The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1906-05-30
Resolved that the Dispeusary is Better FOR
our Country than Prohibition.
Written by Fanny Broadway, Aged
Thirteen Years, of Paxvllle.

w AIcICA DS AMY DIOdO"os3 49,
Thirteen Years, of Paxville.
I am thankful for being on the
negative side of this question,
ana it is my duty as well as a
privilege to advocate Prohl-
bition.
If there is any one thing more
than another that is running our
country it is the sale of liquor.
The D:spensary better than Pro
hibition? Why the very state
ment on it's face carries convic-
ton that Prohibition is best for
our country. What is the his
tory of the Dispensary? 1t has
been running thirteen years, and
the sale of Intoxicating liquors
have increased from a half mil
lion dollars to three and a half
million. Think what lot of
drunkards have grown up in our
beloved State in that time, and
the Dispensary responsible for
it all. Suppose we had had
Prohibition for the last thirteen
years, there would have gone
into legitimate trade the vast
sum of twenty-four million dol
lars to enrich our people to have
provided homes for our people,
put clothes and shoes upon our
children, and put into the road
to peopling our land a great
host Of happy, cheerful children,
to become sober and industrious
citizens for our beloved State.
It is said that no question is
settled until it is settled right.
So I am glad of the opportunity
to speak for Prohibition.
When the Dispensary was
established in South Carolina in
1898. so fair were the promises
of it's advocates, and SO sensible
did some of it's features appear
that many earnest and consistent
opponents of the whiskey traffic
we're deceived and lent their in
huence to its support. The de-
tenders and friends of the new
and untried system, confidently,
and with some show of reason,
affirmed that the ultimate result
would be morally beneficial, be-
cause the State in the legitimate
exercise of it's police power
would so control and regulate the
sale of whiskey SO as to curtail
it's use. Thus it was argued, the
Dispensary system would be-
come stepping-stone to Prohi-
bition. Such were the promises
and arguments twelve years ago.
and many believed them:
But what is the outlook of to-
dav? The system has been op-
Grated under propitious circum-
stances almost thirteen years,
and now must be judged, not by
specious arguments and hopeful
promises, but by results. "The
tree is known by it's fruit.
Thirteen years Of the dispen-
sary regime, thirteen years of po-
litical corruption, thirteen years
of increasing traffic in whiskey.
Over against the system high
upon the walls of the State, the
silent, unerring finger of exper-
ience has written in letters large,
weighed in the balance and
found wanting AS a temper
ance measure, the system has
been a most distressingly disap-
pointing failure, but as a shrewd
political and commercial enter
prise controlled and fostered by
the State, it is a conspicuous sue
cess. The dispensary manage
ment encourages and pushes the
sales of whiskey in the same
way and for the same purpose
that private dealers would.
In twenty years: when the
babes of today will be attaining
adultness and beginning to as
sumo the burden and response.
bilities of State government,
South Carolina will be engaged
in a wholesale liquor trade. What
will be the final income if the
evil is not suppressed? Surely
the situation is approaching a
crises, and the time has come for
the people to rise up in their
sovereignty.
Those dispensary advocates
would have you believe that the
dispensary is better for our coun-
try than Prohibition. 1t puts
me in mind Of some poetry l
guess you have heard:
:'Will you walk into my parlor?"
Said the Spider to the Fly:
'''Tis the prettiest little parlor
That ever you did spy.
And after being caught in the
web the refrain comes back
again.
'sBut poor master Fly so young,
and SO small,
Why did you go to the Spider
haIl?"
So let us work for prohibition
and against the dispensary, in
order to bless our country bring
happiness to our homes, and
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