The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1907-02-01
LARGE OvERsTOCK,
Commissioner Tatum Testifes Before
Investigating Committee About
The Purchases.

lee consisting Of Senators Christen-
sen and Graydon and Representative
Richards, Rucker and Carey, appoint
cd 10 days ago to examine into the
charges made concerning the over
stocking Of the dispcnsary, contains
much interesting reading along the
lines brought out under the resolu-
tion introduced in The senate by Mr..
Christensen.
The report is accompanied by stem
ographic report of the testimony of
Il number of witnesses, all Of whom
are officials connected with the state
dispensary. The principal one is Mr..
w. O. Tatum, the dispensary commits
sioncr. Mr.. Tatum produced and
testified to several letters which he
had written to the board protesting
against their policy of laying in
heavy stocks of new goods. He also
produced letter which he had sent
ont to al the county li>penstrS ask
lii" their opinion as to this policy
and their replies to this letter which
Ii" had turned over to the beard. The
board thcrr"up"n agreed to stop
>"NIliG "u, these goods. In Sertcm-
Der Mr.. Tatum again appeared before
the board with statement Of the
>'"rk 81 hand and urged them to
discontinue introductory goods. No
goods were ordered at that time. In
'"r he again made statement
OF new goods purchased and the
amount of goods OH hand. This state
ment was put in evidence. In making
the October purchases the board cut
out the goods to which Tatm object
ed. The order was introduced as ex-
hibit C.
at the November meeting Tatum
secured from the clerk list Of the
goods ordered and in n letter dated
Nov. II objected to 5000 cases of
this liquor. The board agreed to cut
these out. ~ few days later the clerk
said he had another list of purchases
and in this list Tatum found 2,4OO
cases of Objectionable goods. He
could also have objected to others on
the list rs overstock. In reply to his
letter each member of the board
wrote inStructing the clerk to cancel
the orders to which Tatum objected.
AT the December meeting the board
requested Tatum to have the ship
nj 1,rt 3 ,,.lo l,o
needed, which list was furnished by
Tatum in person. This called for 49,
600 eases Of various brands, which
were wanted for the Christmas trade
on the demands of the county dis
pcnSers. Tatum s next information
about December orders was that the
goods were pouring in and cars were
held on demurragc. lie asked Clerk
Mobley for statement of the goods
ordered. This statement was put in
evidence and marked exhibit f. 1t
showed that many of the goods Ia
tum had asked for had been stricken
out and others substituted. On jan
uary l Mr., Cabell, representing the
Car Service association, called OH Mr..
Tatum and asked that the ears be
moved from the tracks. Mr.. Tatum
was Informed by Capt. Claffy that
there was no room to store these
goods and Tatum told Cambell he
would rather pay demurrage than
unload goods on the street. On Jan.
8 Tatum wrote another letter to the
board in which he stated that there
had been ordered to be shipped after
December l, 5000 cases, most of
which was new goods, all Of which
he had protested against and which
were afterwards cut out Of the order.
He called the boards attention to
the fact that at ono time he asked
the board to cut out about $500
cases from one order, which was
agreed to and later on, on Nov. IL,
finding the board had prepared an
other batch Of orders, he went over
the orders and wrote each member a
letter asking them to cut out certain
orders amounting to about 1000 or
2,400 cases and in reply received a
letter from each member agreeing
to do so. He was very much sur
prised to find that these goods had
been ordered shipped, after the agree
ment with him. Under written in
structions the shipping clerk at that
time had been substituting new goods