Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-06-26
WHEELING W. va. MONDAY. MORNING. JUNE 26. 1882

sion upon the subject OF the constitution
atty of the measure, which was pressed tos
vote in tn House, which was .found to b
equally divided. Speaker Noyes declined
70 give the casting vote and the bill wa,
lost The Temperance" people profess tt
have the determination and the necessary
strength 10 defeat his ambition to sit in the
guberDatoriaf chair.
The next movement was the introduo
tion Of bill in the Senate limiting all Ii.
censes to one for each thousand inhabitants
| This was afterwards amended so that in
Boston licenses might be issued at the rates
of one for each FIVE hundred inhabitants.
The population being about $4,000 the
number of licenses would be, by law, not
over $50. There are now some 5000. This
latter number includes over 800 wholesale
dealers, more than hundred hotels, some
800 or 400 druggists, besides all the restaur-
ants and.retail liquor dealers. A bill pro-
viding that no license shall be issued for
premises situated within 400 feet of any
school house was pissed and will become a
law.
have dwelt somewhat at length upon
the administration of the license law in
Boston, because the chief interest in the
liquor question is centeIed here, the capi-
tai of Massachusetts,, the New Eng land met.
ropolis, and the distributing point for the
wholesale dealers. The present agitation
{ has been encouraged directly andindirectly
by the prohibitionists Of three States
north and east of US. 1t is true that each
has stringent law, forbidding the sale of
intoxicants except for medicinal, scientific
or mechanical purposes; but for all that the
reports OF the
Commissioner Of Internal Revenue
show that in Maine GIG persons have a
United States license to sell liquors; in
New Hampshire l,20l, and in Verment 48S
prohibitory though she be, has more liquor
dealers according to her popula.
ton than would be allowed in
Boston, where the sale is legalized while
in Maine the ratio is nearly as large as that
which the prohibitionists wish to give this
city. Besides it is not likely that all those
who sell liquor in these States are honest
enough to take out United States licenses,
for when the temptation to evade one law
is induced it becomes easy to risk lawless-
ness in other matters.
The prohibitionists-or most otthem-
see and acknowledge these facts, but claim
that the condition OF things is largely due
to the terrible example OF Massachusetts,.
which has no less than S,202 dealers with
United States licenses, besides her
them is the one sink OF iniquity, where the
ers, mechanics, and clerks of States with
less of sin and temptation, are led away
and form habits Of intoxicatien and vice.
II is here that the example of universal
drinking is forced upon him, where they
are entertained at dinner with wine, at
lunch with beer and at theatre with brandy.
They conceive the idea that it is necessary
for them to be able to :.'entertain" at home,
and therefore they either
Smuggle Their Samples
home in their baggage, or induce their
tradesmen of their towns to keep some
thing which may be had in cases of
such emergency. Here, too with through
trains departing at all hours of day and
night for every point in New England;
with express companies which cover every
district; with trading packets and freight
ing vessels, which run to every indentation
upon the extended coast line; with people
passing TO and fro on business, who can
easily carry a gallon without fear Of the
otficers-here IL is easy for the tradesman,
whether his regular business be hardware,
variety, or groceries, to purchase what he
wants and have it conveyed in secret to his
store hundreds of miles away.
Thus reason those who believe
in prohibition, and from these
premises they argue that il prohibitory
law could be enacted in Massachusetts, and
rigidly enforced in Boston, it would be
possible to stop nine-tenths OF the traffic
lature are now made the battle field in
which those who hold strictly to the prin-
ciple that no wrong ought to receive the
sanction OF law have brought up their forces
against the position of those who hold that
a sumptuary law cannot be enforced, be.
cause the people will not sustain it, and
that prohibition does not promote temper
ance. u L. ID.