The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1907-04-10
COUNTY p1sPENsARY AN EXPERIMENT

former State dlspensary organ,
continues blubbering over the
fate of its favorite institution,
and it does not seem to under
stand why it is the other news
papers in the State do not pay
more attention to its sobs. Inc
Anderson Mail we think it was
afectionately app "a the
Record on the shoulder, ana
whispered into It's ear ':the fun.
eral was over, stop crying and
90 home" but it did no good,
Columbia.s afternoon daily re-
fuses to be consoled, the loss is
irreparable, and nothing but re-
venge will soothe the jolt the
local optionists gave it, when it
routed the State dispensary and
with it, it's crew of barnacles.
The Record has written so
much in defense of the State
dispensary and it's grafters, that
it has graft nightmares. It now
imagines it sees graft in every
thing and everywhere, in
County Dispensaries even be-
fore there has been an opportu-
nifty. Since the State press does
not take The Records editor
seriously in his preaching over
the old dispensary carcass and
will not crafty him with a con-
troversy, he has taken up the
. idea that he has put the entire
press of the State to route, and
has made of himself a new
Moses to lead the mal-contents
out of the mire which the State
dispensary destroyers have
brought them, and the salvation
he now offers his followers is a
license system.
When the Local OptioDists
were endeavoring to carry out
the wishes of the majority ex-
pressed at the ballot box, to do
away with the machine at Col
umbia which was a boiling over
cauldroa of scandal, and which
had become so obnoxious, and the
people who previously favored
the State dispensary were the
loudest in their demand for its
destruction, The Record endeav-
ored to stay the hand of public
wrath by arguing that the Local
Optionists were using the local
option argument as a disguise,
but their real purpose was to
fasten a license system upon the
people. A change has come
over the dreams of The Records
editor since he failed to throw
dust into the eyes Of the major
itv, and now when all that he
fought for is lost, and the new
system Of liquor control is being
put into operation, there is hard
" a day but what he Kisses
through his teeth hints of graft,
even before a dispensary in the
State was open, he was hollering
ssgraftt, % and claiming there is as
much opportunity for graft un-
der the new system as there was
under the old, and yet he was an
everlasting, constant and stauncn
defender of the old system. In
the desire to throw obstacles in
the way of the new system he
must confess that his partisan
ship lead him to defend and aa-
vocate the graft opportunities in
the old system. Under the
ey-Cothran Act, in our opin-
ion, one of it's strongest features
is publicity, the old law did not
require the board to publish the
bids before purchasing, and
after they have purchased, must
take the public into their conf
dence in every transaction, this
is required in the new law. The
bids must be sent to the county
treasurer sealed, and at a, speci-
fed time turned over to the
county board after having been
published in the county paper.
then opened in public and the
purchases made, after which the
board is required to publish the
quantity, quality, from whom
purchased, price paid and priced
to be sold at, and the board is
also required to publish at stated
times a full account OF the re
ceipts and disbursements; yet,
with ali of this publicity The
Record would have the people
do away with this system and
turn the sale and control Of
whiskey over to private individ-
uals, on the ground that the
Carey-Cothran Act does not at
tempt to eliminate graft, or
rather there is as much oppor-
tunity for graft as before. 1t
did not contend for a license
system until after it lost its
fight on the State dispensary.
The major portion of the State
dispensary mal-contents are join
ing the Prohibitionists, but the
Record has burned the bridges
between itself and, Prohibition,
and it is in the position of accept /
ing the conditions as they are,
OF continue butting its head
against the wall Of public senti-
ment, in it's dilema, it hoists the
license banner: and it is making
a great effort to rally support.
II saws :tthere should be a gen