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Show IB "While hero last week Senator Bar- IB bcr made tho statement that there lUT Is a nioc on foot to hac State l)ls- I - pcnsjiry Sj stem established In Utah, 8 Instead of the present method of con-n con-n .! ducting saloons. In order that our j ' readers may understand how the sjs-l sjs-l , tern has worked elsewhere, we publish J ( the following paper read by Mark m l' , Pendleton at a temperance meeting flj Sunday night. j THIS l'Al'Kll. Webster defines a dispensary as a 8! ' "place where drugs aie prepared and ; dispensed." Of late je.irs an addl- tlonal meaning has been glen tho word, namely; a place where alcoholic liquors arc sold by a municipality or Ij state. The dispensary sjstom as ijW applied to a state means state inoiio- J poly of tho sale of Intoxicants. Mm The object of the dispensary Is Hist, 1 to piomotc tcmpciancc, second, to lIB ralsoievcnue. Unlike the saloon, the IB dispensary docs not ha o a social side, Mm as drinking on the pieinises Is prohlb- H itcd and chairs and tables are for- jM bidden. It is also claimed that ills- HI pensary liquois aie not only cheaper, Hi but purer than those sold In a saloon. Ira Liquors of a certain sticngth are pur- HHl chased In large quantities by the state, iHJfl shipped to the head dispensary, Iffi bottled, labeled and scaled by employ es ill of the state and distributed to the M local dispensaries. Under the dlspon- II snry sjstcm tho profit made by the 10 saloonkeepers under license is saved nfi by the state, tliercby making taxes M less. B Tho opponents of tho dispensary B alllrm that tho state exists to secure H to its citizens "their inalienable fl rights; that among these arc life, E liberty and the pursuit of happiness," H and therefore the state can not right-nil right-nil fully dlspcnso a bccrago that is dc-HI dc-HI structivc of life, that endangers 11b-Hu 11b-Hu crty, and Is tho foe of happiness. Efl They also claim that tho dispensary BmB Is a falluro ns a temperance measure. BB Statistics prove that in places where HhB the dispensary Is established that BB the consumption of Intoxicants is IH9 increasing at an alarming rate, and Mn that therefore crime is oti the in-IBB in-IBB crease. They admit that driinken-NHj driinken-NHj ncss has been decreased in public, but BS increased In tho homes, since not less Hf than a pint of liquor can bo purchased Hit In a dispensary. It is also claimed HHW that state control gles tho whisky MJh business a higher sanction and stand-ijfflj stand-ijfflj Ing than high license. The dispensary JgnE becomes a respectable place pieslded tilK oerbv anagentof thcstatc,maklng it pK lcspcctablc and fashlonablo to drink Biff dispensary whiskey. It Is also clahn-Vjm clahn-Vjm cd by its opponents that the Immense In- profits of tho plsponsary sjstcmacts f as a bribe, making the peoplo willing t toenduio tho ells of intemperance !; for icenuo which Is used for cduca- ' ' tlonal purposes, and to build public 1 1 buildings and roads. I! To get u clearer understanding of 1 ? the workings of tho dispensary It R I will bo necessary to consider the ex- ff S perlmcnts that have already been mado Em in tho single city of Athens , Ga. and h in the state of S. C. Hi The original dispensary in the PR United States was established 189:1 BH . at Athens, Ga., a city of 12,000 Inliabl-P Inliabl-P tants. Thcilrstjear'ssalesamountcd I EL to $.'3,000; in 1000 the sales had hill hi-ll Hf creased to $03,000; in 1001, $77,000 R B IV worth of dispensary whisky was sold. U H it In other words tho Incicase forono mi ' j ear amounted to 2 1 per cent; for the m; whole pei Iod 50 per cent. fflr, "Itev. Dr. John Heldt pastor of tho IBB Fhst Methodist chinch says: As far liS as 1 know thcic i- not a minister In IK Athens white or colored that does not Bu . depiecate tho dispensary and pray for Bj ( dolheiancc fiom its evils. ! 