongest examples,
for the vigorous manner in which
the question is being handled by the
various counties in the State shows
that even in North Carolina there is
such q thing as having prohibition
law and enforcing it, the most
recent example being the city of
Charlotte. There, for number of
years, they had the "open door, 8
O'Clock, high license bar room," but
OH July 5th an election was held for
"high license" "dispensary," or
"prohibition," and the majority with
which "prohibition' was carried
shows what the people of Charlotte
believe. Out of 1000 votes polled it
had majority of 473.
So far as regulating the sale of
whiskey is concerned, the dispensary
and high license are on an equal foot
ing-both are failures, for blind
tigers certainly exist under both and
1T IS a known fact that few questions
are asked as to ones age or previous
record as drunkard, if the money
Is laid on the counter when the
liquor is called for. The greatest
difference is, as l heard man say
recently, "With high license, one can
buy a drink, but the dspensary
forces him to buy a drunk" The
theory of the dispensary may be
good, but the practice is abominable.
If we had prohibition then there
would be no saloon to stand open on
circus day, nor yet dispensary for
the Governor to have to bother about
closing, neither saloon for crowds
to gather around on Sunday. Some
one says that blind tigers would run
loose in the land if we had prohibi-
ton. Well, they do it anyway, so
let us have the spirit of the law right
and then enforce it.
There is one thing sure, we cannot
enforce prohibition if we do not have
such a law. We will never get cake
if we ask for pie.
Prohibition, all right in theory,
but not in practice; so we must take
substitute in the form of the dis
pensary. According to that then
we might as well repeal our laws
against all kinds of crime, for crime
is continuing in all parts of our land.
But our better judgment tells us that
the spirit of the laws is right and no
substitute will do. Again the theory
OF religion is 30 strict that few men
are able to reach even near unto it
and thousands do not even try to
practice it. Shall we make some
compromise so that all will come in :?
No, the theory will stand and men
must practice it or suffer the punish
inent. Since we have tried both the
dispensary and high license and
found them insufficient, let us try
the theory of prohibition law and
see what the practice will be.
Can it be enforced? A great
many of us think that we could not
do without our Sunday newspaper
or Sunday train. Yet am told
that in London they have neither.
What London can do we can do.
: We can go further. If she can
stop her Sunday train and news
paper, then we can stop the
liquor traffic totally.
At one time the people of this
country thought that the slave trade