Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1884-03-27
GOoMNUNIcATED.

ing recent elections in Ohio, ! sub
situte for my statements an address
delivered by President G. H. Payne,
of Wesleyan University, Delaware,
Ohio, for which | hope You will kind
ly make room in your valuable col
umns. Yours Truly, ]. W. GRAVES.
Sufficient time has elapsed since
the election in Ohio to allow dispas-
sionate view of the questions at issue
to be taken by those not wholly un-
der the influence Of prejudice and
party feeling The writer is not con-
scious Of being affected by any such
influence. Sincerely devoted to the
principles which have given the par
fy with which he has affiliated its
place in the nation, and equally de-
voted to the principles which are the
inspiration Of the temperance reform,
and with no slight opportunity to
observe how the recent contest was
waged, he ought to be able to give a
candid and unbiased Judgment of the
case as it now stands.
ut il important that we should un-
derstand what was the situation be-
fore the recent battle. There has been
much misjudgment Of the advocates
of the prohibitory amendment by the
secular press outside of the State be-
cause Of ignorance of the real issue.
Ohio has had an anti-license clause in
its Contribution for over thirty years.
This clause was q serious obstacle in
the way of the anti-prohibitionists.
A strong effort was made TO remove
it in 1874, but the people protested
with an emphatic mo license vote.
Various regulative laws have been
passed from time to time but as soon
as it was found that these measures
inflicted the slightest injury upon the
liquor traffic, the next Legislature
would hasten to amend" and take
the sting out of the offending anti
free-rum enactment. This process
has been going on for thirty.two
years, during which it is now claimed
by the anti-prohibitionists that we
have had free rum because of the
anti-license constitutions, inhibition.
A more palpable nan seqniter was
never employed by sophists. Even
grave Divines have fallen in with this
fallacious reasoning. In the Decem-
Der number OF the CENTURY Maya
zine, clergyman of some note uses
this language in Ohio, after an era Of
free-rum--the natural fruit of consti-
tutional provision prohibiting license
1--WE have at last succeeded in securing
tax law. Are the men who toss this
shallow fallacy from the pen or lips,
ignorant Of the fact that in SO far as
there has been free rum in Ohio
for over thirty years, it has been IN
spite of the constitutional inhibition
of1icense, and not because Of it2 Are
they ignorant Of the fact that it has
been because of the audacity of the
liquor power and the timidity and
servility Of the politicians who con-
trollsd the legislation of the State ?
Are they ignorant Of the fact that
before this anti-license clause was in
serted in the Constitution in 1861, |
the State was for several decades I'M
der the dominion of their Inuch-vaunt-
ed and greatly desired license system,
and that during that period free rum
can riot throughout the State and the
of drinking places to the
was then vastly larger
than it has been ut any time under
the no-license system, notwithstand-
ing the difficulty Of securing an ade-
quate repressive legislation? Anti
license has not caused and license will
not cure free-rum, either in Ohio or
Such, in brief, was the
situation. Timid and time.servine
would do little or moth
ing to check the fearful trpfc local
option had been refused, even by a
republican legislature, though petit
tions in overwhelming numbers had
been piled upon that distinguished
body almost sufficient to suffocate it.
II was time to take forward step.
The people demanded it; the politi-
tians trembled and laid their plans
with genuine political cunning, Then
came
THE RATTLE.
The conflict, at first, seemed hope
less. Two amendmentsto the Consti- |
Triton were to be submitted to the peo-
Pile in which the real issue was adroitly |
concealed. Not wiling otrustlthe peo-
plein a fair intelhgentvote on the ques-
ton OF License or Prohibition, the
first amendment was skillfully entitled
Legislative CONTROL but in language
we'll calculated to deceive, it proposed
the repeal of the anti.license clause
in the Constitution, though it did not
quote the clause nor mention the word
license at all.
Legislative control, was a capt.
tai phrase with which to catch the pop
ular vote. 1t would seem to indicate
the wisest course to pursue. Men
would not stop to reason that the
Legislature had for these thirty years
had entire control of the traffic, with
the single exception of power TO IL
oense it, and that this august body
had repeatedly refused to enact any
law that meant serious harm to the
favored liquor dealer. Then there
was great confusion and misunder
standing as to the real meaning and in
tent of the amendments. The second
one, which proposed to prohibit the
manufacture and sale Of intnrinafinn