Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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ft Press and Banner ' J 5 BBEYILLE, 8.C. 1 Published Every Wednesday by THE PRESS AND BANNER CO WM. P. CiRFiENE, Editor WEDNESDAY, JAN. 5, 1916. PROHIBITION PROHIBITS. Some twenty-five years ago, in an election ordered on the question of prohibition, the State of South Carolina voted to prohibit the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors in the state, but the people of the state are just now coming into their own. The state became a prohibition state on Janu*. ry 1st; 1916. But we do not * . ieve that the twenty-five ye? '- have been lost to the people ./ho want prohibition. In that time the people have had a chance to try thoroughly the plan of having liquors sold under state authority, by sworn bonded officers of the state. The people had already learned that the sale of liquor by individuals was an evil which CQuld not be tolerated, but there were those who believed that a prohibition law would be a farce, and il,"t ""Jo nf ^mnorgnon Cnilld mat uic ciiuo vx vvM?|/v4v...vw be promoted by a system of state management. This plan has been thoroughly tried, weighed in the bal- i ance and found wanting. Neither state management, county management, nor community management, has been able to take the corrupting t influences out of the whiskey busi- < ness. But the dispensary undoubtedly i did a great deal of good, especially 1 in those towns which had formerly 1 had bar-rooms. It may be true and 1 doubtless is, that there has been more i drinking in the rural and industrial i communities, because people were encouraced to buy liauors in quanti- < ties and carry it home, rather than 1 drink in the towns where there were 5 vigilant police officers. But on the 1 whole the dispensary did some good i in the way of promoting temperance; ? no observing man will deny this, we J think. ] But in the twenty-live years, the s people themselves have grown to i hate intoxicating liquors to an ex- 1 tent not hitherto known in this J > country. The cause of temperance ' has' grown of its own force and by < reason of the fact that it commend- 1 ed itself to the good sense of the 1 thinking people of the state. < Accordingly, when the liquor busi- i ness had failed as a business to be < handled by individuals, and when the State management of the purchase i and sale of intoxicating beverages i proved to be a corrupting influence { in the state, and an unsatisfactory ? way of handling a business which ' cannot be handled rightly, ' the peo- i pie of the state arose and demanded s that the manufacture and sale of i liquors in this state cease, and the i stato through the sovereign voters t has so decreed. i And prohibition will prohibit. It 1 may not stop the sale of liqours to s our people, it will not do this. But J the amount of liquor which is con- 1 sumed by the people of Abbeville * county will grow less and less as the I years go by, because liquor is out- a lr.wed, and so is the man who drinks it to excess, and every man a who drinks it, sometime or other, does so to excess. T The Wholesale Liquor Dealers' Association has for years contended that prohibition increased the consumption of liquors. But their actions have not supported their preachments, else the people who r make up the Association would not i always fight prohibition laws. They t will tell you that they want to do o legitimate business, but the records s of the courts of this and other states ! n show that the liquor-sellers are will-jt ing tc do any kind of business if they ; t may only sell liquor, and the votes d and the wishes of the people have in i times past counted nothing with c the liquor-seller when he wanted to t sell liquor. It was BUSINESS and s not legitimate business that he j t sought, and because prohibition de- ^ creased the sale of liquors, the li-1 f quor-seller has always been and al- c ways will be against prohibition. 11 The estimates from the Treasury j c Department of the United States 1 show what prohibition has done and j r i- doing for the liquor trade. It, is stated that the prohibition laws in f the several states, and the fight. * which has been made on the use of '1 tobacco, has so decreased the reve-Ic nue from the taxes on the liquor a and tobacco industry that the gov- j * crnment is forced to look elsewhere ; *for money to make good the losses j it has sustained from these two a causes. No one will doubt that the i F Federal Government is collecting all j1 the taxes due it, and no further I g doubt should be entertained that'0 prohibition is doing the work its: friends designed it to do. The letters which come to the editors of the g laily weekly papers carrying lrticles^ollected and sent out by the National Liquor Dealers Association, the hiring of lawyers in the several states in an endeavor to thwart the people of the state in a just endeavor to rid th- stae of the evil, the great advertisi g campaign which it sought to carry in in this state last year? all of ti )se show that the liquor associate knows that the hand of temperance is at the throat of the liquor business. And the good work will go on. Within a few years the Congress of the United States will pass an amendment to the Federal Constitution, which will be approved by the states that will outlaw liquor-making and liquor-selling throughout the land. And