The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1905-08-09
DISPENSARY STALK WITHERS BECAUSE
The ROOT IS ROTTEN.

The ROOT IS ROTTEN.
A few months ago the asplr-
|ants for gubernatorial honors
were heard from frequently, but
since the great leader has sway
ed his scepter and spoke in puz-
zline sentences, a kind of where
am.I-at silence has settled over
the political brood Of guberna-
torial chickens. 1t begins to look
| like the other fellow must break
this painful silence. Each and
every man so far announced
as a candidate for the office Of
governor, except a. c. Jones,
Of Newberry, has started out
with a dispensary feather in his
cap, but when some counties
took advantage of the Brice Act
and voted to abolish the dispen-
sary, and this too, followed by
Senator Tillman's letter: the
last one of them have taken out
their feathers, and are waiting
| for more developments. Senator
Tillman has been the leader OF
political sentiment for a number
of years, but it now begins to
look as if he scents trouble, and
is himself stepping lightly on
the question; it may be that this
is Why Ansel, Manning, Smith,
Sloan and the rest are quiet on
the great issue. Senator Till
man evidently realizes that the
people are very much digusted
with the way things have been
managed, and that unless some
thing is done to inspire conf
dence the dispensary will re-
ceive within the next twelve
months a fatal blow. In our
opinion, over half of the coun-
ties that have always been re-
earded Tillman counties will not
wait for the legislature to con
vene to make some make-shltt
amendment to delay the coming
of the reckoning day, but they
will go straight ahead and vote,
trusting that the supreme court
will not declare the Brice Act
unconstitutional. The people
who are voting the dispensary
out, are determined to get rid of
it, and the more obstacles the
politicians throw in their way
the more determined do they be-
come to tear it up root and
branch. This feeling is spread
inc. and many a former ardent
dispensaryite will now vote to
abolish the dispensary because
it is corrupt: its corrupting in
huence has permeated our entire
body polite. 1t is a common
thing to hear men say they will
vote out the dispensary. and
will frankly admit they have no
confidence in a prohibition law
being enforced, but they argue,
the State is paying men to ex-
ecute and enforce the law, and
these officers are daily violat-
ing that law, and If the
law is to be disregarded it
would not be as bad for the
disregard to come from individ-
uals. If dispensers can accept
bottles of liquor as presents, and
sell them over dispensary coun-
tiers, they are not only cheating
the State, but they are convert
inc their offices into blind tigers.
We do not know any dispenser
who has sold liquor other than
that which was furnished him
by the State, butin a recent case
in the United States court the
testimony developed the fact
that certain concerns made a
practice of putting extra bottles
in the boxes, and these were
presents to the dispenser. The
dispensary law requires tenn
perance man to be dispenser, SO
if these concerns are giving
them liquor and they drink it,
the law is violated. The same
applies to dispensers giving
liquor away-the law forbids it.
Now, if the whiskey concerns
ship extra bottles of whiskey to
the dispensers, and the dispen-
ser drinks the stuff. he violates
the law; if he gives it away, the
law is also violated, and if he
sells the whiskey he is more
culpable than the individual who
defes the law, because he con-
verts the dispensary into a
blind tiger. When such a con-
dition is shown in a court Of law
it arouses an indignation in the
breast Of good citizens whether
they favor prohibition or dispen-
sary. and the natural impulse is
to destroy the cause which pro-
duces such evil effects.
cPASYJNG AT STRAWS