Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1905-06-16

ceptionally an upright man, and would
be the last to advocate system for the
sale of liquors which, all things con-
sidered, he did not believe was as good
as, or the best possible.
For all recognize the extreme difficulty
of the problem, and that it is impossible
to adopt any laws that will be wholly
satisfactory. This much is certain in
regard to the present law in South
Carolina that it is conducted on sound
business principles, the dispensaries be-
ing closed each day at Z p. m. and be-
ing entirely free from loafing, treating
or gambling, always to greater or less
extent connected with saloons. Nor do
we think that the average taxpayer of
South Carolina will want to give the
very large profits now accruing to the
state and which was informed by the
management at the dispensary amounted
last year to 81 300, 900 to comparatively
few individuals; knowing as they do
that instead Of there being less liquor
sold there would be much more and of a
poorer quality
SOUTH CAROLINA's LIQUOR BUSINESS.
A movement that may result in a bit
ter political contest between the Tillman
Democracy and the anti-saloon elements
at South Carolina was begun Tuesday
at Greenville, where ex-senator John
Lowndes McLaurin, in the course of an
address on the cotton situation, digressed
from his main topic to condemn the State
Liquor Dispensary law after this fashion.
South Carolina is all right. She does
get cranky sometimes, and must have
her little political revolution every ten
years. She is all right il she does under
malign influences try cranky experiments
in the liquor business.
The Palmetto that swept proudly to
victory with Jackson at Bull Run, that
lived through the blood and fire of
Gettysburg, and beneath whose tattered,
shot torn folds brave men wept with Lee
at AppomattOx, was not always the sign
of the rumseller and the insignia of a
proud States co-partnership with the
devil in traffic that is sending the souls
of men to hell, and with its corrupting
influence tainting the very fountains of
| good government. 1t will not be for
long, for if those up-country counties are
the test of enlightened sentiment and an
awakened public conscience, soon there
will be erected a great tombstone with
this beautiful and touching sentiment:
Here lies the mortal remains of the great
moral institution. Killed by Landslide.
Born corrupted, lived lamented died de-
jected. Requiescat in pace
Mr.. McLaurin, whose last DAYS in the
| 10 4 III
cal encounter with Senator Tillman on
the floor of the chamber, has been taking
the political pulse of the interior coun-
ties. The audience which listened to his
address was composed largely of noun
, taineers, and his denunciation of the
liquor traffic carried on by the State re-
ceived the cordial approval of his audi
tors. Following the meeting at which
it was delivered mass meeting was
called, to be held next week, at which
plans for a comprehensive campaign
against this institution founded by Mr..
Tillman will be laid out.
The first struggle will be in Greenville,
but it is expected that, under Mr.. Nc
Laurin's guidance, the whole State will
be aroused and that within a year the
demand for the withdrawal of the Com
monwealth from the whiskey trade will
be the leading political issue. Senator
Tillman will defend the dispensary sys-
tenn, and the great machine which it has
created will fight for it vigorously. OF
the dispensary's defenders the Grenville
News says:
The movement will be opposed by two
or three factions. 1t will be fought by
that element which thinks more of
revenue than of morality, and it will be
| hu hn Of lDa
opinion that prohibition will not pro-
hibt. Possibly it will not, but by free
ing ourselves Of the monopoly we will
put liquor beyond the reach of the poorer
classes who are supporting the system
The enlightened sentiment however
is against it. and this battle will be won
Let us rise then in our might and
smite the enemy. Let us vindicate the
name of the proud old State which has
been defiled, and let us free ourselves OF
the faugs which have been driven into
our bodies and souls by those bowling
political fanatics and their damnablt
law
Senator Tillman counts the estab
lishment of State liquor stores as the
most important achievement of his adj
ministration as Governor after the ser
vices he rendered in behalf of education
L spite OF the admitted shortcomings Of
the system in practical operation, he anC
his adherents maintain that it come:
nearer to solving the liquor problem thar
any other plan that has been tried. TIL,
liquor monopoly is profitable to the
State, fact of weight with many tax
payers. Mr.. Tillman is in complete con