The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1872-03-09


of Representatives last week by vote of
60 yeas to 81 nays. The bill provides
for taking the vote of the people for or
against granting licences, in c:ties 6uruughs
and to,cnsinps. Various opinions are ex-
pressed as to the fate of the bill in the
Senate. We repeat, again, that we are
opposed to all legislation Of this charac
ter. believing that it will prove totally in
efficient, and that it will fail to accom-
plish the purpose intended. Our views
on this subject are much better expressed
than we could do it, in the following ex-
tract taken from very recent letter writ
ten by Richard ID. Hubbard, the Demo-
cratic candidate for Governor IF CoDnec-
ticut, and addressed to q committee of
Germans who had solicited his views On
the question:
Al believe intempsrance to be monstrous
evil in society. This, of course, is a mere
truism. The practical question is. shall we
attempt to cure it by legal measures. and II
50, by what measures. | am constrained to
say, to begin with, that it is utterly impos>
sible, in my Judgment. to lay legal enl-
barge on mems mouths in respect to drink
or diet. IL the next place. if it could be
! done, il ought not to be done in free gov
| ernment.
! The Maine law, so>called, represents. as
| understand it, enforced total abstinence by
! legal coercion. We have had such u Law on
| our statuts book since 1854.
! For the short time that an attempt was
! made TO enforce it, it proved the parent OF
! Infinitely worse vices than it cured-of every
! -I.l. -f al nd
| fraud, and deceit in the traffic-ths most
| abominabIs concealments and psrjuriss in
witnesses, and q deliberate disregard and
contempt of the law by sworn jurors. and
all this for the reason that it was fslt to be
law which invaded the sanctities Of private
life and struck at the liberties Of the poorer
classes while it left the sideboard Of the rich
full Of filled decanters. For this reason the
law has become a dead letter. 1t is retained
IN the statute book as q dumb show for po-
litical effect ey men who do not believe IN it
in principle nor regard IL in practice. So
much for one side Of ths question now for
the other. If your resolution mcaus, as iu-
terpreted to me by one Of your committee,
that the trsffic in alcoholic liquors should be
as free as in tea. coffee, sugar. and flour, |
do not agree in thes conclusion. / have
seen evils connected with this traffic which
demand legal repression IN lhs interests OF
social order and the public peace.
The traffic, ia my judgment, needs regula-
tion its abuses need redress. The present
law is impotent for this purpose. The ques
tion is between prohibition on the other
One or the ether must come. For myself. /
have reached the conclusion, not without
some thought. that wsll-ordered license
! system. not prohibitory of the sale, but en-
trusting it to responsible hands, with proper
guarantees against abuse. will secure the just
liberties of the citizsn, and work at the same
time better practical result to the cause of
good order ard temperance than any system
of strict and enforced prohibition that has
ever been attempted.
Mankind may be restrained from crime.
They cannot be lsgislated into the virtue of
TEN mperance, still less into total abstinencs.
The law can only pruns off the vicious
and criminal out t>growths of the traffic.
Nothing but moral forces can lay an axe
at the root of the tree.