The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-05-17
NORTH EAST AND LOCAL OPTION.
NORM EAST, Nd, May 18th, 1878.

needs a reply. AS the author travels out
Of his way to attack The Wing, it is but
fair that it should publish refutation of
the charges made.
"TAs Wing periodically stirred into life
for few weeks at the expense of men who
pursue legitimate business, fully licensed
by the State" Many things are licensed
by law that would not be by a code of right
or morality. The stream cannot rise above
the fountain, neither can laws be better
than their authors. Most people are aware
that moral progress must be precedent
condition of legal progress; for instance
few years ago our State licensed lotteries;
it does not do so now, because public opin-
ion will no longer allow it. The same fact
will be true of the temperance movement.
While State laws may make business legal,
they cannot make 1t morally right; will
Moderation" please note the distinction.
"155 u.s. 1,00O' is the title of the letter
in question. Well, one of our legal
theories is that the men represent the
women and children. Our whole popula-'
ton is about 1000; our vote at town cleo
lions is not much over a hundred, which
at every opportunity has been cast almost
unanimously for prohibition, "Modera-
ton - and his drunkard making friends of
course excepted. To get his 1000, he will
certainly have to take the county, not the
borough of North East. If Moderation "
| Il, f1a IF hat
those who signed and those who refused to
sign the petitions published, SO as to allow
the public to see where they stand.
Why was the local law on the question
truly than "Moderation - answers it.
North East, like many other towns, has
some citizens too lazy to earn al honorable
living, who wish to avail themselves Of the
bers, so securing a majority of the legisla-
ture, our local law was repealed, against
the protest of our citizens, expressed by
vote Of 81 to /.
AS to "Local Option " in Chester county,
it will be as we'll to wait till it has fair
! trial There are dens, misnamed hotels, in
this County to uhsch q night on store-6or
aoould be paradise. Few respectable trav-
elers care for the drinking, noise, and card
playing of our ordinary country or village
taverns. Could such places be crushed
out of existence, there might be some
| chance for respectable houses where sober
people might spend a night or get meal
without meeting the disgusting profanity
of our drinking shops. Just why it would
cost more to provide traveller with meal
or bed without whisky, than with it, is
problem Moderation" must solve. Do
his friends water their whisky enough to
make up the difference? AS far as the
question of fsh-wagons is concerned, Mr..
NJ. is, to say the least, very illogical. Ger
tainly the less spent for whisky, the more
there will be to spend for fish. Or do the
wagoners come to North East, simply for
the sake Of its whisky? If SO, that article
must have great attractive power.
sturdy backwoods hunter once heard
lecture on the attraction of gravitation.
The lecturer was master of his subject;
suns, comets, and stars were all shown to
obey simply, universal law. The hunter
listened entranced and on being asked his
opinion of the lecture, he replied that it
"was truth, every word of it, that the
attraction of gravitation was the most ore
full, powerfulest thing in mater, for when
he was counting Mol, it used to draw him
fourteen miles every Sunday AFTERNOON"
North East whisky, however, seems to
have more attraction than the backwood's
Mol, as it draws all the fish-wagons down
here from Chester and Lancaster Counties.
About the strongest point made is that
half dozen shops will start up just outside
of the town limits. There were never more
than two in our vicinity, and one of these
is now in hands that will, under no circum-
stances, allow it to be used for the sale of
liquor. "Their object is only to make
money" Well, for what reason do any of
them sell? Certainly not with any hopes
of doing any other good. |" But the whis-
XIV they sell is so mean" No doubt Mod
GRAFTON" knows all about it. The Bible
says that where the carcass is, there will
the eagles be gathered together. The pub
lie can make the application. We do not
claim to be judge of whisky, but notice
that the different kinds have the same
effect. If there is anything in this idea,
it is not reason for free whisky, but for
| or
able citizens who favor the hotels can be
found in greater number than those who
oppose license The shortest way is to
try it. We challenge Moderation" to
the test.
One of the first ideas of popular govern
ment, is that the majority should rule;
all we ask is that this principle be applied
here, and if " Moderation " and his friends
| out vote us, we will bow as submissively
as possible to the verdict. The fact is that
a few wish to keep up traffic in the town
to which the majority are steadily opposed.
Close those shops and some chance will be
offered to try what can be done by tenn
perance house of lodging. The expert
ment has proved success elsewhere and
need not fail here.
One Of the pleas steadily used against
temperance legislation, is that we must
wait for public opinion to decide the ques
ton. That opinion must be educated up
to the point requisite. This is just what
we want our next legislature to do; give
US the right to decide the question for our
selves, although by so doing, we do not
propose to abandon the right to work for
total prohibition. These great moral move
mcnts have a power Of their own. Their
beginnings may be small, but the end is
sure. This fact may be seen in any of the
great movements that have changed the
destiny of the world. The friends OF
license begin to see the writing on the wall
that precla inns such laws weighed in the
balances of right, of morality, of human
ity, and found wanting. That the days
during which they will be allowed to ruin
homes and families, are almost numbered