The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1913-05-03
TIE DISPENSARY ISSUE.
The Question of Abating an Evil
Viewed Theoretically Rather Than
Practically.

Editor Daily Item:
FIease let me reply to your ed-
torial on the establishments Of the
county dispensary.
You say that blind tigers have null
tiplied in this community, and that
contempt and disrespect for law and
order are growing. / feel that you
are wrong, but granting you that
much as fact, do you feel that our
city or county government can gain
respect or increase law and order by
engaging in a traffic which in itself
lis directly battling to law and order?
The gist of your argument seems
TO be that we need the money. Is il
not better for us to need it than to get
1t in the wrong way? AS man you
feel that the whiskey business is
highly profitable, but unspeakably de-
grading, because it traffics in weak
ness and vice for profit. For that
reason you would doubtless cast your
vote, and the strength and influence
of your paper against the re-estab-
lishment of saloons in our midst.
You cannot fail to see how much
worse it is for our very government
itself to engage in the whiskey traf-
iic. Are we jealous of the profits the
blind tigers and express companies
are making out Of this whiskeY. traf-
hc? So much the worse for them.
You say that intemperance is
weakness and vice, so more a ques-
ton of morals than Of law. So is
gambling and sexual prostitution
Lest the people who profit in those
forms of human Weakness make what
they can out of it, must we also cir
culate a petition to see what we can
do towards getting our share of these
profits for our government? DO we
need the money that bad?
If this town and county is unable to
maintain law and order under present
We had our last saloons when the
writer was a dozen years of age. 1
believe that drunkenness and rowdyism
and crime in this community has been
gradually diminishing since that time,
and that it has been more marked
in decrease since our last dspensary
days.
You are in n position of great in
nuence in this community, and feel
that your mind is still open. though
you have given expression to your
thoughts, such as might make a casual
thinker feel that you placed money,
or its equivalent, as n factor to be us
ed in weighing the difference between
large question of right or wrong
l feel that you are wrong i'm this
matter, but inasmuch as YOU have
placed this question on dollars and
cents basis, SO to speak, | wish to
put it right square up to YOU on that
basis. My training has been more
commercial than literary, so here is
my propOsiticu
Whiskcy uted in excess leads to
the worst expressions of passion or
crime that ordinarily lies dormant in
the human breast.
IL is one of SOCicty's worst enemies
Any diminshmcnt Of its use is to our
great benefit here. If this commune
" now uses as much as half the
quantity of whiskcy as when we had
tn" dispcnsary, ana YOU can prove it.
! Will give a thousand dollars to you
Tor any charity in our midst YOU may
name. We can verify this by exam
Ining the records Of the last years
huSIncH" of our county dispcnsary. as
compared with the present express
and freight receipts.
] will allow YOU FIVE per cent for
what comes i'm through invisible
channels, and throw i'm the growth
IN population for four years free.
" have made II foolish offer, Mr..