The Horry herald. (Conway, S.C.) 1886-1923, August 31, 1905, Image 4

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CROMER IN REPLY. A Rejoinder to 8enator Tillman's refenco of the Dispensary. The Doctor Discusses His Differences With the Senator In a Calm, Dispassionate Manner* Hon. B. R. Tillman. Dear Sir; It was not to be cxpeoted that you would adopt my view of the prlucipleH underlying the dispensary law, but 1 desire to assure you that 1 appreciate the spirit of your letter published in the papers this morning. A tinal word in reply is required by one or two passages in your letter. While my own conduct is of small moment and 1 have no desire to bring my personality into the discussion, let me assure you, in passing, that my moral support has been given to the enforcement of the dispensary law. When Gov. Heyward expressed a determination to enforce the law in Charleston, I wrote him a letter of mo i*nn ??n/\ 1 irm uu vAfujuiDiiuatiui), IH'U ucucvum; t was in sympathy with the dispensary law, but because I am opposed to lawlessness and in favor of fosteriug respect for duly constituted authority. But 1 think you miss both the spirit and the letter of Pope's well known couplet. He did not say: "About form of law let fools contc t. That law which is best administered is best." Ho was not speaking of legislative enactments tkt of governments and creeds as theM.fleot human welfare, and he said: V "For forms s'?rnracnt let fools contestj, '? ' Wbate'er is* uest administered is best.', If there is inherent vice in the law Itself, etlicient administration of the law cannot cure it. Referring to the decision of the supreme court, which you say 1 "quote with great unction," you say, "The prohibitionists in general and you, my dear doctor, are thoroughly Imbued with the belief that liquor drinking is dangerous to the morals, good order, health and safety of the people," etc. 1 am not a fanatic on the subject, though you put me in a class with the "unco guid and rigid | righteous" who think it a sin to drink liquor. As you say that you have not that decision before you, I take the liberty of supplying a full quotation in order that it may be seen that I have argued the matter not as a fanatic but from the point of viow of the supreme court. You will recall that at the November term, 18(J3, the supreme court deoided that the dispensary law was unconstitutional. Mr. Justice McGowan concurring with Mr. Chief Justice Mclver in the decision, and Mr. Justice Pope dissenting. The next year, 1894, Mr. Justice Gary having succeeded Mr. Justice MoGowan on the supreme bench, the court decided that the law was constitutional, Mr. Justice Pope and Mr. Justice Gary concurring, and Mr. Chief Justioe Mclver dissenting. 1 am frank enough to say that if I were hunting something that I could "quote with unction," I could iiud It in the dissenting opinion. The following paragraph, found in State vs. Aiken, 42 S. (3., page 231, contains the ground work of the decision upholding the constitutionality of the law: "before proceeding to a consideration of the specific objections urged against the constitutionality of the act (of 1893) we deBire to state at the outset that, in our opinion, the following proposition^ embody the prin ciples governing tuls cas?: "(1) That liquor, in its nature, is dangerous to the morals, good order, health and safety of the people, and is not to be placed on the same foot ing with the or/inary commodities of life, such as coin, wheat, cotton, tobacco, potatoe/, etc. "(2) ThaOthe State, under its police power, /In itself assume entire control ancf management of those subjects, su6h as liquor, that are dau gerou* to the peace, good order, health morals a?d welfare of the people, even wli|n trade is one of the inol aents or eucn entire control and managennenyon the part of the State. "(8) /That the act of 1898 Is a police niyasure. We are frank to say that if we are wroag as to either of theseyproposl lions, the act should be deoiyrod unconstitutional. We will novycitt' authorities to sustain these propositions." iNote, then, that the language in Wilch you define the attitude of the rirohibitionists is exactly the language jn which the supreme court defines Zhe attitude of the law on the subjeot. /that decision fixes the point of view / from which the State is hound to rp/ gard the question; and from that f point of view the State may take con / trol of the trafllc to police it but not to profit by it. And if the view of llugh Farley, chivalrous spirit, and others who were opposed to the protit feature had b?.eu adopted, the result might have been different. I admit that it is wise to "hobble the devil," whom you ar i powerless effectually to chain; but having hobbled the devil, I protest that it is not right to make him yoke fellow with the spirit of progress In our schools and open the way for our children to embrace him aa an angel of light. Returning to njy historical parallel, I am not incline^ to press the lessons of the prohlbltiph vote of 1892 unduly. After reminding me that 