The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1905-06-28
PROHIBITIONISTS
ISSUE ADDRESS.
Dispensary System is Sc
verely Arraigned.
STRONG APPEAL MADE
The Necessity for Determined Effort TO
Remove Entire Liquor Business
is Felt.

4
The prevailing condition brought
about by the sale of Intoxicating Ii
quors through the State agencies and
otherwise is such as to demand the
attention of even the most thoughtless,
and we have endured the evils arising
out of the liquor traffic until we feel
the necessity for determined effort to
remove the entire liquor business. We
therefore appeal to all good citizens of
the State to join us upon the following
grounds:
The sale of liquors for beverage pur-
poses is not a function of government.
The State cannot enter into any COM
peting business with her citizens. The
State has no better right to engage in
the sale of liquors for profit than she
has to engage in cock fighting, in horse
racing, in gambling, or in setting up
dens of infamy.
The evils arising out of the liquor
business of the State are literally hor-
rible. 1t is generally admitted that
three-fourths of all crimes committed
by our people are directly due to the
drinking of liquor. The homicides have
increased in the State since the enact
ment of the dispensary more than 100
per cent. while crimes of all kinds
have kept pace in proportion.
The dispensary system has increased
its sales of Intoxicating liquors enor-
mously every year, and last year it
consumed So, 500, 600 the equal of l00,-
600 bales of cotton-of the common
stock Of the State, and put back in its
stead mere pittance in education,
while it poured into the State millions
upon millions of its own evil products.
The men employed to conduct the
liquor business of the State must neces-
sarily be of low moral conceptions. Be
fore man can get his own consent to
serve in the business he must put the
money he is to receive for such service
into one side of the scales and into the
other he must put the sorrow and
shame, the poverty and crime, disease
and death he is to be Instrumental in
bringing into The homes of the people.
If with him the money outweighs and
he strikes the bargain, it is because of
his moral obliquity Hence the dispen-
sary can be conducted only by the
weaker members Of the human race,
and is open to all kinds of crime as is
evidenced by the large number of dis
pensers who have come short in their
accounts, and the general charges of
corruption from top to bottom, which
have become the common talk of the
whole State.
The interest and excitement mani
/ tested when it comes to the election of
a member of the liquor board by the
legislature indicates that the free dis
tribution of samples has had the us
ual effect and it is commonly accepted
as true that members of the liquor
board weld more influence in lcgisla-
tive matters than any like number of
members of the legislature. This, in all
probability, accounts for the fact that
enough South Carolinians were found i'm
the legislature to vote the passage of
law which allows the establishment of
dispensarY by the vote of bare ma
Jority of those in favor of liquor selling,
while it demanded, in addition to ma
Jority vote of sober, God fearing men.
tax of thousands of dollars laid upon
themselves to get rid of dispensary
| The constant violations of The dispen-
sary law by those whose duty it is to
enforce the law is rapidly CARRYING our
people into utter disregard of all law.
The restrictive features of the dispcn-