Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1905-08-23
TilIman Talks on the Disclosures.

Greenwood, August ll.-"The Spar
tanburg investigation will have the eff
feet of making the Legislature do some
thing in regard to the status of the Ii
quor question in this State"
This is what Senator Benjamin Ryan
| Tillman, father of the South Carolina
dispensary and its chief advocate, said
to j. r. McGhee, of the Greenwood In
dex, yesterday.
81 don't believe the people of the
State are going to rid themselves of the
method because set of rascals are run
ming it. And, as l have said before. and
have advocated before, the dispensary is
this State"
Senator Tillman was on his way from
the State Farmers Institute, where he
had been "to teach them how to raise
hogs" as he expressed it. The Senator
looks we'll and hearty and the old-time
Tillman, with all his vigor and the mat
ter-of factness was in evidence as he
talked to the editor of the Index. His
characteristic phraseologv, together
with his forcefulness and earnestness,
was most noticeable, aud when he spoke
Of his pet the dispcnsary, fatherly
light was in his cye
Speaking of the startling revelations
as some would call them-being made in
the inner and outer workings of the sys-
TEN in Spartanburg, the Senator said that
most of the witnesses so far seemed to
be disappointed officeseekers, and as to
the testimony of Supervisor Miles. he
said that there were possibly hundred
men in the State to-day who could say
the same thing, that they suspected
there was dishonesty"
"But," he said, she wanted the limit
and if there was wrong doing, disclose
it."
Senator Tillman declared his faith in
the people of the State as to their re-
tanning the dispensary. He said that
county control would not do; that the
large towns like Charleston, Columbia,
Spartanburg and Greenville would vir-
tually have been bar rooms.
The greatest, most intrinsic, valuable
thing about the dispensary system is the
fact that it destroys the opportunity for
personal greed"
When asked directly by his inter-
viewer as to the personal greed" now
causing all the trouble in the dispensary,
as evidenced by the testimony at Spar
tanburg and elsewhere, the Senator's
countenance lit up with a peculiar
warmth as he replied: "The Legisla.
ture had run in a whole lot of changes
and Internal alterations, and now they
expect the people to kill it on account of
these. If the board of directors had
been abolished years ago all this trouble
would not have come up. When | was
Governor, and in charge of the workings
of the dispensary, kept in touch with
every man on the constabulary, every
nan in the whole affair"
When asked the direct ques ton by the
editor of the Index, "Don't you, Senator,
in view of all the information as given
out by the Spartanbnrg investigation, in
view of all the public opinion and hear
say, really believe that the dspensary
SySl6n dS INC III" now SUanuS presents
good opportunities for graft?" the Sena-
tor replied unequ;vocally: "No, do not.
Would you abolish the Supervisors
Office at Greenvile on account of the
fact that there seems to be opportunity
for graft?"
When the question of.State control
was brought up, he said that it was the
only way to run the dispensary. off
counties control, or rather, if the coun-
ties should decide this question for them
selves, it would mean that the city in
which the dispensary was located would
get all the pecuniary benefit. AS it
stands now, each school district in the
county gets a portion of the fund, thus
benefting ALL"
He said that political enemies of the
dispensary were taking advantage, as a
matter of fact, magni'y lying the discon-
tent and dissatisfaction, and in this way
hoped to destroy it,
O n. - TO a.