New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-04-26

| ing Beverages in our City We have here some Fire
Thousand establishments licensed to sell Liquors
through six days and nights of each week. but express
Iy forbidden to continue such sale on the Sabbath
We have Two or Three Thousand more which
openly and ostentatiousy sell ,oitiOm license, and in
defiance of law though the cost of license is but Ten
Dollars per These cannot plead the difficulty
of obtaining license as an excuse for their awless a.
ttude since it is abundanty record that keepers of
gambling houses and dens Of nfamy of the lowest and
most desperate character harbcrers OF thieves and
ceiyers of stolen goods, licensed by scores in def
of the clearest evidence of their character aud in
disregard of the urgent circumstances of their
quiet and reputable neghbors. The only excuse for
the delinquency Of these unlicensed sellers is that
they choose to keep the Ten Dollars rather than hand
it over to defray part of the heavy expenses of
Pauperism and Crime which they are constantly i'm.
posing on their Industrious and useuy employed fell
low. citizens.
Now we are quite willing-yea, more than willng-to
the upholders Of License Laws devote their ener-
ges to the enforcement OF those laws in their less
ceptODabe aspects by rigorous and united crusade
against their voaors by Sunday dramseling and their
defers by poisoning without license 1t is work
maDifestly devolvDg them and TO which they are
should be- especially adapted To them and their kind
this query addresses itself with irresistible force
"Snce you uphold the License system why do you not
take care to make something else than fraud aud
sham 2" But to u.s. who stand for Total Abstinence
and the Maine Law the hunting and bounding of poor
wretcies into the payment Of beggary Ten Dollars
per annum each for the privilege of poisoning their
neigbors is business possessing few attractions. For
a. fnrhi nd IN human
ought to rest on basis of Morality For us, who affirm
that Alcohol is poison, and its use as beverage
always hurtful always perous, always demoralzing,
there is obviously but consistent deiensble posi-
ton-tbat of unqualified aud uncompromsng hostility
to the Liquor Traffic. If men will poison their neigh
bors for gain, greatly prefer that they should do it
on their responsibility rather than the Staesat
all events we cannot permit them to do it on To
sell rum for livelihood seems bad enough but for
whole community to share the responsibility and the
guilt of such traffic for beggarly Ten Dollars seems
worse bargain than that of Eve or of Judas.
No, we must stand by our principles, and trust to
Time and Light to bring triumph in that position
Alcohol is poison the traffic in Alcoholic Beverages
is an offense against the wellbeing Of Society, and
ought to be crime against the laws. The essential
wrong is not the lack of license, but inheres
in the business for which license is demanded
if it were good business no license for its prose
cution should be required being bad one, no such
license should be granted. Just think of the blunt
old Book being diluted into saying: "Cursed is he
who putteth the bottle TO his neighbours mouth oihom
a Hcenser What sort of moral efficacy or punsency
can you discern in such denunciatOn of wrong doing
this You might single the land with such Bibles
without alarming the conscience arresting the down
ward career of a single transgressor.
No practicable enforcement Of the License system
will ever sensby mitigate the evils of Intemperance
So long as there shall be two thousand authorized
legazed, licensed Liquor. Shops in our city, all who
choose to drink will find abundant opportunity, and
youth will mainly be initiated as fast as they become
old enough to elude their parents vigilance, into the
primary degrees oftppng whence the road is direct
and the grade descending to topping and drunkenness
But let the flaws inexiby forbid the sale of Alcoholic
Beverages and every youth is warned from the cradle
that those Beverages hurtful and dangerous, and
that in drinking them he encourages violation of
the laws ofthe land Such legislation may not at once
abolish Rumselling, present laws against Theft
and Burglary do not utterly extirpate those crimes
but being based principle, and dealing out equal
Justice to Rich and Poor it command the respect
even of its antagonists and gradually win its way to
universal respect and obedience