The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1874-07-25
REPLY TO AN OPEN LETTER.

The Rev Jas. Baumc, of the Methodist
Church of this city, has taken our remarks
in reference to his Sunday afternoon out door
lecture two weeks ago sufficiently to heart to
ind,e TO us, through Thursdays Ottawa Re
,zublican, Il two and half column epistle
thereanent. 1t would be very distressing to
us, if the eXigcncies CT the case required re-
ply OF similar length. Happily, however,
the matter can be disposed of very briefly.
Brother Baume says, that in our
gucsses as to the purport Of his Sunday ad-
dress, assuming tina, he favored "sumptuary
laws, {" we are shooting Wild" both $50 far
as said address is implicated and the present
purposes of the friends of temperance in OF
tawa are concerned" Far be 1t from their
purpose, Brother Baumc assures US, TO ex-
clude from any bodys table an article of diet
&c. THE editor and his friends may put on
their table just what they choose. That is
their business" and so on. What Brother
Baume and his Co-laborers in Ottawa are
down on is "this thing of licensing drinking
saloons to ensnarc the young men and hus-
bands and fathers, men Of strong appetite and
weak will power to their utter undoing."
Yes-we have heard language like that a
good many times before. The upshot Of it
is, that whisky, beer, wine, &c, are to be
drunk as much as ever, only the trade is to
be driven into dark holes. Instead of the
trade being an open day affair." conducted by
bluff, iOvial, though possibly rot morally or
religiously the most exemplary men, it is to
become the pursuit Of skulking law breakers,
hypOcrites and sneaks, to be under the sur
VIGILANCE of a system of espionage, always
degrading and despicable. 1t is true, this
system may not in so many words propose to
prescribe to Us what we shall put upon our
table, but if we should choose to have upon
it pitcher of ale, how are we to get it except
10y a violation of law? The purpose is Ger
tainly not, we hope, in denying licenses, to
substitute entire free trade?
After all, what Brother Baumc and his
friends are aiming at is prohibiion-the ab-
solute Inhibition by law of the manufacture
and sale of all intoxicating drinks within the
state Of Illinois. And that is exactly the cx.
pertinent which we have been trying to per
suade them a thorough trial of 30 years has
proved an ignominious failure The cause of
has no better friend in the United
States tlian the New YORK Ereatag POST Yet
the editor of that Journal after closely observ-
ing the operation of the prohibtory laws in
Maine and Massachusetts, for three years, and
detailing the result in compact column of
facts and figures reaches this honest conclu-
sion: i-
The law as it stands unenforced in Massa-
chusetts and Maine is disgrace upon lcgis-
lation, and brings all law into disrcspect. IT,
is fact, that but for the fear of the Republi-
can politicians in Maine that small but de
'ermined faction Of prohibitionists might run
an independent ticket and destroy their ma
jority they would be the first to repeal the
Prohbitory law, which is simply a delusion
and snare for honest and eonfidng voters
No license without prohibition is nonsense
Prohibition is demonstrated to be impract-
cable and q delusion Hence the only prac-
ticable means of ameiorating the evils Of the
liquor traffic is to surround it with the re-
strants OF stringent license law, of which
the Reddick law, with some modification, is
the best we know Of and which, properly en-
forced, we should have entire confidence in
as able TO relieve Us of Brother Baumcs sup
posed horror of q saloon next door