Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-10-31
= Plea for High License.

Rev. Father Cleary, Of Kenoska, Wis.
delivered an address before the recent Tenn
perance Centennial, from which We take
the following:
There is nothing wrong in a Catholic
clergyman declaring himself a prohibition
list. There is nothing that conflicts with
any principle of my creed in announcing
that | am prohibitionist, and, as far as
regards the suppression of the liquor traffic
ultimately, ! am an Out-andout prohibit
zionist; that is, l am in favor Of roofing
out, and destroying the traffic as it exists
and abounds in our country to-day, as soon
as that becomes possible. In other words,
| am in favor of killing this monster as
soon as we possibly can. But, if | find it
impossible to kill him tonight l will be-
gin by starving him to death, and killing
him tomorrow, if | can. Therefore, am
in favor for the present-When | speak
this way, l speak only for myself, and
myself am responsible only for it-for
the present, l am in favor of the highest
penalty being imposed upon the liquor
traffic that it is possible for Us to engage
the public opinion is imposing. l do not
like the name license. We hear so much
about license. think it is an unfortunate
mistake that the penalty imposed on the
liquor traffic, that it may compensate
somewhat for the evils it entails upon So
ciety, has been called a license II is tax
a penalty that is imposed on this traffic,
not to make it legitimate, not to place it
under the protection of the law, but to
place it under the ban of public opinion ;
and, consequently, instead of placing it
under the protection of the law, we place
it under the destruction of public opinion,
as soon as we possibly can, SO that the ma
iority of the men who work within my
lines, who work with me in the Catholic
Total Abstinence Union of America, favor
the highest possible penalty that we can
| place upon this Infamous traffic. And we
! favor this, first, because We find that public
opinion is not prepared, rs rule, in most
| localities, for anything more extreme.
Where public opinion has been, educated
up to anything more vigorous than
| this, l am prepared TO say, Let
public opinion prevail. But l do not
mean by this that we are to sit down
and wait until public opinion becomes
ready; but say we should 60 on training
and leading up and educating public opin-
| ion by every process possible, that it may
be the more readily adapted for this par
ticular purpose of Wiping out the infamous
traffic in intoxicating liquors. This IS the
first reason. And, secondly, we find-at
| least, have found, by many years Of ex-
perience in total abstinence work-that
where this high penalty has been imposed
it is more easy for police regulation to take
care of the evil consequences of the liquor
troffic, and to punish those who violate the
law. We find, also that the traffic in this
way compensates-at least, somewhat-fol
the misery it entails. 1t helps the munich
pal authorities to support the paupers this
business has created. 1t helps the munich
pal authorities TO pay some Of the expense:
of the criminal proceedings that have
grown out of the infamous traffic. L
helps, in other words, to compensate some
what for the misery it brings