The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1917-12-19

consistent with thoroughness and adj
journ.
There are a number Of measures
pending on the calendar of each
house, which will be taken up first.
but there are few of them of such i'm
portance as to demand consider alton
at this time. The entrance of the
nation into the greatest war Of all
times has brought new problems to
the people, in some of which the leg
islature can help, and it is these
problems that the people are demand
ing that the legislature give it's Sc
rious attention to. In time like this
the people do not want to see most of
the time of the session taken up, as
it usually is, with a fight over liquor.
If the general assembly is going to
make any changes in the liquor law
"a question upon which most of the
members will have made up their
minds before they get here-let them
go ahead and do it, say the people,
without so much talk. If they can't
get together upon any sensible law,
either on the prohibition or the. regu-
lation side of the question, then let
the present farcical law stand Of
course, some sensible law is needed.
The present law has made perjurers
out of hundreds Of people in South
Carolina, and has led to the drinking
of concoctions to produce intoxica-
tion, ruinous both to mind and body.
Even the Columbia State woke up to
the situation the other day when it
said that carload shipments of al
legged nonalcoholic' beverages are dis
tributed in every section of the stae
and practically nullify. the state pro-
hibition laws, thus converting hun
dreds of fruit stands, drug Stores, and
soft drink counters, both in the city
and in the rural district, into dram
shops" South Carolina will never
have sensible liquor law until the
matter is gone at in a practical way.
What the next legislature is going to
do, nobody knows, but the people
want whatever is done to be done
without devoting the whole session to
talking about it. They are disgust
ed with the present quart-a month
law for "medecinal" purposes, and
they want either sensible law which
would regulate the liquor traffic or
straight-out prohibition. This bust
ness of permits upon affidavit for
quart each month for. "medicinal"
purposes has become nauseating in
the eight months it has been going on.
The most important matter which
will confront the general assembly
will be properly to care for the va
rious departments of the government
with view both to economy and eff
cheney, and to refuse extraordinary
appropriations at this time except
where they are necessary in the war
emergency. The people are being
called upon to make sacrifices for the
government, for the armies and for
the flag, and they are patriotically
doing so. If the Legislature is imbued
with the spirit which characterizes
the people of South Carolina, as it
should be, it's very action will be
characterized by an earnest desire, in
a broad spirit to eliminate any fac
tional bitterness; to pass the few
laws that are really necessary for the
support of the state institutions and
to meet the charged conditions which
the war has brought about; to pro-
vide, so far as possible, for such
emergencies as may arise during the
year and to adjourn and go home.
What the Legislature will really do,
however, remains to be seen.