The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1906-01-03
NOW LET LAURENS
WHEEL INTO LINE
Fifteen Counties Have VO-
ted the Dispensary Out.
LAURENS VOTES NEXT.
Dispensary System Reviewed and Strong
Appeal Made to the People to
Drive it From Laurens.

Drive it From Laurens.
To the Voters of Laurens County:
The State of South Carolina embark
ed in the monopoly of the liquor busi-
ness in December 1892, thirteen years
ago. This was done by the law-making
power of South Carolina, notwithstand-
ing our representatives had been in
structed by their constituents by ma
jority of ten thousand votes to give the
State Prohibition. The Hon. l.. d.
Childs prepared, with great care, bill
to meet the expressed wishes of the
people, and to enact Prohibition law,
but the advocates of the Dispensary
diverted it from its purpose, and MAX
ing a few alterations used it to estab-
lish the State Dispensary, the gist of it
being that no one could sell liquor ex-
cept through the Dispensary. The will
of the people was thus ignored, and the
policy was adopted of roofing out in the
most summary and high-handed manner
Prohibition in all those counties where
it existed at that time.
They succeeded in placing the Dispen-
sary in every county except Marlboro
and Greenwood In September 1893 it
was forced on.Laurens County by en-
franchising negro voters. They made
war on local option, and over-rode the
will of the people in nearly every in
stance. They made it political ma
chine of masterful power, penetrating
every nook and corner in the State, and
the slogan, "It is the best solution of
the liquor question:" was in the mouth
of almost every office-seeker- A solu-
ton that every other State in the Union
has spurned; a solution thai has bred an
appalling amount of crime in South
Carolina, the mother of us all, for the
sake of revenue to become the dis
penser of chemically pure" liquid
damnation to her children; solution
heralded to prepare the way for Prohi-
bition, but resulting in the State selling
three and half million dollars of alco-
holic beverages year to her people,
and using the profits obtained, if any,
by debauching them in educating her
children. What a burning shame!
What fatal delusion! This traffic in
blood and human souls was growing at
the rate of one hundred thousand dol
lars per annum, when Cherokee county,
all honor to her, opened her battery of
ballots on the Dispensary, under the
provisions of the Brice Act, and voted
it out by majority of six to one.
Since then the investigating committee,
appointed by the last legislature, has
uncovered so much rottenness and pub
lie discussion has shed so much light on
every phase of the question, that fif-
teen counties by overwhelming majori
ties have voted it out; Edgefield, the
home of its great champion, included,
have voted it out. Why should not
Laurens wheel into line on the 9th of
January next and act with her sisters?
She is surrounded on all sides by Prohi-
bition counties. 1t is shown beyond
question, that the Dispensary furnished
abundant opportunities for graft, and is
an institution reeking with corruption.
1t is dangerous to the morals of the
people; puts the purchasing power to
the extent of millions in the hands of
the State Board of Directors, and en-
dangers the public treasury; assays to
make respectable the traffic in a busi-
ness that every sensible man knows will
inevitably produce crime; devotes the
profits, if any, of that shameful busi-
ness to the free school fund.
But where are the profits when you
have paid the expenses of the sessions
court in forty-one counties, with two or
three terms each year, and sunk three and
half millions of the working capital
of the people with nothing to show for
it? We have said enough. Let us go
to the polls on the 9th of January and
clean it out, as the other counties have
done. A. G.. FULLER.
A very strong letter has also been re-
ceived from Rev. B. III. Grier, of Ora,
in which he urges the voters to do their
whole duty in the Forthcoming election,
but for the lack of space and time it is
impracticable TO publish it..
W0Odmen of Laurens.