The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1906-05-04
REQUEST BLANK !. ].
WILL NOT WORK
BOARDS RECALL or
FEATURE SEEMS FAILURE. !"
Even Here is not Enforced though
This Auditor Alone Got An AS
sistant-Not Likely That at
Any Place are the Blanks
Properly Used.

The Record. ..v
1t seems practically certain now
that the announcement which the pres
ent state board of dispensary direc-
tors made with a flare of trumpets
when it assumed control two months
ago. that it would recall the request
blank feature Of the ilispensary law
and see to it that it should henceforth
be rigidly and faithfully enforced on
penalty of everybody losing his job
who interfered; tampered, neglected,
failed of otherwise blocked the way,
will end with flash in the pan.
This request blank feature of the
law is very important one. In the
opinion Of many friends of the sys-
TEN much of the scandal of recent
years is traceable to suspension of
this requirement. With these request
blanks faithfully and intelligently us
ell and checked up against the dispen-
sers bank books by the auditors, the
sale of graft whiskey sent in by
"iiiSN'f y llotoCS SIutlS uS all lIlNIl%r-
ment to the dispensers to push their
goods, would have been practically
impossible; shortage among county
dispensers would have been avoided
to large extent and some of the
odium arising from the fact that tile
dispensaries are feeders to the tigers
would have been removed. The re-
quest blank business makes the thing
too clean to suit many sections of the
state, and these are ignoring the in
structions of the state board.
Some time ago the board reported
the Lee. county auditor to the gov
ernor for refusing to obey the law,
but the scheme fell down right at
that point. The governor discovered
that it was not a case of refusing on
the part Of the Lee county man, but
that l.c was unable to carry oui the
law with the clerical force he had
on hand. The governor suggested to
the board that it get the county board
to employ an assistant for the au IT.
or and that is the last that has been
heard from the great secession move
ment in Lee county. The Lee county
board went to sleep after that. The
Richland auditor made similar com
plant, and he has been given an as
sistant. The Richland county man
has been at work several weeks, but
how he is going to check up those re-
quest blanks is as great mystery
to him as to anybody else. nc has
had no checking up to do so far. The
little upheaval seems to have landed
one man in soft berth and to have
ended there.
The start toward enforcement of
this part Of the law in Columbia was
very promising, and for time the ef-
fort looked like the genuine article;
clerks are still making faithful ef-
forts to have the blanks legibly and
regularly and correctly made out, not
even a bluff at using the blanks is
being made in some of the beer
places. At times these blanks are
made out in rush that last for a
day, and an inspection of the blank
books since they have been filled ont
will disclose that there are many in
accuracies, in some case no amounts
being recorded at all and in a num-
Der of other cases so hastily written
as to be unintelligible.. How these
blanks are going to be checked up and
made to balance with the dispensers
bank books is q mystery it is going
to be interesting to watch the solution
of.
TO have $100-a-month dispensers
and $50-a-month clerks and beer priv
lcge people and their clerks, all chos-
ell in the devious ways of politics, in
$50 .dispensaries and beer and hotel
privilege places, handle these re-
quest blanks month in and month out
through every sort of rush, in such
an accurate and business-like mannc,
as to make the figures check up with
the bank books, is more than can be
reasonably expected, it appears. And
as long as the blanks after thew are