Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-07-08
FRIDAY, JULY 8, 1910.
TITS GENUINE PROHIBITION.
Carey cothran Law Makes It Un!aw-
full to Have Liquor at All.

Memminger to a Sumter jury this
week. The managers of the Eagle and
Elk clubs We're indicted for storing
liquor. They went into court very in
dignant with the plea that all the Ii
quor they had ever had anything to
do with was purely for social purposes
and for personal use, and Judge Mem
minger was asked To charge that they
were not amenable to the law. Judge
Memminger's charge was printed in
full in the Sumter Daily Item. In
part il is as follows:
Now. gentlemen, the counsel for
the defendants YOU saw pass up to me
las he has a right to do in order
that the attention Of the judge and
the jury may be drawn especially to
such points of law as are involved
particularly in the caSe)-theSe few
simple words, which, however, make
it necessary for me to explain the law
on this subject to you, and to make
you understand a little more fully
perhaps than you yet do exactly what
this law means He has asked me to
charge you The term storing and
keeping in possession of certain con-
traband liquors used in the dispen-
sary law involves the idea of contin-
uity or habit
Nov, that is q correct statement of
the law as taken from one OF the de-
the old dispensary law. where the
state engaged in the sale of liquor,
and that would be the law applicable
to a county in the state which now
has a diSpenSary, but it is my duty to
charge you, gentlemen, as | conceive
it to be the law, and you must real
iZe is the law under this statute, that
in a county such as Sumter county,
which has no diSpensary, that the
mere fact of having liquor in posses
sion, no matter for what purpose nor
how small a quantity II may be, is
illegal. OF course, you know 1T EaS
been generally understood under the
old diSpenSary law that man had
right to bring in liquor from another
state and have it for his own personal
use, and that it was no violation OF
the law to have liquor in your pos
session for your own personal use,
and that is the law now in those coun-
ties which have diSpenSarieS, but ii is
not the law in the counties which have
no dispenSary, such as Sumter county,
and the reason of that is this: That
the interstate commerce clause of the
constitution of the United States, de-
signed to protect commerce between
the states (protect their commerce OF
any article coming from one state IN
to another State), that the state IN
which IL is received cannot place any
greater restriction upon that article
coming from another state than 1t
had on the articles produced by the
state and offered for sale in the state
itself, without there being law
against selling it in this state; that
is, in other words, as under the dis
pensary law the state offered liquor
for sale, and a man could go to the
dispensary and buy liquor and keep
il i'm his possession and store 1t for
hi
the United States said that to pro-
hibit a man from bringing liquor
from another state and keeping it in
his possession and using ii for his
personal use would be a discrmina-
ton against the other states in favor
of this state. which the laws OF the
United States prohibit. They pro-
hibit that one state shall favor the
sale of stuff in that state as against
the sale or use or consumption OF stun
brought from another state; but they
hold that state has the right to alb
sOlute!y prohibit anything like liquor.
which is declared to be detrimental TO
the public health and so declared in
this statute and declared to be con-
traband. The states have right to
prohibit the bringing in and use OF II
altogether and so that when a state
absolutely prohibits the bringing in
of the stuff and the use Of it by its
own citizens and the selling OF 1t un-
der any law in any state, there is no
discrimination as between the state
and other states, and the laws of the
interstate commerce are not interfered
with. But when a state undertakes
to absolutely prohibit, as ii does i'll
this section of the act that | have
read to you. as to the acceptance ana
receipt or storing or keeping i'm pos
session of liquor absolutely and en-
tirely. whether ii is another state
which sends liquor into this state,
such state is not Disseminated against
i'm any shape or form, and liquor
coming from another state, even
though for personal use, is contra
band under this statute, and no man
has a right to keep it in his possession
for personal use or otherwise.
There was a law known as the
Wilson act, first passed which allowed
liquor To be brought into state,
which itself authorized the sale OF
liuuor as was the law under the old
dispcnsary act, and allowed it to be
sold i'm the original packages in which
il was brought, but there was an
amendment to that statute which
made the liquor as soon as ii got into
the state and was delivered to the
conSignee amenable TO the state law,
and therefore. if the liquor was ever
brought from another state into this
state. strictly bona fide for personal
use why then the interstate commerce
law protected ii for personal use ana
while being brought from another
state into our own state, and as the
counties that have a diSpenSary pro-
tect the liquor bought from the state
or county diSpenSary, protect II in the
possession of another for personal use,
the transaction was absolutely even.
But as | stated To you, 1t simply
means this. the law that | have read
to you. i'm a county where you nave
no diSpenSaIy, no state nor 4 county
i'm competition with the importation
OF liuuOr from another state ana the
selling of liquor and protecting II lor
personal use: where you have coun-
ty absolutely prohibiting the sale OF
liuuor under the terms of this statute.
as | have read to you. then that mat
ter of personal use no longer protects
the liquor for consumption. II does
protect il To the extent of delivery 10
the cOnsignee. but does not protect IL
for the purposes of consumption, ana
il becomes subject to the state law
as being c0ntraband. and person
who has il in his possession becomes
guilty of receiving and accepting anu
keeping that liquor in his possession
and storing ii, no matter now Small Il
quantity il may be and no matter 1nr
that | take it that under the statute
(having given the subject careful
consideration. that any man who has
i'm his possession. whether for person
al use OF otherwise, of quantity "i
liuuur, no matter how small it may
be. that it is subject to seizure ana ne
subject to prosecution for the receipt,
acceptance and keeping it i'm his pos
session: so ! charge you the law along
that line. so that the question is this:
That in this case you have not before
you any question as to whether these
peoplc-if you find they had any IL
amor i'm their poSsessOn-aS L"
whether they had it for personal use,
because if they had it for personal
Use even. ii would nevertheless be Il
violation of the law" ON" of the de-
PENDANTS was convicted.