The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1880-04-21

in acc pting this as the "e-essory position
of government toward crime. The diff.
Guilty is that the law is not enforced. The
crying evil of our day in all communities
is the non enforcement of the statutes
against those very evils. The cry " More
laws !" is false mole, We need TO en-.
force the laws we have first. 1t is folly
even with good intent to enact new laws
because old laws are not respected. 1t is a
'dshonerabe escape from difficult task
and creotes n contempt for the arm of the
law in the minds of transgressors. And il
new laws are enacted with evil intent, that
is, for the benefit of officials who thus Sc elk
to shirk their duty then the public ought
TO know it and see to it that the officials
are chInged and not the laws. The same
argument that proves government impo-
tent to control social evils, proves it impo-
tet to undertake t management aud
control of other public matters. A govern
mert TINT cannot enforce its own laws has
no business to undertake war or to regulate
commerce, or to impose taxes, or to pro-
tect its citizens aud their property against
mobs, for unless it is government of n.y.
pocrisy. it is powerless to accomplish any
of the things. The argument proves
too much, and brings us free to face with
the real Issue instead of this false one. Let
the government be loyal to the laws it has
aud rigidly enfource them, and if some
officials Invent sufficient backbone to do
Their duty in the place they hold. let better
men be substituted. Let temperance peo-
pie rally around this point and we will herr
no more about the impotence of govern
ment in the enforcement of necessary laws /;
nor will the liquor interest be able to sue
coed with its specious claim that the nou-
enforcement of the present laws is an ar
gnment for a resort to licensure. 1t is
claimed TINT Items is the best ray tn con-
trot and restrict ! GU r-Selting and Gguor-
drjphing How such claim can be made
in the face of facts is marvellous. In Con-
necticut in 1854 the prohibition law effect
ed reduction in crime of Is per cent on
the restoration of the license system, crime
increased lin 50 per cent In Vineland.
N. j. where by local prohibition all sale
of liquor is prohibited, one constable sufices
for population of ten thousand persons !;
| and the poor fund reaches the sum of 81
year. In Greeley, Colorado, where the
same policy ofprohibition is pursued, there
is not single police officer to population
of three thousand, and the poor fund reach
es the sum of 81 for two years. Bavaria,
ILL.,, another total abstinence town of tho
same population, reports not single pau
per aud not single crime. What towns
under a license law can present such facts
New Yor> City is Staggering under the
awful load which its license law imposes.
And yet since the sale of liquor has been
prohibited on Sunday, the arrests have fall
len off 50 per cent. Surely no one would
claim any credit for the superior benefits
of license in the presence of that fact. 1t
is claimed Mot 1t is impossible to do much
1onytniqg else but tohcense the liquor
traffic. Liquor-selIing goes unrebuked all
over our Islands. Practically we are
having deluge of free rum. 1t is matter
of public notoriety that large quantities of
all sorts of liquors are scattered hither and
yon from Honolulu all over these Islands.
1t is these f,cts that lead many to sup
pose that the evil is two powerful to deal
with and SO must be regulated by some
kind of licensure.
But the facts do not naturally convey
such conclusion. They make us wonder,
first of all, at the supineness of Govern
ment officials, and then Mt the long-suffer-
ng of the public in dealing so leniently with
inch faithess servants and then convince
us that what we want here In Hilo and all
over this Island, and all through the Group,
10 n N pitad ,nbl;o eant;r,an+ +bo. Il. N Il
mand rigid enforcement of our laws
Let no one suppose that we have come to
such crisis that it is impossible to do
anything toward better state of things
Something can be done What is needed
is that every temperance man should make
the most of his influence in every possible
direction. Let there be no compromise
with the liquor interest. Let there be on
every hand n stubborn insistance that gov
eminent shall do its duty. Let there be
an unrelenting effort to force officials to
the discharge of their proper work. Let
the offenders against the law be pushed to
the wall until this free-rum carnival stops
Let the liqnor sellers know that one glass
is enough to bring him into Court. Let
the liquor drinkers learn that the smell of
liquor about his person is enough to turn
the prison-key upon him. The thing can
be done. 1t can be done if all those who
bemoan this state of things will bear each
his responsibilities in the matter. Else
where, in order to secure the enforcement
of the law, men organize and thus bring a
united public sentiment to bear against
officials and criminals, forcing one ass to
do their duty, and the other to abandon
their criminal course. Such an ORGANIZE
ton could find work here in Hilo. 1t
wonld require money, and time, and pa-
tience, and an obstinate perseverance,, but
It would reap large blessings, and give US
cleaner history to look back upon than
that we are making now.
1t is undoubtedly true that license is
sometimes urged on the score of goce,m-
nent's tfsdnciol necessities. 1t would
seem to be enough to say in answer that if
government is SO Strengthened that it must
'esort to the raising of funds by nnlelsh-
ng the criminal forces in the body polite,
Or that is the practical outcome of license, ,
hen such government had better be boil