New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-05-23
SPASLODIC ENFORCEMENT.

Last Sunday witnessed one OF tnOSc notaDic
pnd peculiar efforts to put in force the law,
which, although made at long intervals,
are nevertheless no novelty. The public is ac-
customcd to hear the bruit Of special dem
onstration. but unfortunately it is accustomed
to the dead silence which usually follows On
Sunday, five hundred persons were arrested
for selling intoxicating liquors. Now, IL an
equal number should be arrested Tor
any other oifense within twenty-four
hours would not the presumption be
that the ministers of the law had heretofore
neglected their duty This happens to be
precisely the truth in the case under consid-
Grafton. For month after month during the
sacred day the beer has foamed in its beaker,
has flowed in river down the tlroats OF a
thirsty population and the police authorities
have hardly noticed the ofense at all-cer-
tainlv not in any general way. If the keeper
of a beer saloon has been allowed for long
time to vend his commodity on Sunday with
impunity is it at all strange that he should come
10 believe that he has as much moral and
even legal right to sell upon the first day OF
the week as upon any Other7 How Is 1t to be
hammered into his head that he must not do
what he has so long been allowed To dol
Naturally, when he Is arrested and conducted
to the police court, he considers himself
much injured individual. lie associates him
self with other sufferers in league against
the law. and determines to break it in future
whenever he can do so with the least safety.
II will not do to talk platitudes about the
enforcement of the Excise law when five hun
dred arrests for violation OF 1t can be made
in one day. This, of course, Is desperate
energy which cannot he maint1ined. II the
police had begun steadily, making moderate
number of arrests. and taking care that III
each case the penalty should be vigorously ex-
acted. little by little it would have
dawned upon the becr-selling community
that the authorities were really IN ear
nest. and that as q matter of economy and
prudence, the Sunday selling must be aban-
doned. As it is, there is no man arrested who
does not expect to go on indefinitely doing
business on Sunday. After such a storm he is
led by his experience to expect calm. He de-
termines to treat the sovereignty OF the State
of Ncw-York with supreme contempt. He
carefully reviews the situation, resolves upon
war; and prepares himself for the campaign.
lie regards the policeman as his natural enemy,
and the Judge who inflicts upon him penalty
| as Il tl1ullJ anu iip mas p''' WV wv
molested 80 long that he fancies that he has
acquired a franchise and thus he determines to
do battle at all hazards
When few weeks hence the Sabbath beer
business has been resumed, and the beer-drinking
| population is listening once more unmolested
to sacred concerts" we hope that the public
will recall the five hundred arrests of Sunday,
May 2l 1t will then be more apparent than
it now is, that a steady, persistent and pas
sionless enforcement of the statute will do
much more to abate the evil than these special
and wholesale outbreaks in defense of the
laws majesty. We certainly do not want an
excise law which cannot be made entirely
effective. The point now to be settled is
whether the existing statute can be practically
sustained, not upon some particular Sunday,
but every Sunday from week to week through
the round of the whole year.