The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-05-10
THE LIQUOR QUESTION.

The LIQUVk QOESlION.
No economical question has come to
the front more resolutely of late than
the question how to deal with the traffic
in intoxicating liquors. 1t has evident
ly "come to stay" and will be an in
creasingly perpleXing element in all po-
| litical calculations.
Thirty-two years ago the original
L" Maine law for the suppression of
| tipping houses was enacted in q State
whose population were mainly total alb
stainers from alcoholic beverages. The
stringent prohibitory legislation of
Maine was speedily followed by that of
eight or nine other States; in some of
them it has been repealed, but to-day
the principle of prohibition remains in
| grated on the statute-books of Maine,
| Vermont and Kansas. There is also a
| local prohibitory act in force in Vine
land, New Jersey, and in many towns
and counties of Georgia, South Caro-
lima, and perhaps some other States.
The constitutionality of prohibition has
been repeatedly affirmed in the highest
courts; it stands, just as the license sys-
| tenn stands, on the same foundation with
! quarantine regulations, or with the law
forbidding powder-mills in the heart of
city. If the commonwealth finds the
dram-shop a fruitful source of pauper-
ism and crime, it has a clear, undenia-
BILE right either to limit it or to suppress
it entirely. "Salus populi supreme lex"
About the constitutionality of pro-
hibitory legislation there is no serious
dispute the real difficulty is with re-
| TrnrI TO oti hilit,r o,I ho
sibility of enforcing it. A dead law is
as useless and inodorous as dead man.
The experience of Maine, Vermont
and Kansas has established one fact
that the enforcement of suppressive
laws depends entirely upon the wishes
of the majority in the different local.
ties. Wherever the local public senti-
ment elects magistrates who will en-
force the law, it is fairly enforced this
is the case in very many localities of
those three States, especially in the
rural districts. Wherever the majority
choose officers who will wink at the VIC
lation of the law. either in part OF
wholly, there prohibition is practically
dead letter. For example, the pub
lie authorities of the city of Bangor,
Me, created at one time no small scan
dial by permitting the dram-shops to
keep open doors, and it is charged
against the present authorities of Port
land that they allow no small amount
of liquor-selling to 90 UNPUBLISHED. In
the river towns of Kansas the same
state of things exists. The written law
of whole State is the actually en-
forced law of such portions of the State
as decree its enforcement by their bal
lots. That this is not the most health
full mode of dealing with the solemnities
of law goes without saying.
These facts seem to point clearly to
the rightfulness and expediency of one
method of dealing with the dram-shup,
and that is the method of local control.
This principle is as essentially demo-
cratic as was the original ''town-meet-
ing'' of primitive New England, which
lies at the foundation of our whole
structure of Government. If the citi-
zens of any township or municipality
regard the existence of tipping houses
as inimlcal to their best interest, they
should be permitted either to limit
them by high-license fee or to pro-
hibit them altogether. Because the city
of Trenton desires to license dram
shops, that is no reason why the COM
munity of Nineland, in the same State,
should be compelled to live under Ii
cense law. In New York City the excise
, system has VIGOROUSLY failed to exert
J any represSive control of the business of
grog-selling; but that fact should not
prevent the inhabitants of any town
Ship or village in Oneida County from
excluding every house of public tempta-
: ton from their borders. 'Those who
dance must pay the fiddler (and New
York pays roundly); but it is hard that
community who abhor the dance
J should not be allowed to clear out the
frolic and the fiddler too.
This just and republican principle of
local control is now being fairly tested
I in Georgia and South Carolna-where
the whsky-shops have proved so dan
? gerous and demoralizing to both ne
groes and poor whites. The counties
t and the Incorporated towns who petit
ton for the privilege receive from the
State Legislature the legal right to sup
press tippling-hous under severe pen
alties. This local prohibition has been
/ voted for in many localities; its per-
manent enforcement will depend en-
urely on the stamina OF the people ana
| their elected authorities. As an honest
experiment of self-government in a
peculiarly difficult direction, it is of pro-
digious Importance; its educating intiu-
ence on the people can not well be over
estimated. It's success will be a price
less blessing to the South.
The method of "high license fees''
has been adopted in Illinois and in
Iowa and some other portions of the
West. This system closes up great
number of haunts of temptation to the
working classes, and is to that degree
beneficial. Better this "half a Loaf
: than a whole liquor -cask without any
bung Tie friends of order and morali-
| ty will make a serinns mistake if theY