The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1906-02-16
TWICE A WEEK. 81. so A YEAR

like to come and the other time thas
| was going to come. [ am very tired
and. of course, would like to sit down,
but I do not want to be out of sight.
If | sit down here I will be out Of
sight and I do not want to be out Of
sight. (Senator Tillman had chair
placed on top Of the speakers desk,
where he took his seat, the audience
applauding the situation in which he
placed himself.)
Now, Ar. Chairman, I vas about to
read for the information Of those Wae
have never taken the trouble to study
it, the official advertisement or cir
cular, upon which bids are requested.
(Cireular ready I have had no
time to get up any papers or to pro-
duce the necessary basis for legal
argument. I am not a lawyer, as you
all know, but I will call your atten-
ton to this, and any man here who
chooses to examine the facts under
the dispensary law will see that it is
required that purchases for the
state dispensary shall be made by
competitive bids, and I say most en-
phatically that this method Of pur-
chasing has not one element Of CON-
petition in it; and the law, therefore,
as l understand it, has been violated
absolutely and without regard to the
oath Of office or other consequences
by those responsible servants Of the
people, or Of the legislature, l should
say, and not the people, who have
been placed in charge Of this busl-
ness. involving a million and a half
or two million dollars. Why do [
say that there is no competition In
the bidding? Let me say to you that
one X rye is not less than $l.5G.
What is one X rye? There is ITO def
milton whatever under this specifea-
ton that would establish the test of
what one X rye is. No man living can
tell by this advertisement what kind
of liquor he is bidding on except the
price and the price is fixed with the
kind of brand in any barrel which he
might choose to sell and send here,
one X, two X or four y, and no man
living, chemist on nobody else, can de-
tect the difference and be able to pre-
vent fraud on the state. |, therefore,
assert. as a basis Of my first utter
ances. which are more or less guarded,
that the claim of fraud and specula-
ton in the purchase Of whiskey, PROB
ably by this board, was based upon
this simple document, which has been
running as an advertisement, so far
as I know, I do not how far back: 1T
goes. I am not here today to more
than give you the basis of my oWa
Judgment and opinion. When my at
tention was directed for the first time
to what was going on in the purchase
Of whiskey here last spring, there be-
ing no yard stick then to measure one
x, no means Of detection to prove
other than it is 100 proof-it is the
basis Of my opinion and assertion that
this laxity, the disobedience to law,
has left the door wide open for any
man who saw fit to make purchases
for the state in the vast quantities
which have been required and to de-
fraud the state in any amount that
might be between the actual cost Of
the spirit and the adulteration and
the price fixed by the board. | will
later on, if the chairman wants me to
do so, give some little insights into
the whiskey business that I. have dis
covered about it when I first inaugu-
rated the dispensary system. But
Just now to 60 on will return to the
subject Of the board Of control. The
board, not only has disobeyed the
law so far as competitive bids were
required, but has left loophole
through which the state could be de-
frauded simply by brands. The ques-