the young man of today who drinks liquor would do well to ponder the signs of these latter days, else he may wake up to find that the procession has passed. A MISTAKE. When we read a few weeks ago the correspondence between our townsman, Col. J. D. Kerr and Mr. Henry T. Ford, we did so with sorrow, be cause we knew tnat a great mistake had been made, and that the people throughout the world would have cause to regret the decision which Col. Kerr had made, not to go on the peace mission, although we knew that his furniture business and the buggy business needed his valuable services. Accordingly, we were not surprised to read in the daily papers that Mr. Ford had taken the town feeling as soon as he saw the big buildings on the other side of the waters. Now Mr. Ford is quite a large man in an automobile factory in Detroit, but it did not take him long to see that he is not a national, nor an international character, and we must all give him credit for having the ?ood sense to take sick. But that it not where the trouble lomes in. As soon as Mr. Ford left the Peace Party, it became necessary to elect a new Leader. There ivere a good many prominent men, And a good many men with temerity enough to try to settle the war, imong them our own distinguished Lieutenant Governor, Andrew Jackson Bethea, but for one cause or mother, they could not be gotten in;o harness. For instance, Governor Bethea had to hurry back to South Carolina to try a case in the Magistrate's court, and he could not take the job, and those who have taken the place have not made a success if the expedition. They have even gotten matters to where a man must :arry his own ijrip. The emergency which has about uined the chances of the expedition, s the emergency in which our distinguished townsman would have ihined. His high standing with the 'poor man" all over the country vould have made him the fit representative of the men in the trenches (the poor men) to ride up to Emueror William and King George and ;he others, cock his pistol and denand that wat cease, and that the nen be allowed ' to go home and ipend Christmas. And then his arge experience with furniture men n Atlanta, Ga., and High Point, N. 1, has given him the necessary di>lomatic training to put the job icross. All of which causes us to remark igain: "There is a tide in the affairs of nen," etc. < GOOD ROADS. 1 (American Highway Assciation.) In his last annual report the Sec- ; eary of Agriculture emphasized the ntimate relation of good roads to mth thp production and distribution 1 if farm products. "They are," he aid, "prerequisite not only to ecolomical production and distribution, iut also to the promotion of the roader life of the communities. "It loes not require arguments to prove 1 t. The visible evidence is in every ommunity where the roads have , teen improved. Without good roads uitcd to the traffic they must bear here can be no economy in the 1 tandling of agricultural products rom the field to the market and ev- j ry dime or dollar expended in transudation is a tax upon every pound f stuff brought out of the soil. Mil- ' ions have been wasted on the public oads of the country because they j lave not been properly built in the irst place and have not been main- ] ained after construction. Somehing more, a good deal more, is re- 1 [uired than the building of roads , ind one of the most important of < he conditions to be considered is heir proper drainage. ' There are in the United States vast .reas of land that might be made roductive if they were drained ef- ] ectively and though all these re;ions the building of good roads ught to go hand in hand with the rainage of the lands. An object ssson of how the two things should :o together is to be found at Char- j I leston, South Carolina, where the drainage and road construction have gone together. What has been done JJj in road-building amounts to very UZ little in respect of distance but where 11?" drainage and roads have gone to- gjj gether there has been a very notable ! 3J increase in the volume and ease of j 31 traffic with corresponding benefits J "fi to the farmers served in getting their | Uj stuff to market. Thousands of acres ! UC of the most productive land laying ; j|idle five and ten years ago have been ! jy brought under cultivation and are i 3J now yielding enormous crops. Great j in sections where men could not live be- i cause of malarious conditions have ! been opened to settlement and the . LC building of good roads has made it i1?" possible for the farmers to market I 3 +Vioit* ornne mitlinnt nnirinor nilf nil I 3l WtWJ. WVJStJ ?f *Vi?VUW -"fc, ?? | y the profits for transportation. 31 No farm can do its best without Jf| drainage and no road can be built Ujj or maintained without drainage. Mr. uf Marsden, engineer of the Office of rt" Experiment Stations of the Depart- 3 ment of Agriculture, says that from SB one hundred to one hundred fifty mil- 31 lions of acres, not including the jfi eighty million acres of swamp and l? overflowed land, in the United States US could be drained with profit under rtj present conditions of market facili- nl ties and cultural methods. In North rij Carolina there are six million such pQ acres, of which only about six thous- !jjj and acres have been drained. In Alabama only about one thousand Bj acres out of 1,500,000 needing drain- Qj age, have been cju-ed for. In the QWest the same condition largely ob- 3 tains. The cost is inconsiderable *p compared with the profits derived Sn from the proper drainage of the lands. It is not a matter of guess Qj worK. f armers v no nave arainea u= their lands testify that its value has rf* been increased from fifty to three 3 hundred per cent. Mr. Marsden 5TJ cites the case of a farmer in the ?n coast country of North Carolina, who drained twenty-five acres at a cost K of $250 which now yields a bale of ftj cotton to the acre, which at $50 the bale would amount to $1,250. nQ But what would it profit the far- 5p mer to drain his land without good |n roads over which to haul his cotton MK and other farm products to market? D| The two things go together. The flj cost of hauling over the ordinary ?