"D" is for Dispensary

"D" is for Dispensary. In 1892 South Carolina created the Dispensary, a liquor monopoly. In the early 1890s the state was poised to adopt statewide prohibition. Governor Benjamin Tillman, however, pressured the legislature to pass instead his proposal for state liquor monopoly legislation. Basing his idea on European models, Tillman portrayed the dispensary as a compromise between the private sale of liquor prohibition that would promote temperance and clean up politics. Counties could choose either to have a dispensary or prohibition. Dispensers sold liquor at set prices and divided the profits among the state, the municipality, and the county. The law also created a special liquor constabulary. From beginning to end the Dispensary failed to work as designed. Patronage battles and widespread corruption characterized its operation. In 1907 the state dismantled the Dispensary system.