The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1906-07-31
vas going to say, they could scratch

was going to say, they could scrs tch
again.
In beginning his discussion of the
whiskey question Senator Tillman
wondered why we couldn't get rid Of
the whiskey question once for all.
els it the fickleness of the people,
that they don't know their own
minds?" he asked +
Senator Tillman referred to the
fact that the prohibitionists had ac-
cussed him Of cheating them out Of
victory in 1892. In that election,
he said, $4,000 voted against whiskey
and $4,000 against prohibition. The
prohibtionists had 10000 more than
the other crowd, but there were 10000
who didn't vote on the whiskey ques-
tion at all. OF Il total vote of 10000,
; 80, 900 had voted for prohibition,' but
$4,000 voted against it, or did not vote
at all, and therefore prohibition never
did have a majority in the state.
Senator Tillman ridiculcd the idea Of
having sought Il political machine to
re-elect him governor at this time. He
had gone into the matter of prohibi-
tion in Maine and elsewhere. and he
! decided that prohibition, SO far as he
| could Judge by THE record, was hum
bug; that men would drink. and if
prohibited from drinking it law
fully they would drink it unlawfully.
Some one in the audience interrupt
ed Senator Tillman to say that it was
a humbug in Newberry county. Sen
ator Tillman replied that if it was
ever humbug anywhere it was a
humbug in Newberry county and he
was there to point out why it was a
humbug.
Senator Tillman said that he de-
cided prohibition was a humbug, and
having examined into the dispensary
system then being tried at Athens,
Georgia, lie decided that was better
system of managing tho liquor prob
lem than prohibition. He was OPP
posed to bar rooms, and he cuntrivcd
the dispensary as substitute for
prohibition. Hc said to Ncttles and
Childs that it they would accept this
compromise he would close every bar
room in South Carolina, and so help
him God, he would keep it shut up,
and he did. too. Somebody had to
be killcd,' he said ga few fools,
Won know, will always go against th"
law. We had to have little blood
shcd.' The senator went on to say
that he did not think nearly SO many
lives were lost as would have been lost
in the natural course of events under
the old bar room systcG. He spoke
| Of prohibition in Maine, where n
man could get whiskcy from drug
stores when he had a prescription. or
Il certificate swnrn to by the man who
| purchased il. that he wanted il for
medicinal purposes. The records show
ed the law had not been cnformnd in
| Maine. and that drunkenness was as
Frequent there as elsewhere. "That
rcrtificatc.' he said, "has been the
SoWcc Of producing tho worst breed
of hypnrlitrs that God has ever lrt
! walk all over any state.
| h"ranSc up there when
man wants whi>kcy he is always
:eadv to swear thai he wants i, fo,
medicinal purposes. -
| S"nntor Tillman spoke Of the time
! when about twenty years AGO his own
town of Edeclicld voted a dry ticket,
| and of the number Of drug scturrS
which Immediately sprang up and be
gan to sell "aqua frumcnti, or some
other. Latin phrase for medicine. -
ltc never expected to get over his
battered for hypocrisy and hmbugecry.
he sail. IF anything in him stuck
deep and died in the wool it was ha-
tired and humbcuegery. The prohib,
! tionists in the state who were honest
were Of the best people we had, if we
had any best people. Tn other
words. he said, they live up to their
professions; they don't talk one way
and act another, " and T have GOT
nothing but respect for them, and if
they could show me how to enforce a
prohibition law 7 would stand for it
tomorrow. And 7 would have stood
for it in 1892, for know whiskey is
the source of more evil and crime and