Daily Republican., 1881-04-01
FRIDAY- APRIL 1, 1851.
The substiaute Cor local Option.

The passage of local option la"
sould scarcely have made more OF a
change in the system of liquor selling
in the State than the license bill which
has passed the Senate will make IL
not only makes some very radical
changes in the license system but som"
that are non -ensical rs well. Tbe DiIl
provides that hereafter the house ana
not the man who sells the liquor 'S 10 be
licensed. There is no great objection 10
that but the end sought could have
been A. easily attained by licensing the
man and making the property re"PonSi-
hle for the fines and costs for Violations
.,f the law and for damages 10 person
and property through the sale oi
lioror, This will cut Of all irre>lhsnsi-
bile, unlicensed dram saloons, aS the per
sous owning the property will NOT CAR"
about riskiug it to almost certain CON
fiscation by leasing it for the sale "f
LIQUORS to irresponsible persons. a' is
now done in hundreds of instances. II
will also result in compelling the owner
of the property to require bond OF IN
demnity from the person to whom Ia"
leases, to protect him troM loss, through
a violation Of the law.
Take it all in all this is about aS rigid a
lat h. al aI .hnPt
of prohibition, and il the liquor sellers
are satisfied with this provision we are
sure temperance people have no reason
to be dissatisfied For license law
the eleventh section Of the bill seems
out Of place, but for a local option hill
no great objection can be urged. II
seems that under the provisions OF the
bill passed if the condensed reports re-
reived of it are correct, All places
licensed at the time of The passage OF
the bill may bn rrlirensed but no new
place tan be licensed without obtaining
the consent of majority OF the voters
of the ward OF >rhoOl district from
which such application is made. This
is q rhas" of thu local option bid re-
tanned f,l' which the present bill is a
substitute. and rs we understand It we
doubt if 1t will give satisfaction to any
bedv, and il il even intimated that it
was inserted IN the present bill to cir
cumvent the granting Of license to the
mammoth hotel M A. Il. Richardson Of
Dover. is building and which would be
cDmp a formidable rival to the riCketty
halt burnt concern on the Dover GFeea.
This aumuS by the Legislature against
Mr.. Richardson will De understood
when we state that he is leading Re-
publican of Dover, and so popular
that AS candidate for State Sena-
tor at the late State election
he came too near being elected to bel
comfortable to the SaulshurSS and tn"
Bourbons of Kent county.
The operations of this section would
VI" hllidN 'ld'lt W. " Az ~ l"Ii y i'i' "ll'A
liquor men alike, for while a decent re-
Sptctabit man, no matter what superior
facilities hc may have for hotel keeping,
could noi engage in the business with
out first getting the consent OF major
ity of the school voters Of a ward or
school distrirt, any man Of low charac-
ter who may happen to have Il licens" !
and lirkrtty old brd~bug Shanty now
may h" rrlic"usrd without being put 10
the trouble Of getting the consent OF
majority Of tn" school voters Of his |
ward or school district With true
Bourbon like ingenuity the bill ~
naming school voters carefully excludes
colore'l voters from having any say in
this matter, though they are still al
lowed to sign applications for license.
The question naturally arises, why not
make all applicants for license subject +,
10 majority Of the school voters, as
well A. only those who are starting III
hotel keeping, and the broader question |
follows, why not license all who want |
license if revenue only is what tn" !
State wants This section Of the bill |
makes the sale of liquor more of mo-
nopoy than it was before, and monopO-
lies are becoming very unpopular.
We can find no particular objection
to the section regulating the sale by |
druggists, and selling or giving to mi
nors, only it is a pity that thousands of
people could not DE kept below the age
of twenty-one all their lives. What We
mean by this diversion is, that we can
not see the greater harm in selling or
giving liquor to "A young man under
twenty-onc years Of age. However
these are arguments which belong eX-
cusivcly to prohibiting law and which
no license law can regulate and there
fore We drop them. The probabilities
are that the House will not concur in
the Senate substitute, and tn" session
drawing near to 4 close, the old license
bill will still remain in force.
We rather suspect that this was Sen
ator Bayard's object when he wrote to
a member of the Legislature from his
Senatorial chair in Washington in op-
position to local option and in favor of
a well regulated license law. As the
success of the Democratic party, right
or wrong, is the highest aim of the
Delaware Senator, it is of course ex-
pected that all morally inclined mem
bers of the Democratic party will ac-
quiesce in the Senator'S views and not
.~,n,,iar ~, Ilnla