The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1909-01-27
CAPITOL CORRESPONDENCE.

C0aQCe TO Oe GuGCUudl1S SuOOQSo.
CAPITOL CORRESPONDENCE.
Senate Chamber,
Columbia, S. c., January 18th, 1909. !
The General Assembly as was pre-
dicted in The TINES, elected Hon. Ira
B. Jones, chief justice. This creates q
vacancy in the associate justlceshlp.
which will be filed Wednesday. There
are many candidates for the honor, and
at this writing / am OF the opinion the
race will be between circuit judges
Watts and Hydrick, with a possibility
of Hon. T. T. Cothran or Ex-Governor
John C Shepperd being selected IN case
OF dead lock. Judge Watts apparent
| " has the lead now. Should elther
Watts or Eydrick be elected, there Will
have to be another election for a circuit
judge.
These elections take up mach OF the
valuable time OF the general assembly.
Besides the judicial elections, directors
of the penitentiary, trustees OF the va
rious state colleges and United States
senator will have to be chosen. The
latter is matter OF form, but it cuts IN
to tne time needed for work just the
same.
On last Thursday the committees hav-
ing 10 charge the various prohibition
bills gave hearing to those interest
| ed, and I was present as a spectator.
There were several excellent prohlol-
ton speeches made, among the speak
ers was Mr.. Charlton DuRant of Man
ming. who urged statewide prohibition.
He referred TO the voting out OF the
dispensary in Clarendon, and said that
prohibition is working well, bat not as
well probably as he believed it would II
we had statewide prohibition. Mr.. and
Mrs. Joseph Sproru were present at the
! hearing. There was also present quite
nun Der of LAKES, and be it said to their
credit, there was no demonstration at
tempted. The opposition to prohibition
was not asked TO give their views at all,
nor was there any attempt OF the part
of the opposition to secure a hearing.
There are a great many who favor
prohibition that realize in not providing
time for oispensaries to close out their
stocks, mistake was made. that the
closing OF dispensary lnstanter is cal
culased TO work monetary hardship
and cause a large loss OF money.
Those realizing this condition are dis
posed to permit legislation looking TO
the closed dispensaries re-openlng TO
dispose of the stock on hand. and after
consulting with the members OF our
county board, and learning from them
thev have been trying faithfully to IN
load, and have failed, | have introduced
bill to reopen the dispensary at Man-
ming permitting the board to sell at re-
| tail or wholesale, but not to replenlsb
the stock Whether this bill will pass
or not I cannot say, the committee to
whom it was referred are lot disposed
to report il fa7orably, they being Of the
opinion that if the dispensary was re-
opened the Prohibitionists might have
to seek legal interference to keep the
board from replenishing the stock.
AS I understood our condition it is
this. We have several thousand dollars
of the peoples money tied up IN liquor,
the law permitted this investment, now
by the action of the people the board
have this investment in condition they
cannot get the money out OF 1t to put
back into the treasury. The dispensary
remains closed ct al expense to the taN-
payers of nearly 5000 month with ab-
solucely no return; the longer it is in it's
present condition the more IS the loss 10
the taxpayers. The law demands that
cost shall be paid for the goods, there
fore the board cannot sell otherwise.
am told Representative OF the Kings
tree dispensary offered TO buy the stock
az 20 per cent discount on credit, OF
course the board could not consider this
proposition. because II would be a vio-
!ation Of law. was approached in Co.
ium bi;. Saturday and asked Il l would
sell 20 the Richland dispensary, our
Clarendon stock. I told the party to
make me his best offer and l would sub
nit it the board, his otter was d dis.
count of so per cent, sixty days credit,
and this. with the privilege OF rejecting
such stuff as they did rot want. The
proposition was il: my judgment prepos-
ferrous and | declined TO submit it to the
board. Clarendon is up against, not a
theory, but real condition. what is
best TO be done about it,: 1t was sug-
gested by strong Prohlb, that we make
the houses the goods We're purchased
from take them back. This has already
been proposed by the board, without
success. but says the Prohio, IF they
refuse. let them understand, lit is take
the goods back, or lose their money, "as
they canpoJ sue the State.
I cannot see the consistency in such
position. The ProhibitionisLs contend
they are fighting for morality, and 1t
seems TO me 10 take an advantage which
will deprive the whiskev houses of their
Justly due money, is more immoral than
the selling OF liquor We bought this
liquor in good faith, the liquor people
having faith il our honesty have every
moral right 20 expect oaeir money, and
it would, as view it, be dishonest to
deprive them of 1t, even if the law al
lowed Us to Go so.
But, suppose the conditions are this
way: a liquor concern says 1--WE will take
back the goods we sold you, our claim is
$1,000, ship it TO US at once" The board
hpds the goods bought from that con-
Germ is not in the stock, having been al
ready sold before the dispensarv was
closed, they write back and say, I'VE
have none OF Your goods On hand. but
we will ship YOU other whiskies amount
ing 10 the $1,000 we owe YOU" The
house on receipt OF shis proposition says
mo, we will accept none but our own
goods" will any honest man contend
that a liquor house should be forced TO
accept ! brand of whiskey they do not
handle, perhaps have been antagoniz-
ing in the commercial markets?
Clarendon county is morally bound to
pay one hundred cents on the dollar for
the liquor now locked up in IT'S dispen
sarv, and in my judgment the only way
it can be done without serious loss to
the taxpayers is to permit the reopen
ing. only 70 dispose of the stock now on
hand. Oh, say some of ohose who claim
to be ehde:avoring to uplifu the morals
OF our people; "sell the whiskey to some
other county. even at loss, take it
away from us, and sacrifice it to Kings
tree or some other county" I do not
understand or appreciate such stand
ard of morals. Why, if we are contend