The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1906-07-11
Nevertheless 1t Could Not Pay What
1t Owes if 1t Were Forced into bn-
mediate Lfquidation-What 1t Has
Paid the State.

it probably could not pay its debts,
for the simple reason that the great
amount .of whiskey on hand, which is
the principal asset, could not find sale
at it's value But if every business
were forced to quit that could not pay
out on a liquidation basis there would
be mighty panic in this country.
To meet its less than million dol
lars worth of debts the State dispen-
sary has assets amounting to s1.400,-
600, of which; s323,O0O is in cash.
s56.OOO in real estate and The re-
mainder in stock in the central and
sub-dispensaries At least these are
the figures given out from the book
keeping department at the central
dispensary, and previous formal re-
ports bear out their truth.
Since the State dispensary was
started in 1893 it has paid back the
$4,000 borrowed from the State, has
paid $4,S6S,613.61 to the State school
fund and the cities and counties, has
accumulated assets of one and a half
million and run it's sales up to three
millions a year in spite Of the grating
and the clumsy manner in which it
has been handler by incompetents ele-
waited to office through politics. In
competent private hands the dispen-
sary would be mint, but whether it
can be continued on its present basis,
whether it should be continued, there
is the gravest sort Of doubt. That IS
the problem the State is now wrest-
ling with. It is not the purpose Of
this article to attempt to answer that
problem or any phase of it but merely
give a few figures which have not
heretofore been published.
Figures dug out of the official re-
ports made from year to year to the
legislature show these results:
Transferred to general State ac-
count-1ss5, $4,000; 1896, s159,0oo;
total, s3.466,915.96.
Paid State school fund-1S97, $50
600; 1898, sSO,4s9.55; 1899, $4,000;
1900, 100000; 1901, 100000; 1902,
s142, 1851; 1909, s1s5,6O2.Ss; 1904,
s235, 5,663.17; 1905, s1sS,6775-771; so far
in 1906, .ooo-total s1,1s3,197.25-
Profits paid towns and counties:
1895, s132.26763; 1897, sS4,7S2.7S;
1898, se1,71e.45; 1899, s220,492.35;
1890, s29S,166.28; 1901, s424,2S5.S7;
1902, s443,1sS.76; 1903, s512,216.35;
1904, s6o3,9sS.22; 1905, ss55.791.27-
total, s3.466.96.
How the business is progressing in a
financial way since the great volume
Of grating has been uncovered by the
dispensary investigating committee.
and since fifteen counties in the State
have voted out their dispensaries, it
is difficult to say. There has been
material falling off in the sales to dis
pensers for the quarter just ended, in
spite of the contention that the coun-
ties that have gone dry have merely
transferred their purchases to dis
rensaries in adjoining counties. And
not cent has been paid into the
State school fund as profits for this
year, although the Mower act of 1902
requires these payments to be made
within ten days after the close of each
quarter. The ony money paid to the
State treasurer for the school fund
was $4,000 paid on March % last
when the dispensary committee got
tc kammering on this point. and this
was from profits accruing from last
year.
The report for the quarter ending
May 81 Of this year, which will be
made public in a few days, shows total
sales to dispensers of s172,0S495 for
March, s191,5O737 for April and
s226.1333e for May-total, s5S9,729.-
6S-which is more. than 100000 less
than for the same quarter of last year,
when the sales totaled s69S,5S6.01,
s241,496.17 for March, s253,327.1O for
April and $204,772.74 for May The
sales to dispensers for December
1905, and January and February of |
the present year amounted to S129,-
1e54s.
For the six months ending May 81,
1906, the profits TO the cities and
counties amounted 70 s3o1,26I3S. AS
this half of the year includes the win
ter and pes months it seems probable
that the profits in that direction will
fan off this year not less than $780,
Ooo.
For the quarter just ended the pur-