Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1906-08-22
TEXT OF RAYSOR-MAAN|NG BILL.
THE MEASURE DESIGNED 70 REFORM
THE DlspENsARY.

THE DispENsARY.
The bill popularity known as the
Raysor- Manning bill, because it was
the joint work Of Senators Raysor,
of Orangeburg, and Manning, Of
Sumter, being the fruit of the ma
tured thought and labor of these two
men, who conscientiously believing
that the dispensary system, properly
and honestly conducted, offers, under
the conditions prevailing in the State,
not only the best, but the only prac-
tical and satisfactory means of con-
trolling the liquor traffic and mini
mizing the evils that attend the use
of any and all alcoholic liquors as g
beverage, sought to frame law that
would purge the State diepensary of
the corruption believed to exist
therein, and so 70 hedge about the
management with restrictions that
the opportunity for graft and dis
honesty in the purchase of liquor and
other supplies which the law, as it
atood, not only permitted, but ap.
peared to invite, would be impossi-
BILE.
Senators Raysor and Manning,
with the same object in view, viz !:
to make the dispensary as nearly as
possible graft-proof business insti-
tuition, which under the exercise of
the police power of the State should
control and regulate the liquor traffic,
which is conceded by all to be an
evil that of necessity must be regu-
lated and curtailed for the public
good, worked Independently at first,
each preparing bill to be intro
duced in the Senate. When the
Legislature convened they found
that their bills were drawn on simi-
lar lines and they, therefore, decided
to jointly prepare a new bill, utiliz-
ing the best features of each of the
two previously prepared. The great
est care was exercised in drawing
this bill information and sugges-
tions were sought from Senators and
others who desired to purify the dis
pensary system and make it the in
strument for good that it was and is
capable of being made. When the
bill was completed and introduced in
the Senate it at once came to be
known as the Raysor- Manning bill.
Upon being referred to committee
in the regular order, the bill was
given thoughtful consideration and a
rigid and:patient analysis. The result
of the committees consideration was
a substitute bill, which embodied the
distinctive features Of the original
bill, that being used as frame work,
and also the ideas of the committee
and others who had made suggestions
looking to the perfection of the pro-
posed new dispensary law. Among
the suggestions thus embodied in the
bill was one made by Senator Till
man that liquor be purchased from
United States bonded warehouses ex-
clusively.
This substitute bill, which was in
fact the committees bill, although
built upon the Raysor- Manning bill
as foundation, was still popularity
known as the Raysor- Manning bill
and by that title it is yet known.
This is the bill that the House of
Representatives rejected and practi-
cally refused to consider at all, after
the effort to force the Morgan
(House) bill through the Senate had
failed. This is the measure tha: is
now the leading issue in the State
campaign, and which is the dispen-
sary plank in the platform of Hon.
Richard 1. Manning in his campaign
for Governor.
Occupying as it does, so important
place amongst the issues of the
campaign, synopsis of the bill will
be both interesting and instructive.
Section l prohibits the manufac-
ture, sale or keeping of spirituous,
malt or other Intoxicating liquor that
is used as beverage, except as here