The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1874-07-03
The geffersullian.
FIndIay, o., July ,, 1874.
ABOUT ENFORCING THE LAWS.

ABOUT ENFORCING THE LAWS
It's strange that some people should
expect more Of a prohibitory liquor law
than of any other law that was ever en-
acted. They are constantly reminding
us that the laws OF this State, to restrict
the sale Of liquor, are not enforced, and
that when We have enforced them 10
the fullest extent possible there VIII sun
be liquor sold in violation Of law PRO
hibition laws won't prohibit" Is uieir
watchword. They virtually acknowledSs
the iustice of prohibitory laws, but they
make the very patent fact that the Ia"
will be violated. an objection to its en-
actrnent. Suppose they would Apply
This logic TO other matters against which
the State finds il necessary TO ieSlsiate-
Take. for instance, the game law OF the
State. the law against tresspass, or the
law against gambling or profanity
These are all daily violated, but we do
not hear the repeal Of these laws recon-
mended because of their violation or
their failure to prohibit the evils against
which they are aimed. The simple en-
actment of the law does not carry with
il the remedy for the evil it is Intended
tocorrect: if it did, we should have no
need of courts or prosecutors.
1Ue note here that those who use tins
argument are the ones who oppose, by
oil means in their power, the enforce
Inent of any salutary liquor laws. The
laws of this State, to-day, are not pro
hibitory. On the contrary, the traffic
is scarcely touched in the way OF being
restrained. The law against selling TO
minors. and that against selling TO drunk
ards. comprises the most important legis-
Iation on the subject, and, in fact, these
are the only classes to which sales OF Iq-
uor are prohibited. We do not see how
any one can regard these laws in any
other light than as salutary restraints
upon a most dangerous wrong. And
yet men will stand idly by and see these
laws trampled under foot, and then
make the non-enforcement Of the law
(the result of their own criminal ndIiier-
ence) an excuse for opposing other TEN
peranee legislation.
We have presentment that the time
will come (and we hope 20 live to see it,
when we will have much more strin-
gent liquor law than we have at pres
ent. and when it will be enforced; when
the law will be as effective in restraining
dram-selling and dram drinking as in
restraining any other evil, and when a
healthy public sentiment will allow the
now timid and time-serving portion Of
the temperance army to stand up with
out fear or favor, in behalf of temperance
principles. Meantime the temperance
people can well afford to be in the mi
nority The cause is gaining daily, and
no better proof of this fact can be had
than the extreme activity of the whiskey
trafiickers at this time. 1t is not their
habit TO boast of the amount of intoxi-
eating liquor that is sold, as they now
find it necessary TO do. One year ago,
and these same men would have been
trying, by every means in their power,
to conceal from the public the amount
of liquor sold. Now they find it neces-
sary to circulate false reports, claiming
large sales, thus making a pretense of
prosperity entirely at variance with the
actual state of the case.
TO those who would compromise with
this great evil, because of the difficult
ties which lay in the way of the enforce
ment of prohibitory laws, we would
commend the words of the great man
whose edict crushed out the sin of
American Slavery; 'Let us have faith
that right makes might, and in that
faith, let us to the end dare to do our
duty as we understand it" Abraham
Lincoln went down in the struggle which
proved to the world the worth of that
noble sentiment, but the fright which
he had faith to believe ''makes might
prevailed, and it prevailed in the face of
greater difficulties than those which now
threaten the temperance cause. We
cannot afford to surrender right to
might, nor TO sanction evil because we
cannot wholly overcome it. And let
the voters of Ohio remember that the
licensing of the liquor traffic, however
1t may be sought 10 be justified, is sim
ply the selling, By the State, the priciege
to make drU1lkGrds, to the end that the
appetite thus created may be basis for
the building up of trade in alcoholic
stimulants. For, surely, if the State
recognizes this traffic as a legal and le-
gitimate one, it should not object to an
effort on the part of the dram-seIler to
enlarge his trade and increase the sale
of his wares. And, pray, how shall this
be done except by increasing the number
OF those whose depraved appetites form
the basis of this traffic Let the people
of Ohio look well to this matter.