The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1906-07-18
COUNTY VS.. The STATE DISPENSARY.

Arguments in Favor of County System. Be-
l:eveG There Would be Less Graf.
and More Profit.
Aiken Journal and Review.
It may be and doubtles is true
that the liquor question will
never be permanently settled:
but this should not prevent US
from striving at all time to set
tie it in such a manner as with
the lights before US, we believe
will best promote the interests OF
society. Past experience encour
ages us to make such efforts, be-
cause as a result Of such an ef-
fort the dispensary displaced the
old barroom system which had
become intolerable to the people
of the State The dispensary
system with its restriction OF
sales to daylight, in quantities
not t..less than half pints, was a
great improvement over the bar
room system, but it has proven
Objectionable because of the fraud
and corruption which has exist
ed at the headquarters in Colum.
bia from the establishment OF
the dispensary to the present
day, when South Carolina stands
disgraced because Of its corrupt
State dispensary. Senator Till
man and the strongest friends Of
the dispensary admit that the
management of the State dispen-
sary has been most corrupt and
Join in the demand for some i'm
provement. What shall the i'm
provement be?
VIII our past experience just
ify US in endeavoring to patch up
the present system of purchas-
ing in Columbia?: We think not.
From its very inception the Of
ficials of the dispensary in Co.
lumbia have been under suspic-
ion and the disclosures during
the past year have shown in
most cases these suspicious were
we'll founded. The State insti-
tulion is a trust with such tre-
mendous business that it is al
most impossible to keep up with
and check its management, and
no effort is made to do it. 1t can
be patched up but cannot gain
the confidence of the people and
has therefore outlived any use
fulness it might have had. There
are many good reasons Why the
Raysor- Manning bill and all
other similar patching schemes
should not be experimental with,
but the best of all is that it is
not necessary. Those who be-
lieve the dispensary system the
best method of controlling the
liquor question surely do not be-
lieye it because the liquors are
purchased in Columbia. They ap-
prove of it because the manner
in which liquors are sold in the
county dispensaries hasimproyed
upon conditions existing under
the barroom system, and because
of the revenue which is derived
from the dispensary. These are
the features which have appealed
to the people and continuance
of these features is not depen-
dant upon a continuance of the
State dispensary. Abolish the
State dispensary and we can re.
tain these good features in a
county dispensary managed by
citizens of this county, under the
control and supervision of a
grand jury composed Of citizens
Of the county The differance
will be that instead of our local
dispensaries purchasing supplies
from the State dispensary an
Aiken county board will pur-
chase direct. If there are any
objections to such a change we
do not know them, but we do
know Of many advantages to be
gained. In the first place it will
lessen the opportunities for
graft. A member of the board
of control Of the State dispensary
is under no particular surveil-
ance and it is q case of every
body's business being nobody's
business. The management of
the county dispensary would be
investigated by the grand jury
composed Of citizens Of our coun-
ty, and even if the members of
this body failed to discover the
wrons -doing-should there be
any-every sensible man knows
that a man could not be guilty Of
fraud for any length of time or
to any great extentin our county
government without being dis
covered. The county dispensary
would be close to the people. The
men in charge would necessarily
be men whose character and
habits would be known to our
people and any sign Of sudden
prosperity or display of silk hats
with $1,000 bills would immedi-
ately inspire suspicion and cause
trouble for the gentleman. The
widest publicity can be given to
the conduct Of the business and
the opportunity for graft thus
minimized. The argument that
the establishment of the county
dispensary would simply mean a