The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1905-08-02
Attracted Towards the Center.

3bS ''S 10 tnS NlSSOIIlilth
Messenger.
1.-TWO well known gentlemen, citizens
of Mccormick, went to the depot at
Greenwood about 3 O'Clock Tuesday
night to take the early train to Nc
Cormick. They had travelled before,
and thought it unnecessary to ask
about trains, but took seats in a coach
and waited patiently for the train to
start. After some time they told the
conductor that they We're going to Nc
Cormick, and were informed that the
train for Mccormick had just pulled
out and that they were aboard the train
going to Laurens. We can't repeat
their remarks, and as Greenwood is a
we are at loss to account for their fail
ure to distinguish between a passenger
train going north and a freight going
south"
Nothing remarkable about this Incl
dent. Most "well known gentlemen"
of Greenville, Anderson, Greenwood,
Columbia, New York, Charleston,
Cokesburry and elsewhere constantly
feel themselves being drawn towards
Laurens. Many of them being fettered
by business and family ties resist the
feeling and do not come to Laurens.
The tendency to come to Laurens is
none the less general and the time will
come when good people will cease to
oppose it. The simple and now universal
ly accepted explanation is that Laurens
attracts because Laurens is the centerof
attraction. Some day we look for a
landslide when G~reenville, Spartanburg,
Greenwood and Newberry will slide to
Laurens.
But we 10 not wish to have Green
vile until the Speegle investigation is
over.
What became of the 1.-TWO we'll
known" gentlemen the Messenger does
not state but if they reached Laurens
they are doubtless still here. No wise
man ever returns to Mccormick. That
is, from Laurens. The term "well
known" as applied to Mccormick men
we take, politely, with a grain or two
of salt.
If it were not that they would be
forced to pass through Greenwood, the
whole population of Mccormick would
have settled here long ago.
Of course Greenwood is a nice village.
Once upon a time, in a moment of tenn
porary alteration, a young Laurens
man moved to Greenwood. The Green
wood people seized him and elected him
mayor within a quarter of an hour af-
ter his arrival. This was a great bless
ing to Greenwood and accounts for her
rapid growth in recent years.
Lowers Citizenship.
THE ADVERTISER has received the
following:
Mr.. EDIToR:-I have heard many
reasons advanced as to why the dispen-
sary should be voted out; some say the
State should not enter into competition
with a citizen, some that it is a monop-
oily worse than the worst kind of a
trust, and some that it is corrupt in it's
management and makes the State a
party to its crimes, etc., etc.
Now Mr.. Editor, my greatest objec-
ton to the dispensary is that it has a
tendency to lower the ideals of our cit
izenship. There are methods employed
by those connected with it which are
not in accord with high standards of
integrity even if they are not an open
breach of the law and the officials who
are guilty nave friends who struggle
with themselves to hold them guiltiess
and who talk their innocence and ex-
cuse their wrong doing until they fin
ally become convinced in themselves
that it is all right.
We practised a necessity more than
30 years ago, Mr.. Editor, and our
Courts are suffering from it today. To
twink" at al evil is dangerous.
OBSERVER.
Little need be added to what is so
well and truly said in this letter. Here
is an illustration. Since the dispensary
law went into effect hundreds of sub
dispensers nave been 'short", that is,
they have defaulted. A few weeks ago
it was stated that a dispenser in an
other part of the State was found
short and he promptly paid the money.
No more was said about it. Why was
he allowed to save himself from prose-
c%ution, if there was evidence of his
guilt by paying the money?
If John Doe steals a bale of cotton
from Richard Roe and Roe accepts
fifty dollars from Doe and agrees not
W prosecute IilnJ ISOc 10 liiIScl BullUy |
of the crime of compromising a felony.
That is the law. Yet we have had the
State of South Carolina itself through
its officials compromising felonies with
scores of such sub-dispensers as have
committed breach of trust. If the
State itself becomes a party to crime,
if the State itself thus openly and with
out shame fosters dishonesty by holding
out to the criminal that he may escape
punishment by paying aprice in money,
what may we expect of the individual
citizen?
SO our people have come to care moth
ing about these things. Time was when
a country officials defalcation was a
sensation but now it causes scarcely a
ripple.
For about 16 years following 1876 dis
honest public officials were rare in
South Carolina. That is not the case
now. The larcencies, especially among
the whiskey employees, are so common
that only the close readers of newspa-