The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1874-08-06
Whole No. 1898.
Look for a moment At Fnoland

| HOOh 4OI d mOmeuG a6 EnSlanQ,
with her restrictive license law.
During the thirty-one years, from
1841 to 1872, the consumption of
liquor increased 497, 1897, 900. AS a
result of this, the apprehensions for
drunkenness rose from 94,745, in
1863, to Isl, ,084 in 1872. In twelve
years, their poor and police rates in
creased so per cent. In twenty
years, their lunacy increased 200 per
cent. In twelve years, their con-
victions for crime increased 65 per
cent. In twenty-six years, the NOR
tality among males increased 60 per
cent. What an overwhelming testi-
mony sgainst system of icensel
Who s551d not be convinced that
license is utterly abortive to check
the terrible ravages of the rum traffic
nay, further, that instead of license
checking, it most fearfully acceler-
ates the very evil it is designed to
prevent?
1t is an incontrovertible fact, that,
in every instance where prohibition
has superseded license, it has never
failed to check the traffic and its
attendant evils; while, on the other
hand, in every case where license has
supplanted prohibition the traffic has
largely increased, and the public
evils resulting therefrom have been
vastly augmented.
With these remarkable facts be-
fore us, there would really seem to
be only one course opened for the
true friends of temperance in Ohio to
pursue, in reference to the question
of License or No License. That
course is clearly and unequivocally
to vote No License!
But the Cincinnati Gazette says
that voting 'License" does not nee
essarily mean the enactment of a L.
cense law. What, then, does it
mean? Does it mean prohibition?
If it does, then indeed was Talley-
rand correct when he said, that theuse
of language is to disguise our
thoughts.
If the people of Ohio vote eli
cense," the Legislature will surely
say it means that they must enact a
license law, no matter what the Gin
cinnati Gazette may say to the con-
trary. If the people vote ''No Lii
cense," the Legislature will under
stand that they mean prohibition,
with such statutory enactments
as will render prohibitory law eff
feetive.
The licensing of saloons for the
sale of fliquor, instead of restraining
the traffic, is simply legalized way
to establish places for the education
Of people in the habits of intemper-
ance. The saloon is just as much an
educator of intemperance and vice
as the common-school is an institu-
ton for teaching science, literature,
and ethics. The natural and inevitable
product of licensed saloons is de-
moralization and ruin. The very
moment we legalze the traffic by
license, that very moment do We
clothe it with the shield of protec-
ton by law; constitute the business
respectable, in ordinary parlanee,
and put it in posi- ton to battle our
most stringent restrictions.
In st. Louis, few years ago, the
city authorities thought to regulate
and control the social evil by license.
But short time demonstrated that
instead of license checking the evil,
it increased it tenfold. To-day that
license law is repealed, and prohibi-
ton has replaced it, with view of
lessening that leprous evil.
Sowith the liquor traffic. We may
seek to control it by license, but all
experience proves that license is q
delusion; that by it, instead of re-
straining the great curse of intem-
perance, we are only seeking to warm
into life a serpent that will, sooner
or later, sting US to the heart. Vain
and delusive hope! The only SAFE
acay IS prohibition, eoith sufficient
penalties tomaake 1t efective. Hence
the grand watchword and rallying
cry of every lover of temperance and
humanity, in Ohio, should be, Vote
E.No License! No LicenseP
1 am, very sincerely, thy friend,
WILLIAM BAXTER.