82,000 did not vote in thaf election, which you denominate a Vside show," you say i J ii I that "this Is a government of majorities." True, but It Is a government of majorities that vote, and not of majorities that stay away from the polls. At that election, prohibition received In this county more than 1,000 votes, a majority of the total vote oast. But when they came to fasten the dispensary upon Newberry county that vote of more than 1,000 was nullified by a petition of 79 freeholders In the town of Newberry, 34 of whom were negroes. The attitude of public sentiment towards the dispensary law In this oounty has assumed three distinct phases in suocesclon. In its earlier stages the law did not have a fair test. For reasons that need not be enumerated public sentiment was resentful, and the law against Illicit tralllo In liquor was not enforced. But violations of the law became so scandalously open and unrebuked that a revulsion took place in the sentiment of the oommunlty, and for years the law has been enforced. We have now arrived at the third phase, In which the sentiment of the community seems to be crystallizing In opposition to the whole scheme, owing largely, I think, to the fact that the moral sense of the people Is offended by the constant effort to justify the law by appealing to Its revenue feature; but owing also to corruption in the administration of the law. It was not my original purpose and I now make no attempt to refute statistics or to argue the question In riAULil. IInlo.HU rhAfl/mSit.lfvna r\t , Stated are exactly similar It is hard to arrive at a Just* conclusion >-y contrasting statistics of crime. Hut we might quote stmMatics until the people are dizzy and at'!) 11 1 believe that a large number c/f our counties will be satistied with nothing short of actual experiment after the example of Marlboro, Greenwood a"d Cherokee, We reach the parting oy our ways at the conclqding clause eft your letter I quote tfy paragraph: / "I will not say that pour vision is clouded by fanaticism but if "it be true that 'he who makes two blades of grass grow where only one grew before is a public benefactor,' then is it not equally true that he who conceived a BCbeme by which drunkenness was reduced, temperance encouraged and decency and good order increased and withal made the demon whiskey contribute to the education of the ignorant masses, need he be ashamed of his work?" I do not admit that the dispensary soheme lias reduced drunkenness, en couraged temperance and decency and Increased good order. Mark you, 1 speak of the effect and not of the motive. Hut it has ''made the demon whiskey contribute to the education of the ignorant masses." And many ef the advocates of the scheme vehemeutly urge this as a justifying fact. The "ignorant masses" love their schoolB but do not draw nice moral distinctions. The supreme court said stitle this vampire and threaten the health and life of the community; but the profit feature gives "the ignorant masses" ground to infer that what the supreme court mistook for a vampire is in reality the goose that lays the golden egg. And I repeat, any re striotive scheme that tends to make an immoral traftlc reputable and popular is a vicious and dangerous scheme. "Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistle^?" Geo. B. Cromer. Newberry, S. 0., Aug. 10, 1905. lightning Dots Damage. A dispatch from Atlanta says an electric storm of remarkable severity, accompanied by a high wind; visited that city Wednesday. One young man, James McDaniel, 18 years old, was killed by lightning near the centre of the city. The Kimball House and the State capltol were each struck twOe by lightning, but no serious damage was caused to ei her building. Fully 1,000 telephones are reported burnt d out, a score of eleotric street cars were burned out, windows were blown In, awnings carried away and numbers of cellars were Hooded. Seven tenths of an inch of rain fell in ten minutes. The damage will amount to soveral thousand dollars. OraHhuct Into Trolley. At Cincinnati, Ohio, three men were killed and ten were injured Wed nesday night when a fast through ex press from New York to Oincln ati on the Baltimore and Ohio So i'hwestern crashed Into a Winton Piace trolley,car In Winton Piace a suburb. All the killed lived In Winton Place. According to some witnc ses of the wreck John Drlsooll, gate tender, had let the gate down to allow a freight to pass. The locomotive of the frelghtemltted heavy oloudsof smoak, preventing the tender from seeing the passenger train bearing down at high speed and he raised the gates, it is said. The locomotive struck the back part of the street car and it was tossed to pieces In all directions. A i*ot of Gold Pound. A pot of gold, supposed to have been burled by Gapt. Kid, has been dug up 011 Sullivan's island. The Gh?ri?