The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-09-08
SEPT. 8, 1915.
HIGH FINANCE

Last week inquiries were sent out
from Columbia by the Local Option
League seeking advertising rates in
most of the papers of the State. 1t
was stated that an advertising man
rad been secured, who would write
all the advertisements, and that there
was plenty of money in the bank to
paw for these advertisements: in
other words, "the money was not to
make"
These advertisements, for the most
part, as they have appeared in some
&C the papers of the State, tell US how
to save the State. We are warned
that we are about to commit a great
blunder in voting fol-, prohibition. 1t
is stated that if a man buys five dol
lars worth of liquor, which costs the
county only four, the county makes
a dollar, and that this dollar with a
large number of other dollars made
by the State in the same way, goes
a long way towards paying the taxes
of the county and state, as well as to
support the schools. Now the adver-
tsement writer hates awfully to see
thescounty. and schools lose this dol
lar; he makes no mention, however,
Of the. great feeling of disappoint-
ment that steals over him, when the
liquor trust fails to sell the four dol
lars worth of liquor to the county dis
pensary, and when the citizen on the
other hand, keeps the five dollars in
his pocket for his own use; that mat
ter, we presume, has not occurred
to the LEAGUE YET.
The advertisement writer does not
attempt to figure out either just
where the citizen who. buys the five
collars worth Of liquor "get OFF,. He
is much concerned about the revenue
which the county and the State and
the schools will lose, (nothing still
mentioned about the profits Of the
liquor trust) but he makes no .calcu-
lation on behalf of the individual. He
does not calculate that, if the indivi-
dual spends the four dollars, and sew
eral times that amount, for liquor,
he is still paying the taxes of the
State and county, and still support
ing the schools thereby, but that
every time he gives the State and the
county and the schools one dollar, he
robs himself, and his wife and his
children, of five dollars, which other
wise he would have to pay on the
mortgage on his home, to buy clothes
FOR the children to wear to school, or
books for them to study; the adver-
tisement man does not tell you that
while the citizen is in town spending
the five dollars, and the county is
thereby making one dollar (nothing
still said about the profits of the
liquor trust) that there are children
at home without shoes, perhaps
bread, without a newspaper'or a book
in the house to read, and with never a
kind word from the man who has
spent. the five dollars, which was
theirs by right. =
No wonder that the miserable
creatures who wish to debauch the
manhood of South Carolina will not
come from under cover. No wonder
that no nan in South Carolina will
stand up and say that 81 am the Local
Option League of South Carolina"
The men who are operating the
Local Option League in South Caro-
lima n the men who wish to sell
liquor still in South Carolina. And
neither do they care whether it is
sold by dispensaries, blind-tigers,
open bars, or how; they want to sell
liquor. 1t is up to the people of this
State to say or election day whether
they will follow the Whiskey Trust
to the polls and vote its bidding, or
whether they will, like men, cast their
own ballots to rid this State of the
baneful influences of liquor selling.
On the front page of this paper is
an appeal from citizens of South
Carolina urging you to help save this
State from the curse of liquor. 1t is
signed. by men of your own State,
who are not ashamed of the fight in
which they are engaged. You must
at least respect men who are willing
to sign their names to an appeal to
the people of the State for what they
believe to be right. Will you turn
your back on these men to vote with
Cincinnati, Chattanooga, and Louis
vile liquor interests, styling them
selves the Local Option League of
South Carolina?