The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1905-08-22

now cite authorities to sustain these
propositions"
Note. then, that the language in
which YOU define the attitude OF the
prohibitionists is exactly the Ian
guage in which the supreme court
defines the attitude Of the law on
the subject. That decision fixes the
point of view from which the state
is bound to regard the question:: and
from that point OF view the state
may take control of the traffic to
police it, but not to profit by it.
And if the view of Hugh Farley, chlv-
alrous spirit. and others who were op-
posed to the profit feature had been
adopted, the result might have been
different. | admit that it is wise. to
"hobble the devil" whom you are
powerless effectually to chain; BUT
having hobbled the devil, I protest
| that it is not right to make him yoke
fellow with the spirit of progress in
our schools and open the way for our
children to embrace him as an angel
of light.
Returning to my historical parallel,
! am not inclined to press the les
sons of the prohibition vote of 1892
unduly. After reminding me that 32,-
600 did not vote in that election, which
YOU denominate a ''side show" you
say that 'rhis is government OF
majorities." True but it is a gov
ernmen- of majorities that vote, and
not of majorities that stay away from
the polls. At that election, prohlbl-
ton received in this county more than
1000 votes, a majority Of the total
vote cast. But when they came to
fasten the dispensary upon Newberry
county that vote of more than 1000
was nullified by petition of 7o free
holders in the town of Newberry, "a
of whom were negroes.
The attitude of public sentiment to-
ards the dispensary law in this coun-
ty has assumed three distinct phases
in succession. In it's earlier stages
the law did not have a fair test. For
reasons that need not be enumerated
public sentiment was resentful, and
the law against Illicit traffic in liquor
was not enforced But violations of
the law became so scandalously open
and unrebuked that a revulsion took
place in the sentiment Of the COM
munity, and for years the law has
been enforced We have now arriv-
ed at the third phase, in which the
sentiment of the community seems to
be crystallizin in opposition to the
whole scheme, owing largely. think,
to the fact that the moral sense of
the people is offended by the con-
slant effort to justify the law by ap-
pealing to its revenue feature; but
owing also to corruption in the ad-
ministrations Of the law.
1t was not my original purpose and
I now make no attempt to refute
statistics or to argue the question
in detail. Unless the conditions Of
two states are exactly similar it is
hard to arrive at a just conclusion
by contrasting statistics of crime. But
we might quote statistics until the
people are dizzy, and still I believe
that large number of our counties
will be satisfied with nothing short
OF actual experiment after the eNap-
pie OF Marlboro, Greenwood and
Cherokee
We reach the parting OF our ways
at the concluding clause Of your let
ter I quote the paragraph:
Il will not say that your vision is
clouded by fanaticism, but if it be-
true that ''he who makes two blades
OF grass grow where only one grew
before, is a public benefactor,' then
is it not equally true that he who
conceived a scheme by which drunk
enness was reduced, temperance en-
couraged and decency and good order
increased, and withal made the de-
mon vH1iskcy contribute 10 the cd:;-