&Gvn Boat says "the gold was found near the chimney of the Buckley house on Saturday night, belli# turned up by one of the laborers who was raisin# the house to make room for the extension of the barracks of the army post. The laborer who laid claim and made off with the money could not be learned, but he was not a souvenir hunter, being content to take the gold and leave the rusted metal pot, including a number of old Spanish doubloons, valued at $16 each, pistols. Louis and .other coins, and the excitement which the find has made among the native islanders has assumed no small proportions." I > THE CALM REPLY Of Senator Tillman to the Last Letter of Dr. Cromer. MAKES A STATEMENT In Reference to Charges on the Supreme Court and Says He Had Nothing Whatever to Do With the Matter, and Gives His Opin- . ion of Present Pight. Hon. Geo. IT. Cromer. Dear Sir: I was absent from the State a few days after the Anderson meeting, and since my return home Sunday I have been quite unwell, hence delay In auswering your "reJ )luder," which appeared In the newspapers of the 18th. 1 have read what you Ray carefully, and with all due respect It seems to me you are begging the question. I quoted Pope's couplet from memory and it is lucky that I mifquoted it, else you would have had 11 tt>ie to reply to, but I cannot agree with you that "1 mi-wed" either the "sense or the spirit." 1 charged existing conditions In dis pensary matters to mal-adixiinlstratlon and to legislation in changing the law and depended upon the last line of the quotation to sustain my contention: "That law which is best administered is best." Of course your quotation must be verbatim and it is even stronger in sustaining my argument than my own recollection of the words, for if "whatever form of government," an autocracy, limited monorchy or a republic is better than any other when It is "best administered" it seems to me that you must be wrong in olaiming 'if there is inherent vice in the law Itself, efficient administration of the law cannot cure it." Wo are not discussing that phase at all. You class the dispensary system as inherently vicious as oontra distinguished with the licensed sale of liquor, and the prohibition of its sale at all. According to Pope, as you quote him, "whatever" form the law might take as among these three would be best if it is "administered best." That is all I have ever contended. I believe the dispensary system can be better administered than can prohibition, and 1 am opposed to any form of license, high or low, because it has the inherent vice" of money making by the individual, and fhln 4^ i 1 * - At ' * "* inii? tu my iiiiuu is trie most deadly poison arising out of the whiskey tralllc. I hardly think you will deny ' that the dispensary law fearlessly and honesty administered as it was originally framed would be belter than prohibition not enforced. However, it was not this part of your rejoinder which gave mc any concern, because it almost answered itself and I only mention it incidentally as 1 am answering you. The point which I wish to press on your attention and that of those who may be interested in our discussion of this question is the ''lame and impotent conclusion" at which you arrive in your discussion of the dispensary from a legal standpoint. You are a lawyer and an able one, while 1 am only a layman, but your reading must have been limited or your reasoning powers at fault to rest your case as you appear to do on the claim that the prohibitionists are sustained throughout in their views by the decisions of the supreme court. You quote the decision in the case of the State vs. Aiken, 42nd S. 0., p. 231. "That liquor in its nature is dangerous to the morals, good order, health pnd safety of the people, etc., and then you say "Note then the language in which you deti.ie the attitude of the prohibitionists is exactly the language iu which the supreme court defines tbe attitude of the law on the subject. That decision lixes the point of view from which the State is bound to regard the question; and from thai point of view the State may take con trol of the tradio to police it but not to prolit by it." You give vour own interpretation to the language used by the court but to me it is altogether without any warrant, except as your individual opinion and in direct opposition to the entire line of thought and reasoning of the judge who wrote the opinion in the State vs. Aiken, I quote from the same decision, page 239-. "The act shows that the legislature had in view the protection of the "morals, good health, and safety of the State' in dealing with this question. Many safeguards are thrown around the sale of liquor. The commissioner is to be an abstainer from Intoxicants. The liquor is to be tested by the chemist and declared to be pure. The liquor is to be sold only by the package, which cannot be opened nor drunk where sold. The sales can only be made in day time. Persons cannot be appointed on the county V.rvfi vri r\t ? 