The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1874-07-09
The LICEESE QUESTION IN MISSI-
CRCSETrS.
Acting Governor TslbOt's Veto Message.
CO1IMONwEALTH OF Nasal
CHUsETTs, EX. Dept,
Boston, June p, 1874

J
[ CO5IMoNwEALTH OF MAssA-)
CHUsETTs, EX. Dept,
l Boston, June p, 1874
, To the House Of Representatives.
GENTLEIEN:-NO more importan
! question can be presented to Us in tn
discharge Of our official duties thai
that concerning the traffic in intOxi
eating liquors The results involves
in any decision that may be made ar
+ 50 mOmentOus, aud the consequence
so great and wide reaching, that il
discussing the issue We ought to La
aside personal and party eOnsidera
tions of every kind. and be influences
, solely by the obligations we owe 4
our fellow men, and the solemn
!. trusts We have taken upon ourselves
in behalf Of the Commonwealth
Called upon to consider the bill 'ireg-
ulating the sale of spirituOus liquor
must act on my oath and my con-
science, appealing for any justifiea.
ton not alone to the enlightened
judgment Of the people OF Massaehu.
sets, but TO that power which is su.
periOr to all common authority, anC
jnfallibly tries the hearts of men.
II we admit that there may be a use
of Intoxicating liquors so guard ID and
temperate that no appreeiabie evil
arises therefrOm, il is stIli the unani-
nous verdict Of the civilized world
supported by a weight OF evidence moi
to be OverthroWn, that the usa of al
leOholie fluids is the cause of much the
largest proportion of the crime, and
degradation, and misery falling to the
lot OF man. Among good citizens
there is no essential disagreement on
the point that the traffic in such fluids
must be restrained and limited as far
as possible. Difference of opinion
arises only when we consider wheth-
er it ia best TO try TO regulate the sale
OF these fluids, or prohibit it altOgeth-
er. II We adopt the latter course, we
are at least in harmony with the
methods adopted by general consent
toward other Offenses against public
mOrals-Offenses which we must con-
fess exist to q great extent among US
in spite OF our efforts to prevent them,
and yet upon which the law, so far as
its precept goes, stamps the seal of
prohibition.
The history OF the stru ggIe with the
/ evils of intemperance is most iustruc-
tive. The earliest attempts to check
the use of intoxicating liquors were
in the direction of license and regula-
ton. These attempts continued in
the Commonwealth for more than
two hundred years, with constantly
increasing stringency, which can on
ly be explained on the ground that
mild measures were found. to be insult
feient; until 1853 the experiment was
determined upon OF adopting prohibi-
ton as the only Logical and effective
method of dealing with the matter
| Without asserting that this has prov.
ed so successful in overcoming the
evils it aimed to remedy as was hoped
! by those who initiated and those who
sustain the prohihitory policy, 7 am
fully of the opinion that more pro-
gress has been made toward the de-
sired end than was ever before made
in the same perioi under any other
system.
In considering what has been ac-
complished, we must recoguiZs the
great changes that have taken place
since this system was inaugurAted.
Our rural districts have undergone a
gradusl depOpulatiOn, and large num-
bers of our young men have becOm 9
massed in cities, away from the re-
straints OF home; we have been sub
jected to the demoralizing influences
| inseparable from civil war long con-
| tinued, and the necessity or pressure
of business has forced US into fever
ishness or restlessness of life that rap
| sIIrv nr.I ~
what the effect OH public morality
would have been had the sale of in
toxicating liquors, especially in our
cities, been free and open under color
of law, during the past sixteen or
eighteen years, NJ one can assume
with positiveness t. declare; but
am quite confident that no common
wealth in which the license system
has prevailed can point to nobler re-
cords or Achievements in material in
terests, intellectual pursuits, or moral
reforms, and equally certain that we
could not have made greater progress
in any good direction under a law
promOtiYe of the traffic in intOxicat-
ing liquors.
So far as attempts have been made
to compromise the two systems OF
/ duh llOCuSC OJ lCkalALluk
sales through druggists and town
agents, or by permitting the unre-
stricted sale of malt liquors and light
intOxicants, the results have been un-
satisfactory. Abuses OF the grossest
character were found to creep in st
once where any privileges were grant
ed, and subsequent Legislatures have
been obliged to repeal what seemed to
be on the passage most carefully guard
ed enactments of a restrictive charac-
ter. Compromise in this regard that
shall not be abused in the most fla
grant manner, all experiences with
which l am familiar proves to be an
impossibility. II intemperanee is not
our inexOrable doom, il the poverty
and wretchedness and crime brought
on by the use of intoxicating liquors
are not our inevitable heritage, whal
can we do better than to set ourselves
in unyielding opposition to the traffic
which promotes it?
1 am aware that it is said intempeF-
ance increases under our prOhibitory
law-that the sale of intOxicants Is a.
great as it would be under 8 license
law. But l call your attention to the
absence here of the Haunting and at
traetiye bar-rOOns that spread theil
snares to capture the thOughtless and
easily tempted in cities where licenses
prevail; to the constantly growing
sense of disfavOr with which tlIe liq.
uor traffic is regarded by the country
generally, and to the powerful, sys
tematic, and unrelenting activity o.
those interested in it to break down
| l. hn nHfnnro hn fru r.
enforce it. Here is evidence that the
statute idOes impose an effective and
crippling restraint from which relie
is sought in the elastic and easily
evolved providence of license. Ever
If some sincere friends of intemper
ance prefer a stringent license law Il
prOhibitOry system, there can be nc
denial that the men who have money
and business at stake in this eOntes
are the most ardent and urgent advO
Gates of license, and can not dOub
that they understand themselves ant
calculate shrewdly the advantage theI
will gain.
1t is easy to mistake the clamor o
interested parties for the voice OF tn
people. ~
When 1 seek t. ascertain what tn,
latter really is, recall that the Ii
cense law, elaborated with 50 mucl
care in 1865, was permitted to remain
on the statute books only till the peO
pie could next ne heard, at the bal
lot box. With the single exception
that public bars are prohibited, tn,
measure now under consideration
in no essential point better, and IL
some respects think is less stringen
than that was. The notorious eva
sions Of that law, and the open wa.
in which all intoxicants were thel
sold under the protection Of innhOld
ers and victualers' licenses, demon
; strated the powerlessness Of such en-