Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-08-02

Florence special Of July 30, to News
and Courier: c. G. Featherstone
made particularly strong speech to-
day, on which he drew forth consider
able applause. In view of criticism
regarding his local option advocacy
two years ago, Mr.. Featherstone made
the following statement: II want to
make plain my position on the liquor
question. ] have advocated prohibi-
tion all my life, and as a means to an
end, until the state got ready for alb
solute prohibition, l have advocated
local option. In the local option in
terview Of 1907, to which reference
has been repeatedly made Of late, /
distinctly and emphatically made the
statement that what we ultimately
wanted was prohibition for the entire
state, and that / only advocated local
option as a means to an end. l fur
thermore distinctly stated that when
we had such an overwhelming ma jor-
ity in the entire state as to insure it's
enforcement l would favor statewide
prohibition. When l used the language
in the entire state, / did not and
could not have had in mind a condi-
tion of affairs when a majority of the
people In each county in the state
would favor prohibition; nor do L
think that the language employed Is
susceptible of that construction. If
so, l was unfortunate in the language
used, for no such idea was intended to
be conveyed. Surely, no sane man
could believe. for example, that l ex-
pected to wait for statewide prohibi-
tion until a majority of the people in
Charleston would favor statewide
unit, and the language, the entire
state must be considered in that con-
nection. About two years ago, in
second interview, / stated that / be-
lieved that the time had come for
state wide prohibition; and even cas-
ual reading of these two interviews
will make my position so plain that no
one will misunderstood it. If some of
the newspapers which have been crit
icising my position will be fair enough
to print both of these interviews in
full. my position on the liquor ques-
ton will be perfectly plain. Since the
interview of 1907 the conditions have
changed. Eighteen counties (siXteen)
last summer and two in the fall Of
1909 have voted out dispensaries,
and now about 80 or S5 per cent Of
the white people in the state are liv-
ing in prohibition territory. The time
for which 1 waited, and which l pre-
dicted, has come and l am now for
statewide prohibition. In other words
believe we now have such a majority
in the entire state as will insure an
enforcement of the law. one other
thing: l have said on the stump, and
will say again. that the whisky peo-
pie are fighting for local option. l
have never said, nor do believe, that
all Of the local option people are for
whisky. I realize that there are a
great many people in this state who
are local optionists from a different
motive: but the fact remains, and 1t
cannot be denied, that the whisky In
terestS in this state are fighting for To-
cal option in a last, desperate effort
for self-preservation. Some OF the To-
cal optionists hope for return OF the
old state dispensary: some OF them
want to perpetuate the county dlspen-
sary system, and some OF them want
it for purer and better motives: The
whisky people are not for prohibitions:
they are fighting for local option; and
this is known to any man who has
been with the campaign party or VINO
Is at all familiar with the conditions
in South Carolina. Again, as TO the
of the prohibition law:
| have said, and | say again, that l
want a law provided with the neces-
sary machinery for its enforcement. l
do not now believe that an extra tax
levy will be necessary, but, IL it does
become necessary, | would favor II. |
want the substance and not the sha-
dow. l believe that the abolition of
the whisky traffic i'm South Carolina is
Of more importance than the payment
of a small tax / believe that the en-
forcement of law is of more impor-
tance than dollars and cents. | be-
lieve that the preservation of the
morals of our people is more impor-
tant than wealth"