Montgomery County sentinel., 1880-09-03
Local Option.


M. EditOr The question is. Shall there
be license or no license TO sell intoxicating
drinks in this county? Drunkenness, the
result of the use of intoxicating drinks, is
denounced as a crime both by the laws Of
God and man. All experience shows it TO
be great evil and the parent of many woes
and calamities Punishment for the crime
of drunkenness has been tried in this State
for two hundred years. 1t has been fail
ure Drunkenness still continues, and is on
the increase. The last Legislature in response
to the petition of sixteen hundred Of the
best citizens Of the county passed law to
submit the question to the voters of the
county to say whether they would have eli
cense or no license" License confers a spe-
cial privilege upon the person holding it,
1t gives to the individual so holding it a
right to deal in an article, which right is de-
MED to the great mass of the community,
thus it often happens that the law confers
this exclusive privilege upon the worst man
in the neighborhood, which is not only de-
MED to the best man, but for which he is
punished if he attempts TO sell without
license. License thus becomes q protection
to ept and TO crime, while the virtuous is
punished for not using it or selling without
license. This is an anomaly in Legislation.
The people have asked to correct this anoma-
ly. Seeing that punishment for drunken
| ness has failed, that license to regulate the
| traffic has produced inconsistencies and con-
tradictions in legislation by granting special
| privileges, so often abused to the great in
| jury and hurt of the community, they now
| ask TO correct these evils and contradictions
by the simple process of stopping this un-
equal monopoly, and placing all the people
upon the same level. They ask to correct
them by adopting the sound maxim of the
healing art, namely, that prevention is bet
ter than cure, or in popular parlance, that
| an ounce OF prevention is better than a
pound of cure. The literal meaning of
license, according to DR.. johnson, is Tex
orbitant liberty privileges
monopoly-which our Bill of Rights de-
clares to be odious. How then can the
withdrawal of license be deemed to inter
fere with the rights Of the people2 The
object is to give the same rights to all the peo
| pie and put all on an equal footing, and not
| to few, as license power does, and they
| often the most dangerous class in the com
munity. Let no one be deceived by this
| false representation of the question Let the
| petition of the sixteen hundred Of your
! iellow-citizens which went down to the leg
islature have fair play and be fairly and
| truly represented to every voter The alb
stract question of temperance is not now
the question before the people The true
question is whether or not we shall con
tinue this odious monopoly in liquor traffic
Where it exists, we find drunkenness, de-
bauchery and crime, where it is blotted out
and all mon made free and equal, peace,
plenty, thrift and happiness prevail.
Men of Montgomery, be not deaRiyed and
led away from the real question HeIore you,
and the opportunity you now have to rid
yourself OF the greatest wrong and inequality
which legislation has ever inflicted upon a
free people.
JUSTICE AND EQUALITY.