The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1912-02-28
What FIELDER DID
HIS WORK REVIEWED By HON, ].
$, BRIICCE OF YORK.
Saved MONEY FOR STATE


He Was the One Man Who Coult
Have Secured the E:idence Which
Damned the O:d Sts:e Dispenser,
and Who Did Secure Il and Earned
His Pay.
The Hon. J. S. Brice writes the
following to the Yorkviile Enquirer:
# there was one liquor house tha'
swin6led South Carolina out OF more
money than any othe: during the
reign Of the State disrensary, 1t was
the Richmond Distilliag Company,
and at the same time the Ansel com
mission was removed by the
present Governor, this same Fielder
you speak of had a suit penang
against them for Eve hundred thou
sand dollars, and they had offered to
COMPROMISE this suit for one nun
6reG thousand dollars in cash. Also
it was the intention OF the commis-
sion to require any dispensary official
who had taken money from the State
to restore the same.
Now as a citizen of South Carolina,
who loves his State and who mas
served his State without asking Tor
sny reward for his services, and
knowing the criminal trials OF the
dispensary officials were mere polltl-
cal battles, had I remained Oh the
commission should have certainly
ATTEMPTED 10 have had these parties
make restitution, regardless OF
whether they were ever tried n the
Criminal Courts or not.
From the establishment of the
State dispensary system IN July
until it's abolition in February, l90''
period Of nearly fourteen years,
there were charges OF rebate and
graft made on the hustings, IN the
newspapers and on the floor OF the
House and Senate in Columbia, but
these charges were always met WIN
scorn and derision. and even the non
est veomanry Of South Carolina at
tributed them to political pre3uclces.
The State Of South Carolina spent
thousands OF dollars through COM
nittee appointed on motion OF Cole
L. Blease investigating the State dis
Densarv, and while Lyon anc Christ
ersen of that committee did faith
full work, they only succeeded IN stir
ring up some black slime on the sur
face of the reeking and rotten olspen-
sarv caldron, and the State dispensary
advocates. your friend Blease among
then. or the floor Of the Senate dared
and defed them to so into tae Grim
ina, Courts on any Of the evidence
they produced.
L is true. after they made their
report, every honest man in the state
believed the system was rotten, am
acting on this belief the Legislature
abolished the system, but everybody
in South Carolina believed 1t was in
possible to ever prove in any Crlmlna!
Court that any one connected with
the system was guilty of fraud ana
Of larceny. But n 1907, when Thos.
B. Fielder appeared on the scene OF
action and stripped himself and went
down into the black and seething dis
pensary pit, he came back with MS
hands full of positive, indisputable
written evidence OF the guilt OF the
c;spensary officials and OF liquor
houses.
Fielder and Fielder alone produced
the eridence that satisfied everybody,
friend and foe. of the dispensary sys-
TEN that stealing, and good stealing.
had been going on to such an extent
that il was reduced to system. Tom
Fielder is no saint and he is no pro-
bibitionist. He IS one OF the attor-
neys for the Liquor Dealers Assocla-
tion now, (he was not at the time
he was employed by the commisslon), !,
but he is the man who furnished the
evidence that forever damned the
State dispensary system, and the peo-
pie Of South Carolina owe him DEBT
Of gratitude for his work.
know Of no lawyer in the State
of South Carolina, and know some
thing about the Bar Of this State,
who had the legal and detective ao!l-
itv combined to DO the work Fielder
did, and assert there is not lawyer
IN this State could have done it. So
il by Felder,s rake Off, you mean
the fees Of the State commission palC
him under a written contract, I as
sert he didn't cost the State dollar,
and through his efforts money was
put in the State treasury and his fees
and that money put in the State
treasury was money which would 9TH
erwise have gone into the till OF
corrupt liquor houses that had been
swindiing the State for years. and
that Thos. 3. Fielder fairly won and
richly deserved every cent ne got.
know he has incurred the ever
lasting IL VIII Of those against whom
he presented evidence know
BIease's dispersa7v commission spent
year trying to get him in jail.
know nothing about the man except
his work as attorney for the wind
ing-up commission, and I would be
untrue to myself il did not stand
I'D and say he did his work for South
Carolina wisely and well, faithful!
and efficiently. and earned every dol
lar he received.
While have not the report before
ne today, when the winclng-up com
mission sold the liquor and supple!
OF hand, the liquor houses proved