Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1875-02-18
The Liq.S rLex,.Iat,on.

i(sC behciai <AFchOiS
las, at Length after much tribulation
,". ON and timidity, made a
Ioii'ei"' te in liquor legislation, by
VA an amendment to the so-called
u"H law, requiring previous notice
:" filed in I e office of the city or
Va Iage clerk, without service or rpubh-
alton, not to sell to the named person,
as condition for recovering damages
for such sale.
1t is matter of common notoriety
that the Democratic party came into
the control Of the General Assembly
through the secession of the Germans
from The Republican party because of
its Temperance principles and its SUP
port of temperance legislation, and be-
cause the tone of the Democratic. party
promised them looseness in'this affair.
This Democratic Legislature, there
fore, may properly be called the liquor
dealers Legislature, or the REPRESENTA-
tive of the drink-msking and selling
interest And even if it was not clear
ly under pledges to repeal the laws
these classes complain of, it will not be
denied that these Glasses expected it.
The most offensive of these laws, 70 tile
makers and retailers, is the so-caIled
Adair law, for under that law some sell
ers have been hurt, and this sufficeS TO
make the rest uneasy. Therefore il
was expected that this liquor General
Assembly would lay prompt and slrong
hands ON that. Unquestionably the
Democratic leaders intended TO; but at
the first session, the crusade excite
ment frightened them frnm it. Now
they have braced their courage up to
the sticking point, of going through
the form of doing something, ,and what
is the result?
A provision that any relative or any
other person may give notice to all
dram-sellers, by simply notifying the
clerk of the village or city that liquor
must not be sold to the named person,
and thereupon all the sellers, without
any other service or any publicity, shall
be liable to any of the PERSONS rela-
tives and to any other person, for any
damage suffered by anybody through
his drinking. The premises on which
the liquor is sold are also held to the
same liability. The notice is to be
made i'm confidential manner to the
clerk, and may be made by anybody,
and only the sellers or persons inter
ested shall nave access to 1T. In snort,
it is a provision to give facility to no.
tices which shall subject all dealers to
liability, and which they are bound TO
know at their peril. .f.fatI ....,
If the liquor interest is content with
this, we shall not complain. We be-
lieve that a previous notice is justly re-
Iuuisite to a claim for damages, and
tnat it should be made easy, but we
had not thought it could be made so
easy; so private and yet so far-reaching;
SO confidential and yet SO public in ex-
tent, AS this. The meaning of this re-
suit of liquor dealers General Assem-
4 bly, is, that the temperance sentiment
that is to say, the sentiment in favor
of restrictive laws upon the sale of in
toxicating drinkS-is so strong in the
l people of Ohio that no party dares take
ground against these laws. The Ger
mans may join the other liquor-selling
interests in electing Democrats to rep
resent them in Cincinnati and some 9TH
er large cities; but when these repreSen-
tatives come into the General Assem-
biy they find that the Democratic rep
resentatives from all other portions of
the State are as much bent on proscrip-
tive laws as the Republicans. And so
they find their party impOtent, an6
that they have sacrificed their political
principles and gone over to the Demo-
cratic party for nothing but to be
cheated.
Or if not earnestly bent on prohibito-
ry legislation, they are under fear OF
their constituents, which restraints
them. What have German Republl-
cans gained by making this Interest
paramount, and deserting their party,
and bringing the Democrats into pow
Ier in the State, and giving it the con-
troll of this city and county? They are
simply cheated. And it will continue
to be so. The party may promise
here, but it cannot deliver. The Dem
ocratic leaders knew this all the time.
They knew that they might promise
ever so literally to the Germans, they
would find an excuse for non-perform-
ance in the opposition of Democratic
representatives from the rest OF the
lState. They Intended to cheat these
u Germans, and they think they can
keep ON repeating the game.-Caa. Gaz.
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