The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-06
Graft and Corruption Rampant Throughout South
 Carolina Under Operation of the DSpensary System

Columbia, s. C., August 5.-Honey- combed with graft--that is practically | the unanimous verdict of South Caro- | lima on the dispensary system.
 | Any county considering the question stands on the brink of a political cor ruptfon which may become as great in | its way as that which disrupted South | Carolina during the existence of the state dispensary, and which that state fought for IA years without relief. Of the state dispensary in South Carolina William E. Gonzales, editor of The State, Columbia, S. C., said:
 'It would require n volume to con tain the history of the South Carolina dispensary. It corrupted q state and lowered the moral standard of Il com mOnwealth.. It was abolished by the legislature in 1907. Since then the at tOrney generals office has been busy prosecuting grafters."
 Conditions in Jefferson county now are much the same as those that ex- l isted in South Carolina before the in auguration of the dfspensary The liquor question in South Carolina had been agitated violently by politicians | and prohibitionists and by those who saw in it political preferment or per- sonal gain. The country was arrayed against the city and town. The chief difference is that in South Carolina statewide prohibition had not been l tried In Alabama it has been weighed in the balance and found wanting.
 Lilquor and the Farmer.
 Not satisfied with lugging the liquor question into politics. the politicians and misguided women had thrust it into the church. In the country dis tricts of South Carolina, where the farmer is an ardent churchman and the crossroads meeting house almost 6 GEi if0 the demon rum" was crucified regu- lar1y by earnest preachers, with the result that the farmer found himself l fired by a holy zeal to take away from his brother city-man the temptation to damnation which daily threatened him through the saloons,
 Notwithstanding the farmer visited the saloons regularly on his occasional l trips to town, the saloons became to the farmer and his wife the hell holes of iniquity and the direct road to per dition.
 Continual agitation brought the farmer to firm stand against the sa- loon, whether it was regulated or not without his knowing anything about the subject. nor having any well founded reasons for his opposition. Tfnman's Idea.
 The state of south Carolina became the bartender to her people because | Gov. Ben TiIIman was in need of some thing sensational to bolster up his fight against the .interests."
 As a last resort he imported Wlld young journalist, named Larry Can't, as a press agent and from this journalist came the suggestion of a state dtspensaTy modelled after the county dispensary at Gantt's home town of Athens, Ga.
 Tillnan grabbed the bait and rushed away with it. desperate effort had been made in the legislature to pass state wide prohibition bill. This bill mad been put through the lower house, but the senate was holding it up after its second reading through fear of it's consequences 1 should it become a law
 l Tillman's new scheme of a state ais pensary came as a rift in the clouds. on the last day of the session both houses, with Tillman's whip on their backs m snace of two hours and a half, passed a | bill abolishing the licensed saloon enu establishing state dispensarY with wholesale headquarters at Columbia and retail branches in every county except | two. specially excepted.
 With the passage of the dispensary Dill Tflman won a great fight. as he thought, against the liquor interests He had taken from them the control of the saloon and the regulation of the traffic in which they were engaged. Before this the liquor men had begun to plead for good laws which would regulate their business and take it out of politics. With one swoop, Tillman tied up the business tight in politics, and built himself a political ma chine which Is without parallel in the history of corrupt American politics.
 The TiIIman Machine
 Thirty-eight counties had dispensaries under the Tillman system, beside the wholesale dispensary at Columbia. It was comparatively easy for Tillmans men to get the dispensary jobs. The machine was formed in this manner: Three members appointed by the governor (afterward named by the legislature) formed the board of directors dispensary commits sioner was elected by the legislature to manage the wholesale end of the business. The county boards of control were ap- pointed by Tillman's men on the state board, and these boards in turn. located as many dispensares as they chose, ap- pointed dispensers employed assistant dispensers, and were charged with me prosecutions for violations of the law.
 In this manner the governor succeeded in building. by means of the dispensary. a magnificent engine for the destruction of clean politics To show the extent of the machine two employees may be reck- oned for each of the S1 dispensartes in existence by 1885 The county boards of control numbered 105 persons; the con stables, appointed by the governor as , state officers to police the dispensaries, numbered 60; the employees of the state } dispensary about 57. In all there were 3S4 men scattered over the state, to which may be added the trial justices. wno were also appointed by the governor. When the metropolitan police act was passed, allowing the appointment by cities of police to enforce the liquor laws, the mower of the machine was greatly ex- tended.
 Grows in Iniquity
 As the dispensary grew older in South Carolina, it's ramifications became greater, and it's iniquity more pronounced. Till mans state constabulary, which soon after its formation became the natural enemies of the citizens was one of the vilest of it's institutions.
 Dispensaries were set up by the Iiil- man 'heelers' in counties and towns which were opposed to the dispensary The law required that the majority of freeholders in a town petition for a dis pensary before 1t could be established One of the favopte methods of the Till manites was to buy an acre of swamp land. parcel it out among negroes and poor white men in a proportion which would place them in the majority, and have them sign the petition, as freehold CTS for the dispensary. In this way also the machine was strengthened and the number of Tillman supporters increased. The state dispensary was called by Till man a great moral institution and was designed with the avoWed purpose of promoting prohibition and creating a revenue for the state.