Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1874-06-25
LICENSE OR NO LICENSE.
BY REV. A. j. F. BEHRENDs.

LICENSE Ok No LlCENSE.
BY REV. A. j. +. BEHRENDe.
From the Cadiz Republican,
Liceuse has been tried everywhere;
and it bas q uniform history, one OF
absolute failure rs q check upon intem-
perance. New York city has license
law. which during the first year Of its
operation collected an average fee OF
one hundred and fifty dollars. Under
the pressure of the liquor traffic, the
price of licenses has steadily decreased,
until at present the average price is less
than one hundred dollars. The saloons
| have. on the contrary, steadily increas-
ed. until in New York and Brooklyn
| thew number between eleven and
twelve thousand; more dramshops in
| these two cities than can be found in
our entire State with double the popu-
latioh! In 1872 New York city had
one saloon to every I39 inhabitants; In
1873 there was one to every 13a; and in
1874 the proportion Is one to Isl u the
! population. Thesmaller cities tell even
| q sadder story. where IL might De sup
posed licenses could more early be pre-
vented. Yonksrs, with Q population
of about Is, 900, Is said to boast no less
than 225 saloons, one to every seventy
of its population. On the other hand,
Haverhill, In Mass. with the same
population, but under law that pro-
hibits the dram-shop, has but forty sa-
looms within its corporate boundaries.
No legislation can prevent drunkenness,
but all political experience shows that
the only expedient by which intem-
\ perance has at all been curbed, by
| the sale and use of intoxicating liquors
have at all been checked, has been the
suppression by law of the drain-shop.
TIE political prohibitionists' 60 very
1 much further. They demand the sup
| preston, by law, OF the manufacture,
/ fmp0rtation. and sale of all liquors, or
their control, 20 fAr as necessary, by
government. Ths writer does not
question the honest zeai Of political pro-
hibitionists; but he cannot ksgard them
as skilled students in political economy.
Prohibition of the manufacture Il Ok
tremely diH5cHit, it is visionary aad
impracticable; the legal suppression Of
the dram-shop is the only prohibition
within reach, and 1t points the most
natural and easy path to contraction
in the manufacture. Throughout this
tract, prohibition is used in the sense
ofsupIFession of the open saloon. a
Such prohibition Massachusetts had
! tried for ten , cans previous to 1857; and
in the fall of that year the State fell
into the hands of the license party.
They retained 1t only one year, but the
mischiefo of that one year has scarcely yet
been overcome. Previous to the elec-
tion, under rigid enforcement of the
law, the Internal Revenue sReaeipts
had fallen to nine thousand dollars Q
month. In the first month after the
election, they hs0 bounded up to twen-
ty-two thousand dollars. In 1867 the
county of SuffolS, which includes the
city Of Boston, had sos saloons, and
these piled their business ie secret;
within one year, under stringent IL
cense law the same territory was COW
cred with ], 500 dram shops, an increase
of nearly two hundred per cent. On q
single street, North, 116 saloons were
ii full blast, where q year before the
pIjice could only find two. The SPRING
dela tRepublican, which favored u IL
censa law, said: sIntem perance has In
creased, is iacreasing, and ought 10 be
diminished! In Beverly, the town pa
per Iamented that since the new law
went into operatien. As we are informed
by the police. drunkanDess has increas-
ed alarmingly.s l8 q
-o The official documents feA ths same
story. Governor Clafiin said lia his jn-
augural address, January /, 1859: ~
main inactive when they see such re-
I'll ond fn
follow, the sale of intoxicating drinks
to tho extent that now prevails in our
hitherto quiet and orderly State. The
increase of drunkenness ard crime
during the last six months, as compared
with the same period In 1857. is very
marked and decisive as to the opera
ton of the law. The State prison, jails
and houses of correction are being rap
idly filled, and will soon require en-
larged accommodations If the commit
ments continue to increase as they have
since the present law went into force" !"
He then shows that the coinG;j jtments
for the higher crimes had mnss thgn
doubled. The Chief Constable supple
ments the Governors statement by
showing an increase of nearly 500 ar
rests in . single quarter Of 1868, rs COM
pared to the same quarter in 1867, and
adds drunkenness il on the in
crease to . melancholy extent. The
rapid increase of crimes and violence
during the past year over former years,
IL without precedent In the history OF
criminal experieneeH The Board OF
State Charities sums up long array OF
statistics in the suggestive sentence:
During the past year, 1863. 1t appears
that while crime ia general has increas-
ed about ten per cent, drunkenness
has increased more than twice as much,
or twenty-four per cent. This fact of
fers the best possible comment on the
condition of the public mind and of the
legal repression Of intemperance since
the State election of 1867. .y One years
experience of relief by license satisfied
Massachusetts,. The people were ready
for return to the law OF 1867. At first
it was somewhat modified-wine, ale,
beer, and cider being excepted; and
the modificationiormed an open door
through which the swollen torrents Of
intemperance rushed with increased
vehemence, until in 1872 the old law
suppressing the dram shop was restor-
ed, and sincr then there has been steady
and appreciable improvement. These
facts and figures have long been before
the public, they are compiled from off,
cial sources, but they have failed to
command the attention they deserve.
They show that license has not dimin-
ished intemperance or decreased the
number of saloons; suppression thus
far having been the only legal action
that has proved reasonably successful.
1t may help to decide the proprlety