The Grand Haven news. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1858-18??, 1859-02-02
SHALL THE PROHTBITORY Law BE
REPEALED

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This is question in the decision of
which every citizen of our State is inter
ested, thoughthey may be unconscious Of
the fact. Four years have now nearly
elapsed since theg good people of our State,
by majority of twenty thousand votes,
decided in favor of Prohibitory Law,
making the traffic in intoxicating liquors
a penal offence How stands the matter
with us to-day? What beneficial results
have we experienced from the enactment9
Are we this moment suffering less from
the whitening, cursed effects of the liquor
traffic than at the commencement of the
operation Of the Prohibitory Law? Is
the retailer less scrupulous now, than then,
in displaying his decanters in manner
best calculated to catch the eye and al
lure the morbid appetite of his frail, err
ing customer? And is he less ready, in
the very teeth of the law, to "put the
bottle to his neighbors lipsp Let the
bloaied face, infamed eye, unsteady gait
Of those whom you see hourly issuing
from that saloon, that tavern, that low
GROCERY, give the reply; and if this is not
adequate evidence, add to it the midnight
rowdy, the coarse jest and vulgar, OBJ
scene expressions uttered from the pollut-
ed lips of the tippler that greet your ears
at the corner Of almost every street, and
you will no longer doubt that The liquor
fiend still holds an unequal contest with
poor, erring mortals.
But whose fault is il that we do not
enjoy all the fruition, all the most happy
results that the Prohibitory Law is COM
petent to bcstowg Is it the fault of the
manufactures or The yender aloue9 Are
they alone responsible for the injury, great
and irreparable, that community suffers
from the unholy traffic? Are they alone
answerable? We answer no, emphatical-
ly no. We are all in n measure culpa-
bic. AS conservators Of the peace and
well being Of the community in which
we live, though we touch not, taste not,
handle not the uncean thing ourselves,
we are to blame. We have stood aloof
and permitted this foe of all good, this
enemy Of the best interests of our fellows,
this great incentive to moral corruption
and crime, this prince of all evils to exist
even at the Threshold of our doors al
most entirely unrebuked; whereas, had
we armed ourselves with the strong pow
or of the law and the obligations that we,
as sober citizens owe to the community
and to our own tire-sides, grappled with
the monster, with the firm resolve TO do
our duty at all hazards, we should long
ere this have hurled the demon from his
throne, planted our foot upon his neck,
rendered the conquest complete and led
him captive at our will. But this we
have not done; and to-day, against this
enemy strongly fortified, and legally too,
by amendment TO The original law, APP
proved in February, 1857, behind his beer
barrels, cider hogsheads and wine casks,
we are rendered comparatively powerloss.
But let our Legislature as now solicited,
by citizens in every part of our State, an
nul that amendment and give us Pro
hibitory Law without limitation, untram-
melcd, and let every good citizen do his
duty under that law, and the result will
be most happy, and such as will be APP
proved by every friend of peace and good
order in society.
But for ourselves we say, if this result
can not be brought about, let the Prohib-
tory Law be repealed, annihilated; for
better not to exist at all than to remain,
as now, comparatively dead letter, pow
erless, uselessly occupying a place upon
our statute book. If we wish to rid our
selves Of the evil we must strike at the
very root, and not fatter ourselves that
looping off few of the topmost branch
es while the roots and trunk of this great