The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1856-12-27
The License Question.

There is universal cry throughout the
country against the manifest increase of
drunkenness, and the unregulated and the
unrestrained condition of the liquor and dram
shop traffic. The decisions by the courts, de-
clar;ng the unconsttutionality Of the prohlb-
itory laws, in many Of the States, have broken
down all law, and the country has rushed
from the extreme of rigid restraint, to the
widest license, in the space of few months
It is the natural reaction of ultra, fanatical
coerciye measures. The true friends OF the
cause must now endeavor to restore moderate
and rational measures for restraining and
gradually reforming the evil The first du-
ty of our Legislature will be to pass IL
cense act. All parties acknowledge the ne
cessity of immediate attention to the subject;
but there is great diversity of opinion as to
what shall be attempted, and what will be the
most effectual measures for accomplishing the
object. The restoration of the law Of 1854 is
more generally approved than any other meas
ure. 1t was Democratic measure, and would
now be sustained by that party. 1t is ac-
knowIedged by the temperance party to en-
brace the best regulations and restrictions Of
any law that can be enacted, short Of the en-
tire prohibition of the sale Of liquor. There
are, however, serious objections with many to
the old mode Of granting licenses, and in fix
ing the conditions of them. The Legislature
cannot fix the rates of license by general
law, without causing great inequality in its
operations On different communities. To leave
the assessment for licenses to any Of the
local a1thorities-either county boards, town
ship trustees, or city councils-is virtually to
give them the whole control Of the subject
They can make the tax prohibitory, or make
it almost free trade; and the regulations Of
one community will be counteracted or nulli-
fed by their neighbors. If the number of Ii
censes, and the tax be fixed, by minimum
and maximum rate, these points must be pla-
ced wide apart-from SIS to $500, to enable
the local boards to execute their duty prop
erly and justly; and such limits would be
equivalent to transferring the whole matter to
their entire discretion. If the tax be fixed
and the number limited, the regulation Gre
ates a monopoly in the hands Of few, and
a door for favoritism is opened and licenses,
like public Offices will be given only to politi-
cal partizans; and we shall have in one place
only Democratic drinking houses and in an
other Republican tipping shops. The Fill
moreites being temperate, and "men Of mode
ration in all things" would have no part in
the matter.
Our plan to obviate all these objections is
to prescribe by law, that only certain num-
population-say one license to one thousand
inhabitants; and they should be awarded at
public auction by the local authorities to the
highest bidder, who could give the necessary
bonds and security; the revenue should be
appropriated to schools, or to the support of
the pauperism which the traffic engenders.-
This public competition would secure the full
value of the licenses in every locality, and
prevent any favoritism in the granting of
them; and avoid the popular objections to any
thing like the grant of privilege or monopo-
ly. By holding the dealer responsible for the
consequences of the sale of liquor to improp-
er persons, and making him liable in good
and sufficient bond, there would be no more
danger than by any other system, that licen-
ses would, by this public award of them fall
into improper hands. We make this as a
suggestion to be improved by the reflections
of the press and members of the Legislature.