The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1906-05-16
UNITY OF ACTION
AGAINST DIsPENsARY
The Issue to be Met in the Primary
Election.

The Issue to be Met in the Primary
Election.
To the Democratic Voters of South
Carolina:
As citizens of South Carolina op-
posed to the present State dlspensary
system, we, the undersigned, call
upon cur fellow citizens OF like opin-
ion to unite for the purpose OF or
ganizing the opposition to the dis
pensary system.
So nearly of one mind concerning
the dispensary system are the people
of the State that it is only by their
failure to unite for action that the
dispensary can be preserved. Ii is
only by default that the dispensary
can win another victory, before the
electors are in the legislature, and it
will be foolhardy for those who de-
sire it's overthrow to cit supinely by
and see the pernicious system again
enthroned in power in our common
wealth.
Every sincere, patriotic citizen must
regret that this issue should be again
the paramount question in q South
Caroline campaign. But as long as
the dispensary remains just go long
will it continue to be the paramount
issue, and it should, therefore, be the
desire of every thoughtful citizen to
see this fostering sore removed and q
healthier condition secured. To this
end we invite the cooperation Of all
those who believe the State dispen-
sary system to be an evil and propose
that, other differing policies for the
time being laid aside, the demand,
first. now, be made that the State dis
penssry system shall be destroyed.
On trial now for 13 years, fortified
all the time by strong support and as
truly protected by unceasing criticism
and watchfulness, there is no need to
point out the evils which the State
monopoly of the whiskey traffic has
bred. Corruption at the fountain.
head and in it's branches, drunken.
ness and murder, woe and misery
have been it's products. A pernicious
political machine of gigantic proper.
tions, with a beavered lobby in Co.
lumbia and willing ring in every
county, the monster has waxed fat,
insolent and defiant. The will of
the people has been perverted and
suppressed, and when finally demand
iug expression that demand bss been
thwarted ard circumvented by sp
peals to the trivial technicalities of
the law.
10 18 counties the people have
spoken and in all these except two
their voice has in thunder tones re-
pudiated the system. In other coun-
ties they are now ready to give ex-
preston to their will, awaiting the
summer primary. In this primary,
where the life or the death of the dis
pensary will be and should be de-
cided, it is vitality necessary that the
opposition to the dispensary shall be
active and united. It is only by
action and union that the dispensary
has been voted out of 16 counties
under the Brice law and by no other
means than action and union can the
system be uprooted from the State.
The people are decided. Il merely
remains for them to make their de-
cision defective. They must choose
representatives who will repeal such
laws as they desire to have repealed
and who will enact such laws as they
desire enacted. Then they must put
in Office men who, in full sympathy,
will enforce justly and vigorously
whatever laws are upon the statute
books. The people have shown, by
their eager acceptance of the only