The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1906-05-30
LAURENS, S. c., May 30, 1906.
Mr.. MANNING AND THE DIspHNsARY.

events of this year is that the dis
pensary, the State ~dispensary, will be
advocated by Mr.. Richard l. Manning,
of Sumter, who is a candidate for gov
ernor. We have known Mr.. Manning q
long time, and we have no hesitation
in saying that he is one of the best men
in South Carolina. His politics from
the point of view of THE ADVERTISER
have always been sound until now, and
we think that his championship of the
State dispensary, of the State as a
whiskey dealer, is the mistake of his
life, whether he be elected governor or
not. We wish to say, however, that
we have no patience with any charge
that Mr.. Manning is a State dispensary
man because Tillman favors it, for we
know him we'll enough to express the
opinion without qualification that not
Tillman or any other man can control
him. He favors the State dispensary
because he believes in it's efficacy as a
remedy for the liquor evil, and, great
as is his error, it is an honest error.
The truth is that the State dispensary
is a mask. The real dispensary is a
group of liquor merchants, liquor agents
and n great distillery, who intend to
use it as a selling agency. At the
present moment it may be in honest
hands, we know nothing about this new
board of control, it may be composed of
excellent men, and as far as we know
they are not corruptible, but sooner or
later, the group that we have mentioned
will govern again. If you have a liquor
shop in Laurens and a %"still'' within
half a mile, there's going to be a part
nership, ever if the State runs the
shop. You can't keep the two kinds of
business from mixing.
The real whiskey bosses of South
Carolina are not always d~ispensary Off
Gals and the best friends of the dis
pensary, some of them live in Balti-
more, and when a Laurens voter cheers
a dispensary candidate he is also cheer
ing the Baltimore man. The notion
that laws can be devised that will keep
the State dispensary clean is the merest
bosh-notwithstanding that some first
rate men of otherwise good political
records entertain i.
Over in Georgia there are licensed
bar-rooms in the big cities. In over
one hundred of the one hundred and
thirty-seven counties prohibition pre-
walls, and has prevailed for years. 1t
is enforced. If it were not en-
forced the people would years ago
have returned to bars or dispen-
saries. In about twenty counties
there are dispensaries, but each dis
pensary is an Independent county affair.
The money that it makes is spent in
the county. The taxpayers have the
business under their eyes and the
grand juries watch. If Laurens county
had an independent dispensary, respon-
siblc only to Laurens men, the Laurens
taxpayers would have their eyes open
and the Laurens grand iuries would
watch. We read the Georgia newspa-
pers, and we have not heard of shortages
in the Georgia dispensaries. They sell
under the same regulations as to origi-
nal packages, night closing and drink
ing on the premises as are had in South
Carolina. North Carolina has the same
system, and prohibition is the law in
most of the counties. In Tennessee
there are only a few counties, most of
those having large cities in which whis-
key is sold, and the same is the rule in
Mississippi and Texas.
If the State ~dispensary is retained in
this State it will be a good thing for
the wholesale whiskey dealers who are
in touch with it, not to mention certain
other Columbia enterprises which make
money out of it. The dispensary as a
State institution is a fine institution for
Columbia banks, for the deposits of the
concern and of the distillery and other
~adJuncts are enormous. Many a man
in Columbia who has houses to rent
finds tenants among the dispensary en-
ployces. If the State ~dispensary were
located in Clinton, with its half century
record of prohibition, Clinton might
vote for the ~dispensary, and Laurens or
Charleston might do the same thing un-
der the same circumstances. Such is
human nature.
THE ADVERTISER does not think it
worth while to make a fight on the dis
pcnsary's reform features. Counties
which prefer that whiskey shall be sold,
and sold under the dispensary r%estric-
lions, in original packages, should be
allowed to have them. But counties
which prefer prohibition should be al
lowed to have it. If Mr.. Manning were
against the State whiskey machine
THE ADVERTISER would say that he is
an exceptionally good man for gov
ernor But Mr.. Ansel is also a good
man. We are not now prepared to ex-
press a choice. A great many people
would like to see MIR. F~eatherstone in
the field, and if he should enter we
would support him, not primarily be-
cause he is q Laurens man, but because
ne would make a splendid governor.
But we wish we could have peace about
whiskey, as they have it in Georgia.
But we repeat that, apart from his
dispensary views, no man need have