The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1905-11-29
THE TROUBLES OF TILLMAN.
A Close Pciitica! Observer Thinks the
Dispcns;;ry Wiii BE His I'oiiti-
cal Ruin.

"Savoyard'' writes in The Washing
:on Post as follows:
When the Chicago convention Of
1850 concluded its labors Robert
Toonbs in the United States senate.
a:!uding to William H Seward. ti:en
g. senator from New York, said: &c
taeon has been torn by his own dogs
Something like that is likely 10 hap
pen to the Hon. Ben. Tillman down in
South Carolina The liquor question
is threatening to disturb the security
of the knight of the pitchfork, and
he may have to fight for his seat in
the Senate when the tine comes to
choose his successor. 'Licker'' in
politics is nearly as much of a dis
turbing element as ticker in a mar s
stomach. 1t gave Ohio to the Demo-
Gratis in 1888. 1t made Wisconsin
Democratic in 1890. If elected
Horace Boies governor Of Iowa, the
first Democrat to secure that honor in
more than a third Of a century, It
was liquor in politics that made it
possible to defeat James G. Blaine for
president in 1884, for if st. John had
not been a candidate there is moth
ing more certain than that Blaine
would have carried New York.
Tillman is the man who mixed liq-
uor and politics in South Carolina. He
turned the State into rum seller and
gave it a monopoly Of the traffic.
Himself a teetotaller, he had discern
ment enough to see that all the pro-
hibition legislation in the world would
not eradicate the craving for alcoho-
lie stimulants from The human appe-
tite, and it is a pity that the average
politician totally fails to recognize
that indisputable fact. as q gen.
eral thing prohibition makes law
breakers, perjurers, and nor a few
drunkards. It is also is the means Of
selling more 'licker' than all other
agencies. The average man in Kan
sas who will have whiskey gets it
when somebody has violated the law
1t is risky to break the law, and, as
consequence, the liquor supplied is the
cheapest and the meanest to be had,
for it is a law of trade that the profit
is commensurate With the risk.
South Carolina went into the whis-
key business. The personal liberty
of the citizen was eradicated so far
as the right to buy and sell whiskey
was concerned. He could not fetch
whiskey into the State for his own uis
He had to buy Of the State, and, be-
lieve. he could not buy more than half
pint at time It was the most out
rageous example of paternalism a free
people ever endured The Connect
cut but blue laws We're enacted to make
men religious. and We're harmless
compared with a law to make them
sober.
.Tillman put up his State bar room
and called it a dispensary. am not
certain but that one had to get doc
tors prescription before he could get
even half a pint There We're COM
plants as to the quality Of the stuff,
and that is not strange. The State
made money, for liquor selling was
a profitable business It reduced taxa
ton and that made the tyranny some
what tolerable.
But this is the age of graft and
graft crept into the rum trade of
South Carolina just as it had in the
insurance business Of New York and
the Postoffice Department Of the
United States. And now South Caro-
lima is thinking of regaining her lost
liberties and with a pretty good
chance of succeeding.
If you will take the cranks in the
United States Congress who want the
government to do things the govern
ment has no constitutional authority
to do, such as making railroad rates,
regulating insurance companies, and
subsidizing steamship lines, and rein
force them with the. cranks out of
Congress who woul regulate the nor
NAL appetite of man by statute, and
turn the layout loose with unrestrict-
ed authority to govern this country,
you would soon have a more intolera-
able despotism in the United States
than Turkey ever labored under.
For one I would not be sorry 70 see
Ben Tillman retired to private life.
He is an honest man, and the most in
dependent character now in public
life. He has learned great deal
since he fetched his pitchfork into the
Senate chamber. He has found out
that other men are as honest as he.