The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1874-06-25
ANTI-LIQUOR LEGISLATION.

LILO Lewis, the eloquent apostle OF
Temperance and leader of the crusaders
in the West, has published letter bear
ing strong testimony against the scheme
to eradicate intemperance by legislation
aimed at the pursuits of individuals.
After calm survey Of the whole subject
and study of the results of anti-license
laws, he has reached the conclusion that
the latter method is wholly futile and
vain, and that recourse must be had to
the correction of the taste, and an appeal
to the judgment and conscience. We ask
the anti-license advocates in our midst
who have permitted their zeal to outrun
their better judgment, to note well what
he says:
"a little more than twenty years ago
we began to legislate against the sale Of
intoxicating drinks. Since that time tenn
perance sentiment has refrigerated.
He regrets that the leaders have
dropped what he calls the divine agen-
ces, which for a time" he says, proved
g 50 potent, and that they have been
& seized aoith madness Of attempting to sup
q press inten.perance By lar"
Mr.. Lewis presents statistics which
strongly fortify him in his opposition to
anti-liquor legislation. For example, he
cites MAINE, where this kind of legisla-
ton has been thoroughly tried:
"In Bangor, place Of Is, 900 people,
there are 800 places where drinks are
sold, or one for every fifty people, men,
women and children, and this Is in a city
where the prohibitory law is supposed to
be enforced. and tchere It has been on the
stat1tte-books for at least Twenty-Five gears.
1t should be furthermore remembered
that this persistent drinking in spite Of
law is done, not by transient visitors nor
by new customers, but by the staid people
themselves, whose legislators have made
the laws. The population of Maine does
not increase; on the other hand 1t is de
creasing, and, as it decreases, the c0nsunnp-
ton of liquor increases. In Chicago, where
there is no prohibitory law, there are
3, 100 saloons, or one to about 1870 people,
men, women and children, and this is in
a great cosmopolitan city, thronged con-
stantly with strangers from every part of
the country.
a gain, DIR. Lewis says:
Il am sure the friends in Ohio are
sufficiently interested in the temperance
cause to send committee to Maine to
spend a week or two investigating the
workings of the prohibitory law; and |
am sure they lc0ltId be amazed at the facts.
And yet | did not see an open drinking
place while | was in the state. There is
no doubt that the traffic has been driven
under cover, and there is not shadow Of
doubt that the consumption Of drinks IN
Jfdnle IL enormous.
These are startling facts attested by the
most conspicuous champion of Temper
apce in the country, against the absurd
attempt to make men abandon the use Of
a beverage which is manufactured by the
ocean with the consent and under the fos-
tering care of the federal government it
self
DIR. Lewis might have added that not
only has the failure of compulsion been
in Maine, but that Massachu
etts which has persistently advocated
is now on the point Of return
ng to the license system.
These facts are important to be
,nown here where the scheme to suppress
by force laws, is new. If
We must introduce the customs Of New /
England into our midst, let lie also profit
" her experience. We have seen what
his experience has been in Maine, and
We may judge what it has been in Massa-
husetts from the fact thata vote was taken
n the Senate few days ago which indi-
ated strong sentiment for license law
n a body where the opposite feeling was
expressed before a trial was
1ade of the compulsory system