> roads of the country is reckoned at X 23 cents per ton per mile, or for the 31 immense tonnage thus transported Jf| about $650,000,000 annually. The cost of hauling over hard-surfaced public roads would be about 13 cents per ton per mile and the saving would be immense, something over """ $400,000,000 the year; or about the value of all the apples, beans, rice, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes and 5?Kt honey produced annually in the United States,, The waste of the -|H United States would support in Chi- ijjj3 nese comfort all the teeming mil- [|jl lions of the Flowery Kingdom? |]M waste on account of undrained lands, @D ill-constructed highways, exorbitant in cost of transportation on the com- [|n mon roads of the country, all of 13 which would be escaped if the peo- [jjjSI pie could be impressed with the in- [|jj sanity of the methods generally pre- j|M vailing in dealing with these matters. jiS Just as the improvement of the [|Q waterways and fair dealing with the {|S rQi'lrnoHc oro occor+iol f a fha r\rnc_ I perity of all the people, so also are j|!f the drainage of productive land and sjf the building of substantial highways, iljB which are, as it has been said so @KX well, "the primary means of transportation for all agricultural pro- |]S ducts?the only avenues of trans- ite* portation leading from the point of gST production to the point of consumpfcion or rail shipment." There is in glj all this, or ought to be, a confeder- [iyi acy of interest, and with the New grt Year it is the hope of the American |g Highway Association to \ mobilize raj* these economic forces for {he public [|5j welfare. [||f I* GEMS OF THOUGHT. glf Those who forget today seldom remember tomorrow. iM Petulance is a shadow that clouds the sunshine of life. ij-I] ?sr There is always one chance, when g|? you think you have a chance. Conclusion goes in leaps and [|M bounds while thouerht laes behind. Iip iayp 3" u if s L? |p T1 L? [r J False modesty will not look at ?nP laked truth, unless it is draped in 3g leaves. irifsiip'innwnfipinnriwnwnwr 3DDIJII Jl UIJIJIJ UIJIJUIJUIJUUUI Holiday < rr \/t j Everybody "dr I ut iviu, una Holidays-it's a Young Men you owe yourae fill, prosperous tW Schloss Bi "This Store 1 lliST and trusts that w,,,,7way and alrea( Business is GO 1|? MH| better every da; IIViHi in thpsp riPYt fp Ihalf way to me< overlook the in -good clothes/ fore, more ex Clothes are nov who would "ge world. Remembei Splendid lines of new styled, he,P you more t! handsome-fitting suits and idea of. Rememl overcoats here to choose store is headquar from, the latest models as designed by famous style- clothes the kind leaders. All sizes, shapes you look prospero and prices, equal to the best , t> J d.in 4. one bring Prosperity 1 custom-made $10 to $25. ______ of it. A Happy N< Let Us Outfit You foi PARKER 19 BjBjgjgjgjgfBjgjgjgjgjgjBfgjBjgjefctgjgjgjgjgjgjgjgjgjgjgjgjgjgjgjgjgjc Haddon-\ I ARE M J Extensive Pn si I! Early Sprin 1:3 ll 1 WATCH J WHITE GO I IN NEX" J jy SJgfgJSM3M2?3M2?2M3MSf3i!c: 3M3JSI2J3/SJSM2M31S | MMKHMSSlfiyHMKlfffiHHfilFlfil |^jjCjj2J2J5f5jgjgjciJ5J5J5J2J5M5JEJSJSIcfSJSIS!S5.,Bi2iri1i'?ftini!EJSJ5J5I5I5n I Clothes || esses up" more or less around the 11 . part of the program-something i J slf-this business of looking cheer- J j and happy. Let us help you do it 1 j 1 ?_ r> j ros. L/0., ana oiyiepiwi ? CLOTHES | Wishes You a Happy Kew; Year!" ! j , the "Good Times'' now on their {J iy making their effects felt, may [ j 1 share of prosperity and welfare. [ | OD, good in all lines, and getting [ j y, and prosperity is bound to come {<j iw years, to everyone* who goes 2 j 3t it. And, in this connection, don't j | lportance of "a good appearance [ J ' More important than ever be-, j j ^ :pected-more looked fory-Good. j I vadays a vital necessity to ttie man i J I t on" and make his mark in the j ] I r this, and it will ' J I ban you have any Good furnishings too, have | their place in giving that | I jer too, that this well-g roomed prosperous I * -i_ look that marks the success- | 5 ters for Prosperity ful mfln YouH find all the | I that not only make most useful things here?all \ | the little things a man needs, I us, but . that help from hosiery to hats, at little | prices and of sure and cer- I A) everyone worthy tain quality. * ' ? sw Year. . I I j ; r the Coming Year! j i & REESE ii tfiiRlgfglgl&lLnilillilJlllillHIEJHIEniiZlST I VilsonCol| ;parations for J|l g Business. ||l -OR OUR || I ods sale! r issue II J5JSJ5I5lKfSJ5f5?5.r5J5jrSJBJ5j5JSJ5?5J51Ei915IEIB/5J5J5JBJ5j5J9J5J5:s$Sx 3JSJSMM2MSfSMSEf?JS]SJMSiS12MSMSMSjW[!.'!cilli!.c!jS.,Sjii2fS/i; %MK8> mtB.,*.:. .