The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1905-08-30

Saratoga, ana only Oit1eo Will SOAA
Wanamaker SO as to talk over a few
s,nsiness matters. Explanations are
In order. and it is about time Mr..
Wanamaker was coming to the front.
A Peanut Club has been organized
IN Ohio, the membership, we infel I.
being limited to Ohio peanut polite
fans.
is the South Carolina dispensary a
good thing? Well, ask those in
charge!
Senator r. I. Manning's statement
Aof his views on the liquor question
and defining his attitude in relation
Go the dispensary and prohibition, is
clear cut and unequivocaL He leaves
ro doubt as to where he stands on
fhe issue now most prominent in the
state
IF one liquor house was anxious 10
pay $780, 200 year for 100000 worth
OF dispensary business, how much IS
ft probable that other houses have
oeen paying for the two to three mil
sions that has been placed annually
I'm the past several years? And where
mas all this money gone? for it is not
conceivable that all this rich graft
has been permitted to escape.
Messrs. Gastcn and Spiveys's sub
committee has unearthed sensa-
donal chapter Of ancient dispensary
history, but what the public wants is
8 history of our own times. covering,
say the past three years.
It begins to look like President
Roosevelt is being used as the cats
paw of the European powers to pull
Russia's roasted chestnuts out Of the
japanese FIRE.
The anti-dispensary plan Of cam
soajgn seems to be based on the idea
OF plenty of liquor for Charleston and
columbia and an alcoholic famine in
fhe rural districts. A pretty scheme,
put it won't work, for South Carolina
people are not anxious to duplicate in
khis State the jug trade Of Georgia.
The Florence Times is having the
experience common to all news
papers. The public is made up Of
two classes those who demand that
q newspaper shall be the stern and
s1nrelenting censor Of public morals
and those who expect it to be the
mantle Of charity that covers multi
tude of sins when the sins are COM
u1itted by those who seek to preserve
q semblanee of respecta5ility. out
wardiy. The first class claim to ex-
pect Of newspaper the performance
of duty that they shirk themselves,
while the second demand that a
newspaper aid in bolstering up a rep
utaticn for respectability that they do
not possess.
If Sumter has baseball next season
the thing to do is to organize a local
association to finance the team at the
outset
The excessive rains throughout the
South have tendency to still further
reduce the cotton crop, and the mills
will be glad to pay IL cents before the
next crop is made.
The visit Of the Dispensary 1nyes-
tigation Committee to this city next
week will afford Sumter people an
opportunity to get close view Of the
system Of graft in its devious wind
angs.
1T is to the credit of Sumter and not
70 the system that the investigation
OF the dispensary has revealed moth
ing particularly wrong in the admins
tration Of the dispensary in this coun-
t.. So far as we have been Informed
there has never been barter and sale
OF positions in the local dispensary
and the business has been honestly
administered. It is true that the law
has been disregarded as far as the re-
quest book provision goes, but there
has been no stealing and no corrup-
ton. It may be due to this that the sys-
fem has won friends instead Of losing
<Lo,o in t,ic communitv since its eS-