The Fremont County record., 1883-05-12
A TEMPERANCE COLUMN.
EDITED BY REV. L. ). rEMpL1N.
License VS.. Prohibition.


change has taken place in the public mind
during the last few years, in regard to the
best methods of dealing with the evils of
intemperance. 1t is but a little while since
temperance people themselves were very
much divided OH this subject Some favored
prohibition, some local option, and Others q
stringent license law. The anti-temper-
ancc people opposed all these measures.
But now how changed! Among temper
ance people there is but one sentiment and
one voice, and that is for prohibition !;
while the anti-temperance people are al
most unanimous for license. Every liquor
dealer and drunkard maker is in favor of
license, and every old blear-eyed rum bloat
may be seen lying around, singing through
his rum-blosomed nose, the paises of" n well
regulated license law" Prohibition is q
failure, but license is the power that is to
dry up the sinks of iniquity and stop the
flow of the tide of death that now sweeps
more than 60000 annually into drunk
ards graves. All are agreed that intem-
perance is great evil. Why, we have men
who sell whisky as Temperance measure,
and others stand around on the streets half
their time and argue against prohibition,
because of their ardent devotion to the
Temperance cause. If license laws are 50
efficient in the suppression Of dramshops
and the removal Of intemperance, the peo-
pie ought to know it. An inquiry into
the practical workings OF license in time
past is, therefore, not only legitimate one,
but it is demanded by the exigencics Of the
case. By reference to English history we
find that restrictive measures were adopt
ed in the reign of Henry III, 1867, to reg
ulate the use of Intoxicating drinks
Speaking of the habits OF the people some
time after this, Sir John Fortescue says:
They drink no water, except when they
abstain from other drinks, by way of pen. :.
ance, and from a principle of devotion"
During Queen Elizabeth's reign '4regula-
tive measures were again employed to
check the evils of intemperance. But
under the operation of these laws Grind
rod tells us that, The citizens of those
days were much addicted to drunkenness y
Stubs, in his "Anatomie of Abuse says
that the public houses in London were
crowded from morning to night with in
vetcrate drunkards.n
As further illustration of the excellent
effects Of this restriction may refer to
feast given to the Queen by the Earle OF
Leicester, at which, besides bountiful sup
ply of other drinks, 1900 gallons of beer
were consumed
During the reigns OF James and Charles
l various well regulated license laws
were enacted with such excellent effect
tnAt uurluk COnnnDnWcaltn T-0ClAnu
gained the title of +" The Nation of Drunk
ardsr
In 1916 such was the prevalence OF
drunkenness that some efficient measures
for its suppression were felt to he necessary
accordingly "a heavy sum, amounting al
most 10 "A prohibition of its sale, WAS affixed
to the taking out OF license for the yend-
ing of the liquor fire" Here WAS high
license that ought TO have been effective
in suppressing the evil if license will do it.
But what was the rcsultr Smallett, the
historian, in speaking of these same times,
says: We have often observed some
signs where such liquors were retailcd
Drunk for n penny, dead drunk for two
pence, clear straw for nothing
Louis MI, of France, licensed the manu-
facture of spirits ON n large scale, hut so
terrible were the effects ON the nation that
Francis, his successor, WAS compelled to re-
sort to the most severe measures 20 check
the tide of drunkenness that resulted.
For the sake OF increasing his revenue
GustaYus, king of Sweden, in 1888 granted
license TO both manufacturers and yenders
of alcoholic drinks Speaking OF the con-
sequences of this act, GriDdrod says
Crime, poverty, disease and mortality so
fearfully increased that the same king was
eventually obliged 10 pass severe enact
meBts to restrain the use of what preyi-
onsly he had been 80 active in promoting.
Such have been the effect OF well regu-
lated licecsed laws on the people of Eu-
rope in former times. Even high license >
has resulted only in cheap liquors Nor
does license traffic have n different effect
ON society to-day from what it did fifty and
100 years ago.
The present liquor traffic OF Great Brit
ain has grown up under license, and yet il
has reached e..ormous proportions. Ac-
cordinE to Mr.. Eoyle, OF England, the
drink hill Of the United Kingdom, for the
year 1881, was !, i,03s, i59 800 gallons; worth
S635 ,S72 500. The annual consumption of
bread is $3.50, ,Oo0, 600; of cheese, S131 800,
600. and milk. SI30. 900 600; making a total
expenditure for these three items of food
s6l7 500, 900, or nearly $4,000, 600 more for
liquors than for bread, cheese and milk.
Out OF s,6oo,oO0 houses in the United
Kingdom, / SOC, 600 are houses Mt which in
toxicating drinks are sold. And all under
well regulated license
DIR. Richardson, before the Social Science
Congress, said "I do not overcstimate the
fact when say that If such miracle could
be performed in England rs general con-
version TO temperance, the vitaiity of the
nation would rise one-third in value.n
There are in Great Britain 700,0O0 deaths
annually, onc-third of which would be
2S3,OoO. III we take hut half of this, and
Dr. Norman Kerr has proved beyond dis
pute that 10000 do die annually from
that cause, it is fearful. One hundred and
twenty thouand dying every year out of n
population of 33,0Oo,0oO from the use of
licensed liquors And yet the Libsrtists
nti-prohibitionistsl of this country would
have ms believe that well regulated
license law is all that we need to drive
away the curse of intcmpcrancc from this
country. II, after 200 years of trial, the
license system has produced such state of
affairs that, rs Mr.. Hoylc says at entails
n yearly loss of COCO, 100000 Isl, 200 ooO,- :
000l, or one-iifth of the nations entire in
come; causes 100000 to apply for parish
relief, leads to zoo, 900 cases of crime, 3OO,-
900 vagrants, makes 10000 lunatics, 70O,-
900 drunkards, 100000 criminals causes
the destruction of S0,oO0,oO0 bushels Of
grain for the manufacture of these poison
Gus drinks, and, finally, brings 10000 to
n drunkard's grave, around which gather
all the blnckncss and horror Of the second
death--if these are the fruits that the liccns-
ed traffic has borne in England, on what
ground do our libertists found an argument
or base hope that license will ever reduce
drunkenness TO minimum In this coun-
trC2 What assurance, do vxr fnd ;,, a. =.