The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1909-08-07
A MORAL QUESTION.
For the Good or the Young and of
the Weak and Helpless Glass Vote
to Prohibit Whiskey.

Mr.. Editor:
BY an Act of the legislature the
people Of the wet counties in this
State will have an opportunity on the
18th day Of August, to say whether
the sale of whiskey shall continue or
not. 1.-TWO weeks of prohibition be-
fore the election as a kind of expert
ence in Statewide prohibition.) Ever
since the State has been organized,
whiskey has been sold under some
| about a hundred and thirty years,
| ample experince has been handed
| down from generation to generation
to know its good Or evil effects. Of
late years we had the State dispen-
sary, better than bar-rOoms, but it
soon got corrupt and died of it's own
weight Of corruption. This system
was succeeded by county dispen-
saries. A number of dispensaries were
voted out under the Brice law before
the system was changed until now
| about one half OF the State sells as
much or more whiskey, than the
State dispensary did in all the coun-
ties Of the State before the Brice law
went into effect. County dispensaries
| are no better than the State dispen-
sary in principle. The only difference
Is to open larger opportunities for
graft. Marlboro County has always
been dry and If the good people of it
! can be believed, it is one of the most
peacable and prosperous counties in
the State. More money on deposit
and in circulation than any whiskey
county of its size in the State. The
sale OF whiskey is moral one affect
ing the welfare and morality of the
people, and the State has the same
| right over whiskey that it has to re-
pei an armed foe, suppress riots, blot
out epidemic, stop travelling through
it, or anything that would be for the
injury Of the people. This is simply
the exercise of its police power, and
the exercise Of 1t does not infringe
upon the liberty Of any one for in
organized society there must be law
for the protection of the people. We
are aware that a number of our best
citizens use whiskey to some extent
but they know how to control it in
proper limits, while others of our best
and most patriotic men have sue
cumbed to it and found an early
grave to the sorrow of all who knew
them. It is from this helpless class and
the lower elements of the people, and
the young boys and men that prohi-
bitionists want to remove this terrible
evil and temptation as much as pos
sible. History is full of the blight
ing influences of whiskey upon the
brightest minds of our country and
of their ultimate destruction by it. We
know the sorrow it has brought TO
many firesides the expense to the
courts and trouble in the land. Does
the gain from lis sale pay for all
this? For many years a large num-
ber of the best people of the United
States have seen it's ,evil influences
and are trying to curtail it's use or
blot it out of the land. In the great
States Of Ohio. Indiana, Iowa and
Kentucky the sale of whiskey is al
most prohibited. Tennessee is dry,
but so fierce was the fight to make it
so that E. w. Carmack, that able and
brilliant man, lost his life to the
cause of prohibition. In several of
the Southern States there are prohi-
5ition laws in both county and State
The argument that prohibition won't
prohibit is the reason thar many
won't vote for 1t is no argument at
all. We have laws against murder,
stealing, and all crimes against So
ciety, and yet these things go on.
Shall We abolish these laws and let
people have full swing to exercise
their passions and personal liberty in
whatever they want to do? think
not. In the approaching election
each voter should ask himself, is the
sale Of whiskey an evil in the land ?
If so he should vote to abolish it. A
mans vote should ever be cast for
the good of the people and not for his
personal preferment If against the
good of the State. ***
Rhame's x Roads, Aug. 2. 1909.