The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-05-14
Temperance.
The Liquor Business.

The quantity of Intoxicating liquors
annually produced in the United States,
and for the most part consumed by the
people as beverage, added to the large
Importation OF such liquors of various
kinds from other countries, constitutes
the continuous supply out of which arises
a larger evil to the community than from
any other single cause, and, perhaps, than
from all other causes put together. 1t
amounts to hundreds of millions of gal
Ions annually produced, and, for the most
part, annually consumed as beverage.
The production is immense, and the con-
sumption keeps pace with it.
BY the liquor business we mean the
capital and labor employed, not only in
the manufacture of these liquors, but also
in their distribution among consumers by
wholesale and retail dealers. The produc-
ton is business, and the sale is a bust.
ness, each demanding capital and labor /;
and the two together constitute the liquor
business. As business, in each form, it
demands a large amount of capital, and
gives employment to great many labor
ers, while it furnishes market for por-
ton of the products of the farmer. 1t
supplies demand, and, like every other
business, is pursued for the sake of the
profit, and yields profit to these who
pursue it. Thousands of families get
their living out of this business and
some manufacturers and some dealers &C.
cumulate large fortunes from its profits.
The men who pursue it are not necessa-
rily knaves and rogues. Many of them
may be as honorable in their business
transactions as any other class of persons.
Why, then, should anybody select the
liquor business for special condemnation
and attack? Why should law interpose
its power and put the business under
special restrictions not applied to the silk
business, or any other kind of business
Why not let men manufacture and sell in
toxicating liquors under no restraint other
than that which is applied to all other
forms of industry, giving them the usual
protection, and holding them to the usual
responsibilities of law, but not placing
any special hindrance in their way, or any
special mark upon their business There
is but one answer to these questions; and
that answer we regard as all.sufficient.
The plain matter of fact is that the
liquor business, in the article produced
and dealt in and consumed, is an enor-
nous curse to the general community.
Its record in the results thereof is ex-
pressed in two words-woe and crime
and that, too, on scale so vast and vari-
GUS that thought, in the effort to fix its
measure, staggers under the load. The
evils of the business to human society are
simply incalculable; and these evils are
connected with no adequate offset in the
way of compromising benefits. The bust
ness steadily supplies the material which
the liquor consumers of the land use, and,
through this use, produces long and
dreadful catalogue of evils. The manu-
facture and sale of Intoxicating liquors,
and their common use as beverage, are
connected together in the relation of cause
and effect. The one leads to the other.
This is the fact, as everybody knows.
How shall these evils be prevented
One method, and certainly very good one
30 far a. it goes, is by moral suasion, ad.
dressed to those who are in the habit of
using Intoxicating liquors. If these per-
sons would all abandon the habit the de-
mand would cease, except for mechanical,
chemical and medicinal purposes, and
consequently the supply would cease ex.
cept for these purposes. But, unfortu.
nately, the remedy by simple moral
suasion is not strong enough to do the
work on a scale at all equal to the magni-
tude of the evil. All experience shows
that mere preaching and writing against
intemperance is not sufficient to reform
the drinking habits of the people and shut
up the grog-shops of the land. We believe
in such preaching and in such writing;
but the work to be done is too great to be
accomplished by either, or by both put
together.
1t is hence necessary for society, in its
organized and political character, acting
through the agency of law, to employ the
element of legal suasion, and attack the
evil in the cause which furnishes the
temptation and the facility. This cause
is the liquor business and we have no
doubt that society has the complete right
to legislate against this business to the
extent of its entire prohibition. There is
not state in this land that has not this
right, and not one in which the exercise
thereof would not be of immense benefit
to the people. The right rests upon the
iunuauontai PIiuciPlo oI seiI'prOIectlOn,
which inalienably inheres in every or.
ganized community. Every license sys.
TEN, from the lowest up to the very high.
est, proceeds upon the assumption that
society has the right to regulate the liquor
business to any extent that may be neces.
sary for the general good. The theory of
absolute prohibition and license is es.
sentially the same. The difference be-
tween the two is that the former acts
upon the whole business, and prohibits
the whole, while the latter acts simply
upon the sale of Intoxicating liquors, and
seeks to restrict it, but does not entirely
prohibit it.
And, as between these two methods of
legal action, we say unhesitatingly that
absolute prohibition is, in itself, in what
it proposes, and in the results when and
where it can be applied, far the better
remedy. Here we agree with the most
pronounced prohibitionists, and wish them
God speed, and mean to do what we can
to promote their views and hasten the end
they seek. We do not, however, agree
with those prohibitionists who think that
there is no good in license system, and
who reasoning from the mere word ali.