1 -11 - 1 A ' i/v/uiu ui uuiitiui WIIU ddUlClOU tC the use of intoxicating liquors. He person can be appointed a county dispenser who has over been adjugded guilty of violating the law relating to intoxicating liquors, nor who is keep er of a restaurant or a place of public amusement, nor who is addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage. "The county dispenser shall execute r a bond In the turn of 93,000, upon which suit for damage** may be brought for a violation of the provisions of tbe act by wife, child, parent, guardian, employer, or other person. A majority of the voters In a township may pre1 vent the establishment of a dispensary. The oounty dispenser shall take an oath therein prescribed. A printed or written request must be presented for permission to purohase. The sale shall not be made to a minor, a person \ Intoxicated, a person In the habit of drinking to excess por to a person unless known to the aispenser. It prevents the establishment of club rooms, where liquors are used. One of the i beneficial results of the law Is brought about by selling only for cash." In the faoe of this language how can you declare that "the State may take control of the traffic to police it, but not to profit by it?" On page 240 we find this: "The Judiciary," said Mr. Justice McCiOwan in the case of Town Council vs. Pressley, 33rd S. C., page 56, "cannot run a race of oplnlous upon points of right reason, and expediency with the law making power." fnt. r . .1.1? * it . I mun air. justice uary anaea: "Trie State has a right through its own officers?In fact, it its primary duty? to enforce its police regulations, which right Inheres In government itself and Is paramount to any right inherent in citizenship. But referring to the foregoing objection as matter of fact, it wou'd not be as efficiently enforced by private individuals, because there would be the constant temptation to make as large profit as possible." But referring to the foregoing ob j'Ction (that the same results could be accomplished by allowing private individuals to carry on the tratli") as a matter of fact it would not be as efficiently anforced by private individuals "because there would be the constant temptation to make as large profits as p wsible." Further on Justice Gary adds: "The dispensary aot itself is an outgrowth of a dissatisfaction on the part of the people with the manner in which the police power when delegated, was abused" (by permitting those who obtained the licenses to make as much money as possible.) Again I desire to direct your attention to the decision of the supreme court of the United States in the case of Vance vs., W. A. Vandercook Co., 170 U. S., p. 447, in which the constitutionality of the dispensary law was upheld by our court of last resort: "It is argued as the State law here in question does not forbid but on the Contrary authorizes the sale of intoxin>m fc.Q wlhhln Old fifo ko honno If Jo I wv, .? wa a? uuv MVUUV) I iVJUVU 1U 13 not a police law, therefore not enacted In the exercise of the police power of the State and consequently does not operate upon the sale of original pack ages within the State. But the premise upon which these argument rest is puroly arbitrary and imaginary. From the fact that the State law per mits the sale of liquor subject to par ticular restrictions and only upon enumsrated conditions it does not follow that the law is not a manifestation of the police power of the State. The plain purpose of the act of oougress having been to allow State regulations to operate upon the sale of original packages of Intoxicants com ing from other States, it would destroy its obvious meaning to construe it as permitting the State laws to attach to and control the sale only in case the States absolutely forbade sales of liquor and not to apply in case the State determined to restrict or regu late the same." How then, my dear sir, oan you seriously contend that "the State may take control of the tralllo to police it but not to pre fit by It." Our own court in the strongest language maintains the contrary; the supreme court of the United States with the law be fore it sustained it, notwithstanding this feature, yet merely because you feel that the proiit feature is an inherent vice of the dispensary law which destroys its usefulness and Its legality, i must ask, now can you seriously aTgue such a point, and how can you lend your great inlluence and intellect to mislead those who are Ignorant? You brush aside as wholly unworthy of consideration the statistics which I advanced to show that prohibition does not prohibit, and that drunkenness is not as great in Charleston with all its blind tigers as it is in prohibition cities of like stz3. You dismiss therewith a wave of the hand, because they may make the people dizzy and then assert most positively that the supreme court said, "Stifle this vampire that threatens the health and life of the community." While it is an Indisputable proposition that the supreme court has never said anything of the kind and only used the language which you quoted as the Justification of the legislature for enacting the dispensary law, to better control and minimize the evils inseparable from linnnr T fr. u/au marnlu a ?.v| v?w? aw ?? v*m U4U1 vij u OUIUUK i jr worded declaration that the law was an exercise of the police power. Suppose the