Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1904-01-12
WHAT TO DO WITH IT.?

WHAT TO DO WITH IT?
If the Yorkville dispensary Is not
soon only a horrible remembrance, 1t
will certainly be through no fault OF
majority of the qualified voters, their
mothers, wives and sisters, or Of their
hundreds Of deep sympathizers and CO.
workers in the country surrounding.
This fact was clearly developed at
meeting of the town council last night.
The meeting was held for the pur-
pose Of considering a petition Of citi-
zens asking for an election in which
the qualified voters Of the town might
again give expression to their judg-
ment on this important subject, this
| time in the light Of more than years
experience. The petition contained the
names of 12O qualified voters, each Of
whom pledged himself to vote against
the dispensary If afforded another op-
portunity. Among the signers were
many who had previously voted for the
establishment Of the dispensary, and
all of them were agreed as to the bale
full effects Of this institution.
Senator ]. S. Brice, accompanied. by
Thomas F. Mellow, Esq, appeared In
behalf Of the petition and both made
speeches in its favor, and against the
| dispensary. Senator Brices remarks
which consumed nearly half hour In
their delivery, were unusually forceful.
The senator began by explaining
! that he had come before the counsel
as the representative Of the petition
ers, and what he had to say was not
only in their behalf but on his own re-
sponsibility, for he was most heartily
in favor Of the proposition looking to
the removal of this terribly blighting
institution from the town and county.
He said that there is no doubt Of the
fact that the dispensary has been Of
incalculable harm to the state. NOR
ally, politically and otherwise.
Reviewing the early history Of the
| dispensary as a state institution, he
referred to the claims of Ben Tillman
in the early nineties to the effect that
the whisky profits would eventually
pay all the state and county taxes. At
that time the taxable values Of the
state were s160,O00,O00. Now they are
5000, 100000 but Notwithstanding this
material increase the tax levy remains
the same. He very well understood
that as the people had increased In
wealth they had increased In extrav-
agance; but he desired to emphasize
the fact that the dispensary had In no
sense lightened any Of the burdens Of
taxation, and even in this particular
Is entitled to no credit.
Incidentally he took occasion to re-
fer to the fact that although the coun-
ty of York and the town Of Yorkville
had each gotten $4,000 from the dis
pensary last year, there had been no
reduction Of taxes in the case Of eth
er. On the contrary, the trustees OF
the Yorkville Graded school had tried
to get an extra mill levy for next
year, and it was only by the most earn
est pleading that they had been able to
persuade the county board Of COM
mlssioners not to add another mill to
the county levy.
His personal observation Of the op-
Grafton of the dispensary in Yorkville
was to the effect that many citizens
who had formerly been addicted to the
liquor habit, but who had broken away
from it, had resumed the consumption
of liquor again. Numerous young men
are acquiring the liquor habit, without
apparently realizing their danger, and
drunkenness Is becoming more common
and prevalent than he had ever known
it before. The very "respectability'
which has been thrown about the local
dispensary by putting decent man In
charge of it, and responsible represent
tative citizens on the board Of control,
has added to its danger.
Many leading farmers in different
parts of the county have told Senator
Brice, he said, that they no longer dare
send their negroes to Yorkville alone.
There Is too much danger Of the ne
groes getting in trouble, and the en-
DlOyGTS lel lIlc llCSlOCo 6o oIhJ "hSH
they can go along and take care of
them. This situation extends to all
parts of the county, and Is growing
worse rather than better.
But this is not the worst of it," the
senator asserted. Take the murder
statistics of the state as compiled by
the attorney general. In North Car
olna with one hundred thousand more
population than we have, the number
of murders last year was 115, and In
this state the number was 222. This
does not include the murderers who
escaped, and Of these there are pro-
badly an additional hundred. There
were two in York county last year.
one Of them right in the town Of
Yorkville. North Carolina has learned
To consider the negro as q child and |