Litchfield enquirer., 1873-03-06
ITEM RANGE.

~ JPOSAA'S0 DoS"uS0 UAcy CouBTdtulaCo themselves on having ''such good man. as candidate for governor. It says:
 We respect Mr. Havens general goodness, bnt we want something more. We have had enough of Christianity dissocated from temperance Christianity that, with one hand, seeks to build up the kingdom of the Redeemer, and, with the other hand, supports the grand bulwark of that kingdom which the Redeemer came to destroy, and that, BEcAUsE OF it's Christianity, is it's NIGHTTEsT support; THE ONLY SUPPORT THAT KEEPS IT STANDING, and which, if withdrawn, it would inevitably fall. Because of Mir. Haven's Christianity, therefore, while endorsing-the rum traffic, we refuse him our votes.
 We commend that mighty, middle sen. tence to boards holding competitive ex- aminations. The applicant that can parse it should always take the appointment. Whether it is the liquor traffic that SUD- ports Christianity, or Christianity that SUD- ports the liquor traffic, this wonderful sentence, as now constructed, does not disclose. All it indicates with certainty is that Christianity and the liquor traffic are like to go down together!
 The logic of our State Prohibitory or gan is about on par with it's grammar. It makes the following point against Mir. Haven: c
 Now, the question at issue is uot whether Sab- bath schools are good thing-nobody questions that. It is whether LICENSED DRAM SHOPS are 8 good thing. Mir. Haven says they are, for he voted to license them, and that, when the State gave him the option of suppressing them.
 The untruth involved in the foregoing charge underlies all the Prohibitory ar- guments of this and last years campaigns. Our present statute is not simple license law. It allows complete prohibition in every town in which prohibition is prac- ticable. It merely fills a void in the old statute which left the liquor traffic entirely unrestricted in towns not yet ripe for pro- hibition. The licensing of ''dram-shops'' cannot fairly be said to endorse their bu- siness as legitimate one. It only re- stricts that business within certain spec flied bounds in localities where the expe- nence of years shows that prohibition cannot be enforced. We do not know of single town where the liquor traffic was practically prohibited by the old law in which licenses have been granted. On the other hand we have known some bad dram-shops stopped under the present statute that could never have been reach ed under the old law. ..
 The radical difference of view between ourselves and the extreme temperance men is this: we hold that habits of total abstinence growing gradually up to the point of prohibition, are the only founda- ton on which the temperance men in any community can safely build; the extre. mists. on the other hand, think they can force prohibition on communities in which few if any of the voters practice absti. hence. Those of us who have seen batch after batch of prosecutions brought to nought by hostile juries under the old law know very well that all the state con. stables in New England could not enforce . prohibitoEy law in Litchfeld county It is. therefore, with most of our towns { question of restriction or no sestgiction Prohibition means the latter. License s,a, mean the former. It mould mean it if th. men who are chasing the ignfs fat,sxs O Constabuiary and Prohibitory leeislatio, would spend half as much time in enforc ing the present law.
 | We are waiting with.a good deal of so icitude the trial before Litchfeld coun | tyi iuries of various prosecutions brough 1 under the present law. If those prosecu tions, when reasonably sustained by tn, evidence. are followed by convictions, a we have great hope they will be, the pres ent law will be worth more to this count, than all the temperance legislation" '::temperance" legislature could enact True. it may need strengthening, by add ing the old process of seizure, ,and perhap by the appointment of Q constabulary but its best feature is that it relies fo success upon the growth of temperanc sentiment among the people rather thai upon any increased pressure of the law.
 Louisiana is left in an unfortunate pre- 1 dicament by the refusal of the Senate t pass Senator Carpenters bill for ne, election. Of the two bogus government Gen. Grant supports the Kellogg concer I as the least objectionable. sIt is a choic between two very great evils.
 
 l The Credit Mobilies business resulte, in the House much as had been expected No one was expelled. Messrs. Ames ant Brooks are censured; and that is all.