dispensary law was ro administered that it eliminated the profit feature entirely, is it not evident that a dollar would buy a great deal more liquor than it does now and it would therefore encourage consumpi tion and therefore drunkenness? It seems to me that you have reached the conclusion In your own i mind that the dispensary law must be i "damned if it does and be damned if ' it don't," and your attitude towards > it is made perfectly clear when you > say, "1 do not admit that the dispensary scheme has reduced drunkenness, encouraged temperance and decency i and increased good order." This in view of the facts that have been time and again printed, in view of the opin? ion of wellnlgh every close observer in , and outside of the State, that the dispensary is a long ways ahead of the \ license system as a temperance meas TAUGUS Bookkeeping, Shorthand, Ty guaranteed course 20 weeks. Sir hand, 8 mos. 12 calls for graduate mand. Write. Machinery Supply WE SELL Headquarters for EVERYTHING All kinds of Injectors, Lubricator Supplies for Saw Mills, Oil Mills a Large stock of Well Pumps and C COLUMBIA Columbia, <=* CV The r I \ The Gutnard COlvUMl II Manufacturers Brick, Fire Proc O Flue linings and Drain Tile. F oi; millions. Wtnbke I Morphine i Cigaret Habit, | Habit | Habit fCured by Keeley 1329 Lady St. (or P. O. Box 76f Oo o ure solely is the most remarkable utterance I have ever heard fall from the lips of a man who stands so high, and deservedly, in the estimation of every good man and woman in the State. If you are content to stand by that utterance I certainly am willing to leavo you occupying that attitude. One word more and I am through. In the Columbia State of August 22 I find quoted from the Charlotte observer the following: "The dispensary discussion in South Carolina, complex even at its simplest, is much befuddled just now bv the fact that two Popes seem to have played prominent parts in dispensary affairs. One is the Honorable Y. J. Pope, at present the the chief justice of the State, who once handed down a dissenting opln ion as to the constitutionality of the dispensary law. He was all alone un til the legislature upon the orders of Gov. Ben Tillman put Mr. Justice McGowan off the supreme bench because he cMd not favor the dispensary law and put on Mr. Justice E B. Gary because he did favor it. Then the dispensary law was declared constitutional, Pope and Gary concur ring, Mclver dissenting." This lie was first sent broadcast over this State by those leading newspapers whioh are now clamoring for the de struotlon of the dispensary and which are the main reliance of the prohibitionists, although they boldly declare that they do not believe in it any more than I do. This outrageous falsehood thus revamped and copied from a North Carolina paper is again set in circulation and I deem it nothing but my duty, aud it is certainly a pleasure, to do justice to Mr. Just'c^ Gary, while the very records of the facts will show the falsity and venom of the infamous story. The dispensary law was declared unconstitutional in April, 1S94, by Justices Mclver and McGowan, Justice Pope; dissenting. The opinion was wholly unexpected to the people of the State and to the best lawyers In it. I know because I had talked with many of them on the subject. Judge McGowan retired from the bench the July following and Justice Gary took his place. Mr. McGowan had not, as I recollect, oiT red for re-election the preceding December and when Judge Gary was elected no one dreamed that the issue would be presented In that light. While it was fashionable In those days to say Gov. Hen Tillman ' 'gave orders to the general assembly," T horn flonlo?o nn "n" 1 L ? ? jl tiv^iv> uuuiui v> uu ru jr ^ULIttl Ii<)[10r that I had nothing whatever to do with that election, and that Justice Gary's opinion as to the constitution, ality of the dispensary law was well understood by all who conferred with him, and that he was as little expectant of the decree whicn was promulgated in April following as any other man in South Carolina. It may be that the reopening of these old wounds and the continued attacks that are being made on me may revive factionalism in South Carolina and I call for all fair minded meu to bear witrass that this agitation about the dispensary and abuse of all who have had anything to do with it from beginning to end is not being pressed by me or ray friends, that it is the other side that is urging the fight, and I again repeat that if there shall again be a revival of bit tern ess In the coming campaign the blame can not Justly be laid at my door. I have never been meek or disposed to "turn the other cheek" when I have been smitten and while I deprecate this style of warfare, I am prepared to meet onslaughts of this or any other kind, let them come from whence they may. b. R. Tillman. Trenton, S. C., Aug. 23d. ;ta;iga.; pe-writing, English branches, Full iglo course of either Business or Short- I ? in about 20 days. Can't supply de. House for the State. 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