The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1883-05-04

f. pfeIne III Duual Oi Lu6 Iauu, WHICH DA'
asserted the right OF the state, or in
dividual states, not only to regulat.
but to prohibit the manufacture and
| sale CT intoxicating drink, whensvs,
a majority so decides, the words OF
Chief Justice Tsney being ~ follows
eff any state deems the retail and
traffic in ardent spirits injurious to
it's citizens, and calculated to produce
idlenesa, vice and debauehery, l see
nothing in the constitution of the
United States to prevent it from
regulating and reatrainiag the traffic,
sor from prohibiting it altogether if i,
thinks proper This decision has
been repeated and confirmed by
cases in nearly every state in the
land, the following being sample:
"It cannot be said with propriety,
as We think, that it is the policy OF
our laws to regard the business OF
dram selling in any other light than
as mere privilege, granted under
restrictions and conditions that clear
lY imply tendency to affect injur-
icusly the public morals, and there
fore not to be encouraged either by
the laws themselves or tho courts of
the country. The business then
which the retailer seeks to engage
in is not a matter Of personal right,
nor one that the interests of the pnb-
lie at large demands that The should
be permitted to carry on"
In brief, the right to abridge, ham
per, opprese, heavily tax, restrain, OR
prohibit the sale of Intoxicating Ii
quor as beverage is the same as
that. which controls smallpox, the
sale of po,sons, the transport alton of
dynamite, and the treatment of pub
lie nuisances. There are some dis-
eases which the state intends / shall
not have the "personsl liberty" to
take or die of, or infect ether people
with, ard it will shut me up from
"supporting my family" while that
disease is going on in my house.
Secondly, let US pass to another
way in which the issue may be dis
guised and sIurred. And now I ad-
dress friends, my coadjutors in the
great cause of temperance. A ma
jority of such workers are convinced
that total abstinence ii the only safe
ground for the individual and the
withholding of license altogether.
Now, I should prove myself poorly
Informed on this great question did I
not share the doubt of these friends
as to the outcome of high license.
Making drinking over bars re-
spectacle does not appear to me
permanent step forward in the social
vel being. But consider this: the
law is on our city statute book; it
expresses, whatever its terms, or
however you and l may forecast
it's effects. it expresses growth
in moral sentiment, and an
emphasized conviction on the
part of the community against
intemperance. 1t Ia the law, and 100
saloons, dives, drunkeries are array
ed against it. The issue is, therefore,
as said carried up to question of
society's right to exist. The issue is
law and order against law breaking.
| cannot hesitate e--no, not an instant
as to my duty. must throw the
whole weight Of voice, vote, Influence
TO uphold authority. And though
the question is slightly modified,
when we come to an election as it is
morally unchanged, for a vote at
that time against the license is an
endorsement of this law breaking.
law defyirg element. Will you put
your moral weight and voice with
law and order, or with breakers.
/ have no doubt of the issue of
the coming June election, let me say
in the third place, If the political
wire pullers will once let the people
alone. Their vote will be instructed
and drilled both in secret and in pub
lie, to know nothing OF any question
save as he pledged to our interest?
Is he one Of us?" aud the next elee-
tion decides our city government for
three years-probabIy the most i'm
portant in its histo.y-with more
at stake than-a few years hence-a
whole generation of municipal life
can effect. Shall we have a city
government which will subordinate
every question Of public good to
that of whisky rule? Shall we now
plant the reed, and after . while
reap the whirlwind, as Chicago and
other cities are doing, where it is Bit
terly conceded that law and order plat