8 Dr. V. It. Barnaul, editor of South- BB cm Adancc (Athens) sajs: "I helped Hi ; to establish the dispensary. I am rfl j sorry I did It. Its lcsults, as 1 have B seen them, do not justify its B .' establishment." Bb Claude Audcison of tho Athens IMS Sentinel sajs: "The dispensary has HS piocn a success llnanclally, and tho fjfljf success in manufactuilng diunkiuds BB and blighting homes will rival tho t' lccoid of open bar looms, Wmk The South Carolina dispensary law BB was enacted In 18o:. The Hist full MM year of tho dispensary w as 1800, when BB . tho sales amounted to $1,30.'),310. Tho H population of the state at that time MHf was about l,2.ro,000. "Tlio annual BK report of the commissioners of the SHI South Caiollna state dispensary, wKmwf rendcicd for tho j car closing Xo cm- MB bcr:toth, 1001, shows that the total l?'l fr sales of tho dlspejisaiy dining tho J fi year, exclusive of tho so-called beer W ' dispensary, amounted to $2,228,081.12, If (I ' with u total net piollt of $oI5,2I0.12 if j Tho population In 1001 was 1,310,310. IJ h In other woids, fiom 180(1 to 1U01 the M $Jm lopulatlon of South Caiollna Incicased 1 1 nBi 8 per cent while tho dlspensaiy sales - - 'ryoaCBPiat,, , .. of liquor have increased 41 per cent." To show what largo Increase 41 per cent means I will mako a comparison. If the dispensary was a national Institution, and If the annual drink bill of this natjon was increased 41 percent it would bo larger by $400,-000,000. $400,-000,000. In Senator Tillman the dispensary finds Its chief tuhoeatoand defender. This is enough to condemn it. AVe aie acquainted with tho disgraceful record of this "pitchfork proposition" who has defended cold blooded murder mur-der in the U. S. Senate. Ho has a .special interest in tho dispensary as, hi a mcasuic, he is responsible for Its existence in his state. In 1802 tho peoplo of South Carolina by their otcs declared for prohibition of tho liquor tratllc; but Senator Tillman who was then goernoi? defeated tho will of tho people and secured tho enactment of tho dispensary law. A jear ago last Maicli he made a speech at N. Y. In defense of the dispensary. dis-pensary. Pi of. A. A. Hopkins of that city in rcIow of the Senator's address sajs: "More than once he asserted that tho dispensary sjstcm "has reduced drunkenness by fifty per cent;" but in the face of this he said "Now ccry man in the state carries a corkscrew cork-screw in his pocket." This would mean that ccry man carries also a bottle in his pocket, or keeps one at constant command to satislfy his thirst. If tliis condition would not increase drunkenness, what would? The Senator also urged that under the dispensary system a better quality of whisky is provided; in proof of which he told of one man who had been in the habit of going to town regularly and buying a quart of whisky and "stopping on the way homo to share it with a couple of cronies, and reaching homo straight as a lino with not a drop left in the bottle." "When tho dispensary law-went law-went Into effect, this man went to town, got a quart of whisky, found It n bigger quart than ho had over bought before, andabcttcr quart,stop-ped quart,stop-ped and "had n few drinks with his cronies, and knew nothing afterward until 2 o'clock lu tho morning, when ho woke up In a cornlield, and found that tho bottle was only half empty!" If less liquor, under the dispensary law, would thus make a man drunk sooner, and if eery man In the state cairies a corksciew in his own pocket," how could diunkenness be much decreased? The Senator urged, as a chief recommendation of his dispensary dis-pensary law, that "it hasdestiojcd treating;" but treating may be other than di Inking with another man before a bar. The man whobujsa quart of whisky at tho dispensary, stops with It on tho way home, and shares it with a couple of cronies, is treating them as much as if he drank with them at the bar; and if he carries the bottlo in his pocket and tho dispensary dis-pensary corkscrew also, ho is pretty sure to treat his cronies more often under the dispensary system than oerhcdld before." Last winter a bill was introduced in tho legislature of Georgia to establish the dispensary. Governor Chandler who had observed tho operations opera-tions of tho dispensary at Athens, and in tho nolchborliiK state of South Carolina, opposed tho bill for tho reason that It would "set back tho cause of temperance a generation." To the argument that tho bill if enacted en-acted into law would bo a source of largo revenue tho governor replied: "Granted that it is true; can Georgia afford to sanction a law making mak-ing every county and town in tho state proprietor of a liquor shop to debauch the morals of tho youth? Can she afford to put upon her statute book a law to coin tho tears nm blood of tho wives and children of weak men into dollars? |
