The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1906-02-14
sen. TILLMAN'S REJOINDER
ON DlSPENSARY ISSUE
Be Stands By His Assertisa That Morgan
Bill Was Passed By DirtJ Bargain
FIGHT II OUT 10 LAST DITCH

He Says That the Dispensary Will Be
Made the Issue in the Campaign
This Summer and That Every Office
VIII Be Invoked.
Washington, February s.Asenator
1sllpsan has seen 'sby the papers" that
csrtain legislators and others are dis
posed to resent his remarks upon the
Ssspensary situation and ne makes
another remark or two.
He insists that when he character
he'd the method by which the Morgan
bill passed the house as a dirty bar
gain he meant just that word and
no other, though he says he did not
mean to reflect in any way upon any
Of the Charleston delegation
says he. st said there was a trade
BY which Charieston's nine votes were
cast for the bill in consideration for
making that moss remarkable excep-
ton for Charleston allowing it the
privilege denied all the rest Of the
State OF having license If it wants it.
-s sThere may not have been any ac-
tual overt trade, there may not have
been any formal agreement, but the
thing is so self-evident that it isn't
Morth while for anybody to deny it.
Charleston has always been in favor
OF local option, by which, of course. it
IS meant that itwants saloons, and its
representatives in the legislature saw
! that the only way to get it was to vote
5 for this bill
50 Likewise the anti-dispe mem
bers from other counties know that
The only way they could get Charleston
support >of a so-called prohibition
measure would be to except Charles
ton from its operation by giving it the
fhird choice OF. high license.
Else why did they except Charles
ten, and why did they not except Co
7umbia, also, or Greenville, or Spar
y
Why, it is plain as the nose on your
face. n they had not given this special
privilege to Charleston they would not
have got these nine votes and the bill
would have been defeated, and they
know I,
"A few weeks ago it will be remem-
bered it was reported in this cores
pondence that Senator Tillman said he
had nothing to say on the South Caro-
INA situation, considering that in
general way it was not his business to
interfere and that he had his. hands
fuH here.
AS matter Of fact, there can be no
doubt that he has his hands full here.
about as full as any man in the senate.
but he instinctiveN keeps one ear to
the ground for waht is going on in
South Carolina and it is as impossible
Tor him to keep out Of it as it is for
him to sit quietly in his seat in the
Senate when spirited debate is going
on
ST would be a fool.'' said he today,
TO sit here in Washington, however
much am absorbed with affairs here.
and see the people of South Carolina
arscked without at least making my
protest. And by people I mean the
real majority Of the white people for
whom have struggled
The senator was once called down
Ia the senate for using the word
s1trickery' when referring to the pres
adent, so I asked him what he meant
by it in this connection. 81 say trick
ed, he replied, because that is what
IL appears to me. The .Brice law dis
franchises one-third Of the white men
5n the State who can vote in the Dem
pcrauc primary.
Besides, the enemies Of the dis
pensary, who for years have con-
trolled the State, have been putting
men IN charge Of it who have mlsman-
aged it, stolen from it, brought it into
bad odor, and the newspapers which
are and always have been bitter
against the dispensary and against me,
and which make practice of sup
pressing whatever is favorable to the
dispensary and loudly vaunting what
Is unfavorable to it, are the ones which
have the largest circulation and the
ones which these 'driftwood legisla-
tors read and look upon as the law,
the prophets and the gospel so the
people are hoodwinked, but there is a
time coming.
.The people will get chance t"
express themselves next summer and