The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1884-05-09
WooDSTOWN, N. j., FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1884.

it gilds the saloons it authorizes. 1t gives
them gloss and outward decency. Not one
inherent evil of the traffic is smitten by it,
On the contrary it places over the whole
brood of evils broader brand of legitimacy
And painting vice, we all know, is bad bust
ness. To give responsibility to an Ubiquitous
thing is to buttress it more securely. Reform
by that road is down hill. Revenue gotten
on such terms-the blood of duped and be-
trayed victims will cry from the ground
against it.
g. My second point is that high license in
duces the s0lO0n-keepers to resort to other coils
to make good their loss By it, They are going
to get back their license fee. That thousand
dollars must come back into their TILL They
have not gone into this business on philan-
thropic principles, for the good of society.
They will therefore adulterate their liquors.
They will vitiate their stock. All! if they
would only water it literally, water it But
water is the last thing they or their patrons
want in it. There is no sting in water
Nothing to bring the drinker back to his
glass. So they ply the stock with cheap
drugs. They swell its dimensions. They
make its bulk large by their vile decoctions
And it finds its way down mems throats at ten
cents a glass, smooth and pleasant to the
sense, only to prove at last the very poison of
death, often making of men physical and
moral wrecks shattering nerves, stealing
away brains, and deadening conscience.
But this is not all. Under the pressure of
high license, and to make the establishment
pay back that large fee, saloon-keepers are
tempted to introduce other features, to mar
shall other forms of vice, and to link gambling
and harlotry with liquor selling so as to swell
the receipts.
And this is no wild guess or foolish out
burst of temperance fanatics. 1t is the frank
statement of our enemies, and out of their
own mouths shall they be condemned. Last
autumn the State Protective Liquor Associ-
alton of Illinois held its annual meeting at
Quincy. And the report of the executive
committee boldly charged that there were
g men in the traffic with whom the sale of
liquors is only a blind for the gambling
houses and houses of prostitution, and who
did not hesitate to advocate high license in
the hope of running the poor but decent sa-
loon keepers, and thereby attracting custom
to their own establishments. If men will not
hesitate to advocate high license on that
ground, men will not hesitate to garnish their
saloons with games and lewd women to make
high license pay. Carrying up the license
fee, therefore, may gild with an outside re-
made two-fold more way of hell.
8. My third point is that high license
9e0Ues the fountain untouched ao1ile trying to
dam up some streams. The evils of this
traffic that so curse society and home, do not
start in the vile, disgusting dens
where there is only raggedness and filth.
a few of the low dramshops They will inev-
itably be opened again. The wash of the
upper saloons must go somewhere. The re-
spectacle varieties need the low groggeries to
take care of their cast-off rubbish. For this
reason you won't find them troubling each
other much, because perchance selling with
out license. Such talk is sheer nonsense
The poor doomed victims of drink robbed of
their manhood and decency, if they step down
hill, must find the saloon down hill. They
aoiU find it. That stream of descending lust
and filth must have an outlet If you would
stop it, you must go to the top and break up
the fountain. Prohibition is the word, not
license. You cannot trust men with this
thing any more than you can trust them with
dangerous explosives. Prohibition is ever
its own restrictions. License
of every kind, low or high is ever weakening
it's own restrictions. Prohibition thunders
No to every evil of the traffic. License
keeps the door open for all the evils to enter
in, and issues kind of standing invitation to
them. Prohibition tends to victory by its
denial License tends to defeat by
it's legalized indulgence. License is getting
rid of the evils of hydrophobia by cutting off
the tail of the mad dog somewhere along its
bushy end. Prohibition is getting rid of
those evils by cutting the tail off just behind
the dogs ears.
f. My fourth point is that high license is a
failure IN practice 1t increases revenue but
it does not lessen saloons, nor change their
real character. 1t puts more dollars into city
and county treasures, but it does not smite
and destroy the dreadful evils of traffic in
strong drink. Men are sometimes content
with it because it helps pay taxes. But does
that make it success? Here is the logical
Grogshops confessedly make Grim
inals. Criminals necessitate police. Police
cost money High license makes the grog-
shops pay the money In that vicious circle
crime Is made its 0aon successor. 1t says to
the saloon-keepers "Go on perpetuating
crime and manufacturing criminals, but pay
for it." Iappeal to any intelligent judgment
if that is not bad citizenship and bad morals.
If that is all of success there is in high
license, / brand it as a stupendous failure.
Is that all its success? know no other. L
have yet to hear of any moral or social trans
formation it has brought about.
On the other hand the proofs of failure are
signal I give but two, the one covering
city and the other a state. The city is Des
Moines, Iowa, and the facts are youched for
by gentleman over his own signature as
.'taken from the records of the city clerk"
In 1871, with the license fee $3.50, there We're