The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1910-07-09

poses, and the punishment for viola
ton of this statute is contained in
section eleven, That any person who
violates any of the provisions of this
Act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor,
and upon conviction tn eof be fined
In sum not less than one hundred
dollars nor more than five hundred
dollars. or imprisoned at hard labor
for a period of not less than three
months nor more than one year, and
for the second or any subsequent Of
fense, upon conviction thereof shall
be imprisoned at hard labor for not
less than one year nor more than five
years."
Now, the special acts which these
defendants are charged with having
violated are the ones which 1 call
your attention to-receive. accept
store and keep in possession, and the
question is whether or not the State
has proved to you beyond a reason
ooiS uoupl tudl OIIe VI DOtn OI tneSe
defendants have violated any one of
these prohibitions that 1 have read
to you named in the indictment and
made unlawful in this State--receive,
accept, store and keep in possession
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 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 continu-
ity or habit"
Now, that Is a correct statement of
the law as taken from one of the de-
cisions of our Supreme Court under
the old dispensary law, where the
State engaged in the sale of liquor.
and that would be the law applicable
to County in the State which nov
has a dispensary, but it is my duty
to charge you gentlemen, as I con-
ceive it to be the law, and as you
must realize is the law under this
statute, that in a county such as Sum-
ter County which has no dispensary,
that the mere fact of having liquor in
possession, no matter for what pur-
pose nor how small a quantity it NAV
be, is illegal. OF course, you know
1t has been generally understood un-
der the old dispensary law that a man
had right to bring in liquor from
another State and have it for his own
personal use, and that it was no viola
tion or the law to have liquor in your
possession for your own personal use.
and that is the law now in those
counties which have dispensaries, but
1t 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 Uni
ted States, designed to protect COM
merce between the States, (protect
their commerce Of any article coming
frCm one State into another State),
that the State in which 1t is received
cannot place any greater restriction
upon that article coming from anoth-
er State than it 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 dispensary law the State
cfered liquor for sale, and a man
could go to the dispensary and buy
llGu"r and keep it in his possession
The laws Of the United States said
that to prohibit a man from bringing
liquor from another State and keeping
1t in his possession and using it for
his personal use would be a discrim-
ination against the other State I'M
favor of this State, which the laws
of the United States prohibit. They
prohibit that one State shall favor
the sale Of stuff in that State as
against the sale or use or consump-
ton of stuff brought from another
State; but they hold that a State has
the right to absolutely prohibit any
thing like liquor, which is declared to
be detrimental to the public health
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