The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1907-05-08
BEER BoTTLERs, GRAFT.
gharleston Beer Men Made Cats
Paws of Their Enemies-Funny
Story OF Section 36.

CharleSton Beer Men Made Cat
Paws of Their Enenaies-Funny
Story OF Section 36.
Section s6, about the most in
nocent saunding passage in the leg
islatiye abortion known as the Carey
Cethran law, bids fair to make laugh
mgstocks Of the two astu-e lawyers
whose hypenated names the mon
strosity bears.
Despite all the vigilance of these
two veteran practitioners ard OF
some thousand alleged iawyers-all
watchful lest the bold, bad beer bot
tiers do something to the embryo act,
that would cause it to die a-borning,
or at the least amount TO its emas-
culation; despite, moreover, the con-
slant warnings of the people who
really wanted a straight local option
law, that would stand the test Of the
courts, and the solemn abjurations
of the two most blatant organs OF
the co.aing dispensary system, the
bottlers, led by the willy James ;.
Farnun, succeeded in slipping into.
the bill this Misunderstanding little
a5oger. which caused the legislative
enemies of the old dispensary system
10 hand over to Farnum and the 9TH
er beer bottlers, in Charleston county
alone. the sum of s22,Ss1.75 Of the
people,s money. In other words, un-
der the old system, Mr.. Farnum and
The other bottlers in Charleston would
have had to pay that much more for
the privilege Of doing business.
It is safe to say that very few OF
the men who voted for the passage
Of the bill with the section S6 amend
ment knew the true inwardness OF
this section, and that those who did
know refrained most carefully from
pointing our, to their more dense col
leagues, the fact that its insertion in
the measure would mean the han
ding of all that money to [Farnum,
etc, on silver plate, as it We're
Some of the bamboozled states
men haven't awakened yet; but
those who had been fighting the bot
tiers and had permitted themselves
little complaisant pride over the part
they thought hey had played, IN
further restricting the operations Of
hese manufacturers, and who i.ave
now had their eyes opened to The
fact that they really were duped into
making the business vastly more pro-
htable to the bottlers, are suffering
considerable chagrin and humiliation.
Here is the situation:
Under the old system bottlers
paid on each crate Of Deer bottled a
royalty to the State OF 10 cents; to
fhe city. Of 10 cents and to the county
of 10 cents.
Under the new system ]. s. Far
nam, for instance, the Anheuser-
Busch Brewing associations agent in
charleston, pays $4,000 a yer tax
on forty barrel privilege. Under
the old system, he would have had
to pay s12o a day for the privilege OF
bottling this much beer a day. All
that he has to pay now to bottle beer
TO the limit cf his privilege, is $3.50
day. The average daily payment
Of the Farnum concern in royalties
last year amounted to s5s.17.
The Germania Brewing company.
through its dispenser, Jas, R. Cant
wei, paid last year, under the old
system. ss,so7.25 in royalties to the
city and county of C.,-rleston, for
beer bottled and sold. ie cost Of
the bottiing privilege to the Gerna-
MIA brewery under the Carey-Cothran
abortion is $50 day. Under the
old law the concern averaged about
s11.52 a day in royalties. This is a
saving to them and loss. to the city
and county of nearly SO a day. Be
sides this gain, the brewing company
saves the salaries of Dispensers Can't
well, s1oo; Sarvis, s10o; McAfanus.
s1oo, and scarpa, SIS. Should the
Germania company handle the same
amount of business it did last year.
the difference in income would be
ss,1o7.25 less tax on the bottling
privilege and sS75 saved on salaries
to dispensary officials, making total
increased income Of s3,4s2.25. These
figures will probably be greatly in
creased this year, as the Gernaaaia rs
turning out rauch higher grade OF
beer, and their product has greatly in