The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-10-27
OH @Slailg Arsns,


LOO stringent Liquor Laws
A reasonable law for the regulation o
the sale of ardent spirits, one that publ
sentiment would generally approve, i
disirable. An oppressive, harsh and injus
enactment no free people will long submit
to. Our Illinois law is harsh, unresona
BILE and unjust and ought to be modified
A case in point has justdeen decided II
Brooklyn, n. T., which ought to attrac
the attention of all who desire to see the
cause OF temperance prosper, as 1t illus
trates very thoroughlythe workings and re
suits of the law passed for that purpose bS
the General Assembly of the State Of
New York. This law, which is similar
to the legislation of other States on the
same subject, provides that any person
injured by the sale of intoxicating liquors.
or rather by the effect of drinking on any
son, father, or other relative, may have
the right to claim damages from the
persons who sold the liquors, and from
those who rent their premises for such a
purpose.
The plaintiff in the present case was a
Mr.. john Rigney, the father of "a boy eight
cen years of age, VIM. JAS Rigney, who
had drunk himself to death. The claim
was for fifteen thousand dollars damages,
and as young Rigney had gone on his last
spree in company with not less than six
boys of nearly his own age, the fact of the
sale of liquor could not be denied. nor the
results, attested as they were by the ply
sicans who made the post ntorten, exami
nation. The provision Of the law was
reasonably clear, the Jury was an excep-
tionally intelligent one, aud on the law and
the facts they, agreed upon verdict for
the plaintiff, assessing the damages at two
thousand dollars The case will, of course
be appealed but meanwhile the result Of
the law is to secure damages for the party
aggrieved
But the case is one which has an in
terest far wider than that limited by its
merely legal aspects, and it makes an ap-
peal to our sense of natural justice which
sweeps away nearly all merely technical
considerations. The law is one revolving
to every sense of right, completely subver-
sive of our conceptions of responsibility,
and unjust alike to those whom 1t Furnishes
aud to those whom it rewards. Those
whom it Furnishes are the liquor sellers
and the property-owners, and to these it
says: You may lease your property for a
bar-room; you may sell liquors there; we
will make you pay a license for doing SO,
and. in exacting this license we recognize
your right to do business aud To- claim
equal Justice with each other class OF cltl-
zens. You have our consent to sell on our
premises anything that any person wishes
to drink but if the person who wishes to
drink should be injured by his indulgence,
we will punish you as we do not punish
any other class. The law recognizes the
sale of liquor as legitimate occupation,
but Furnishes the consequences of it as it
does not punish any Legitimate occupa-
ton.
If man in the heat of passion, or any
other eXcitment or provocation, mains or
Injuries another man, he is not liable to
any claim for damages to the injured par
ty, although the injured party suffered
such injury against his own will and pre-
sumable resistance. Yet, in this case of
liquor selling, where the only person who
consented to the injury was the one who
suffered by it, the man who was the in
strument of the injury is to be mulcted in
heavy penalties. 1t will require very con
vincing arguments indeed to reconcile 50
unusual discrimination with the sense of
right which is based on the proposition
that equal Justice shall be extended to all
under the law. Another point to be no
ticed is that the pers pn who profits peeun-
iarily by the law, is the very one who
should share in any punishment, if indeed
the needs OF punishment have not been
f,,lElI,I IN Tho nt tbn trot ,t;,t,,,
The ground of the suit was the loss incur
red by the death OF a son. As thu loss
was exactly reduced to dollars, and assess
ed at $4,000 by the plaintiff and $1,000
by the jury, it is only fair to reduce the
sons value to dollars and estimate it on a
pecuniary basis. 1t was given in evidence
that the boy earned SIS week, and that
he gave it to his mother for the benefit OF
the family. 1t was further given in evil
dence that, on Sunday afternoon of his
last debauch, he drank fourteen drinks,
smoking cigars with them. As this prob
ably cost between two and three dollars.
his mother must have had very little left
for the benefit of the family, after paying
for the maintenance of the scapegrace.
He must, indeed, have been burden on
them morally and pccuniarily; and as he had
fallen victim at 50 early an age to the
craving for drink, there is very little prob
ability that he would ever be anything
else.
Yet the New York law, as interpreted
by jury of unusual intelligence, assessed
his value at 81, 900, and, but for an obsti-
nate minority, would have fixed it at five
or ten thousand. At these rates it would
pay every parent, guardian, wife, son or
other relative OF drunkard to encourage
him to drink himself to death, and thus
get rid of nuisance and step at once into
the snug enjoyment of damages. Under
this rule the parents who indulge a son IN
every vice, set him a bad example, and
tail in every duty which they assumed in
begetting him, may console themselves
with the prospect that his death will not
only be relief to themselves; and as
there is no limit to the amount of damages
to be assessed but this is left to the
discretion of the jury-it may come to pass
that the compensation for worthless re-
Iative may depend on the persuasive elo-
duence of the lawyer who has taken the
case on shares But there is no recOgni-
ton of the fact that every man should be
held responsible for his sins of omission as
well as commission, not to be rewarded for
them; no recognition of the fact that the
father who INDUCES his son to excess OF
drunkenness is as guilty as the poor hire
ling who mixes the poison behind the bar.
Such laws may pander to a merely sentl
mental desire to accomplish Improbable
reforms, but they can neither prevent the
continuance of the evil against which they