The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1905-08-23
SENATOR 7IlLMaN PREseR|BES.
TELLS HOW HE WOULD REFORM
AND SAVE DISPENSARY.
He Would Do Away With State
Board of Control and Quit Sell
ing Special Brands of Liquor.
Col. TaIbert Talks Pro-
hibitiOn.

ator Tillman, .'the daddy of the
dispensary SYSTEM outlined today
what he regards as essential to the
salvation of the dispensary and to
kill the talk of graft" His position
is very much the same as outlined
at Gaffney, except that he has gone
more fully into the details. Chair
man Landrum, of Spartanburg,
thought the county boards were
humbugs, and Senator Tillman thinks
the same of the State board. He
seems to put the blame for the pres
ent troubles Of the dispensary first
on the State board Of control, and
second on the general assembly, and
if there is to be any complaint let 1t
be made to Tillman. He said the
State board ''has been lax and alto
getter censurable," and then went on
to say: sIt is a wonder we haven't
had a worse carnival Of corruption
than seems to exist And he ex-
poets worse things to come out than
developed at Spartanburg. In brief,
Tillman's remedy is to place the pur-
chasing power in the hands of a board
consisting of the governor, attorney
general and comptroller general. He
is absolutely opposed to to the pres
ent plan Of legislative elections. Then
he wants competitive bids and copies
of the bids with bonds sent to the
board, the chief justice and the
speaker of the house. These bids are
to be opened in public during the
legislative session, and the lowest bid
der is to get the years business under
heavy bonds as to quality, purity and
coming up to sample.
No orders are to be placed outside
Of the order placed at the beginning
of the year. No case goods whatever
to be bought except on direct per-
sonal order. Only x, Xxx, xxx and
xxx liquors are to be sold under
dispensary labels, and so as to avoid
changing labels, the grade is to be
blown in the bottle, and it is to be
Theoretically sealed. He thinks this
Will prevent drummers going about
pushing their liquors because every
thing to be sold will be known as
one. two, three or four x, and no
special brands are to be sold through
the dispensary except in cases ana
on order. He would abolish beer
dispensaries. He would have the
county board composed of the
mayors Of cities, the county supervis-
or and one appointive officer. Sena-
tor Tillman thinks most of the trou-
BILE to the dispensary has come from
the legislature electing its own mem
bers to Office, and he wants a clean
ing out and fresh start made, but
with officers elected by the people.
Senator Tillman came here today
to make an important dispensary
speech, but when he was finally call.
on, the audience had heard six or
seven hours of speaking, and he, and
everyone else was tired and worn
out, and he told the campaigners that
the next time he wanted to make
speech he would have a meeting Of
different sort.
The Farmers Union, under whose
auspices the meeting was held to-
day, were anxious not to have the
dispensary situation brought into this
meeting, that it was adjourned sew
eral tines, and President Glen and
others explained and kept on explain
ing that the dispensary-prohibit;cn
speaking was not under its auspices,
and that it had nothing to do with
that part Of the program. It was
really funny how the Farmers Union
trieo 20 dodge the liquor issue, and
although the liquor talk was side
tracked until near 5 O'Clock, some Of
the people got hopping mad because
Mr.. Sherman, who seems to be a sort
of organizer from out West, was not
given a chance to talk until after
r,:lmar LAD had his long delayed III
ling, and some went off in one cur-
ner 10 hear Organizer Sherman
There is a decidedly strong move
ment in Anderson to vote the dispen-
sary out. Some of the ardent friends
of the dispensary thought Senator
Tillman could do great deal of good
at this time to save the dispensary.
What effect his speech today Will
have. remains to be seen, but the fact
is that he made a strong argument