The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-06

AASpShSdIleS were lOcdltu.
 Various regulations were fixed by the law for running the local dispensaries. such as forbidding the sale of liquor to minors and persons addicted to intoXica- ton, regulating the sizes of packages 10 be sold, and forbiddng the opening Of packages or drinking their contents on the premises.
 The law itself was ideal, but the pow CTS delegated to the men who were to ad- minister it were too great Tor human frailty
 The chance for graft was the laws don- iEant weakness. Primarily, the law was drafted for political purposes In prae- tice it worked as all such laws work. The purchasing power for the dispensary was in the hands of three men, Having this power they handled the graft, ana the graft soon came 10 foreshadow the systems end.
 The makers of the dispensary law had declared that the dispensary system would greatly reduce the consumption of ffouors, and at the same time produce a revenue of at least $5o0,000 year.
 In 1892 South Carolina had about 613 sar looms, from which the counties derived revenue of sSl.O0o, and the municipalities sl3a,S By 1893 practically all of the licensed saloons had been closed, but there had been 205 United States special liquor OHi--~s tiger" had commenced.
 The governor thought his only hope 10 keep down the blind tigers was to es- tablish dispensaries. To do this 1t was necessary to increase the cons tabulary. and the more constables he appointed the more revenue was needed for their sup port. So great was the hatred of the citizens for these constables that the off eials of the cities and towns refused to aid them in upholding the liquor laws. claim ing that as the state had inaugurated the system. the state should enforce the laws regulating it.
 Fight the Law.
 It was a practical impOssibflity to secure convictions for violations of the liquor laws. "BIIBd tiger" keep CTS fought the laws through all the courts, until it was found, finally. that the seyerest punishment that could be inflicted for violation was to con- fScnte the prisoners stock of goods. Before the dispensary law was four months old, more than fifty cnses for violations had reached the court. But these could never be pushed to conyic- tion. and but few of them even reached the petit jury.
 By October, 1892. there were 51 dis pensaries in the state. The local dis pensers and their clerks numbered "A, and their salaries ranged from S300 to $1000 per year. At the central distrlb- uting station in Columbia 1t had been found impossible to supply the dispensa- ries. although fifty-four clerks worked ten hours each day in the attempt In spite of this huge business the governor said mot more than half the liquor drunk in the state at this time has passed through the dispensaries."
 A Financial Farce
 The fipapcial oter1apt nf dispen- saries at the end of four months was as follows:
 Gross sales to consumers .... .s166, 043 56 Total expenses state dispensary 72,5663s Total expenses county dlspensa-
 ries ......................... 19,S90.00 Net profit, including stock.... S2,1ss IS
 AS a matter of fact the actual profit paid into the state and county treas ures was only $454693 Whether graft had begun this early is not known. but many of the county dispensers were un- fit for their work and defalcations, of which details were suppressed by the administration, were common. Instead of helping the farmer, by reducing his taxes, as was promised him, the dispen- sary as a source of revenue to the state. was an utter financial failure.
 Tillman now had his fighting clothes on and was out in a desperate effort to save his pet law from annihiation. To do this he had the legislature adopt most drastic amendments to the law, among which were the following:
 The extension of the system by estab- fishing rural dispensaries.
 Increasing the power of the consta- bles.
 Reducing the penalties for violation, and thus doing away with grand juries and trial juries in liquor cases.
 Providing new penalties to meet every contingency.
 Withholding from municipalities their share of dispensary income when they failed to suppress illegal liquor selling. Compelling the purchasing board to favor home products
 Riot and BIoodshed Tn the meantime the feeling between the citizens and the constabulary had arisen to fever heat. The new law went into effect in December, 1893, six days after the first bloody conflict betweer the constables and citizens had occurred On February 3, 1894, the citizens and constables again came together this time in Wellington, and one man was killed and another wounded.
 In the meantime the governor was send ing out threats to the cities that they would be deprived of their share of dis pensary profits if they failed to enforce the law against illegal liquor selling; the constables had been armed with rifles, and there was talk of calling out the militia 10 reinforce them
 Columbia, Florence and Darlington were notified that they must relinauish their share of the dispensary money. To Dar- lington the feeling was intense, and in a1 effort to stop illegal sales, the constables threa tened to invade private houses to search for hidden liquors
 | The citizens armed themselves and pre- pared to resist the constables, and at meetings in Florence and Sumter. resolu- tions were passed to send aid to Darling ton citizens in case they needed it. On March 30 the memorable Darlington riot | occurred in which five lives were lost and several men wounded.
 Other towns were in a ferment, ann the governor called on the militia at Co., lumbia to proceed to Darlington to aid the constables The companies refused to obey the command, preferring to lay down their arms Tillman met the same refusal from companies all over the state. and company after company gave up it's commissions. | Only the rural militia which was formed chiefly of Tilmans supporters answered | his call Florence and Darlington were placed under martial law and railroads and tele- graph offices were seized by the governor. After some further minor disturbances matters quieted down and a state of civil war was averted by hairs breadth. Supreme Court Acts In the meantime the validity of the act of 1892 had reached the supreme court and on Ap,il 10, 1894 the court declared the act to be unconstitutional. On the day following the governor ordered the state and local dispensaries closed Seye,a'