The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1885-04-25

An Elaborate and Exhaustive Argument
by One Who Believes in Killing the
Old She Wolf Rather Than
Fostering Her Cubs.
BY JOSEPH b. TURNER.

by JOSEPH b. TURNER.
The recommendation in the recent
message of Governor Pattison, and the
conversion of our esteemed
,isitor, the New Era, and the introduce
ion of bill in the Legislature, plunges
IS at once into the thickest of a discus
sion upon the merits of'High License.
There is another side to the question.
1t should be patiently heard. We be-
ieve high license is high lniquity,
subtle snare, and delusion, and there
-ore we speak. The license system, as
applied to the sale of liquor in the
United States, is old enough to justify
Itself. Its fruits, through all its history,
show it to be a linked failure long
drawn out. From the day when Alex
ander Hamilton resorted to it to sus-
tain the credit of an impoverished gov
eminent, it has sanctioned an over
curse, brought legislation
into contempt, and-whetherin Intention
ally or not-steadily shielded and
stimulated an abominable traffic, the
prolific parent of vice and crime, until
that traffic, having by this time laid its
heavy hand upon the enacting powers
themselves, laughs at law and defes
control. In word the license system
has been from the very beginning just
what it is today-a shameful and an
awful failure. Assembly after assembly
has tinkered at it in vain, and each
new enactment, while hailed for the
time being as an infallible remedy ''for
the greatest evils to which the liquor
traffic gives rise" has only added an
other abortion to those already on our
statute books, and all the while the woe
and want has grown.
When it was required that petition
ers for license be men "of temperate
habits, of good repute for honesty, well
disposed to the good of society, as
if any man well disposed to the good
Of society,"" would be willing to sell
whisky-provided with house room
and conveniences that his petition
shall be certified to by twelve citizens,
from their personal knowledge; that
four of these, with the petitioner, shall
be qualified as to the facts set forth !;
that he shall not sell liquor by less
measure than one quart that he shall
not sell on Sunday, on election days,
to minors, to men visibly affected by
drink. or to excessive drinkers after
notice =; it was fondly imagined by the
advocates of license that we had at
last perfect law, something that would
deprive the traffic of ''its
greatest evils" Now, however, mira
bile dictu-it becomes apparent to the
Governor of the Commonwealth, and
to various of those who sit upon our
editorial watch towers, that "our pres
ent laws are ineffective and made
Quate," and that "without doubt the
greatest evils to which the liquor traffic
gives rise result from granting licenses
to every man who can raise few dol
lars to pay the fees, no matter how i'm
proper a person the applicant may
happen to be-" Is 1t not strange that
when the law is SO strict in requiring
that only good "honest men, well dis
posed to the good of society,"" shall be
allowed to man our public bars and
sell liquor in small quantities, ''the
worst character in any community can
secure the necessary number of names
to his petition, and, securing these, his
chances for license are good" Well,
it is strange but SO it is, and thus
endeth another chapter of our effort to
get rid of the evils Of an evil by lend
ing sanction and protection to that
evil. We ought to be wise enough
now to take the traffic, the evil itself
the mother of the whole foul brood OF
evils-by the throat with grip SO wise
like as to strange the beast and free
the land. But there is one more chap
ter in our book of license. We must
give the plan another trial. We are
getting SO tired of trying to restrain
this evil brute by stroklng its back,
that we are almost ready to break its
back by prohibition. But one phase
of license we have not tested yet. We
can't give up this devil plan until we
exhaust its details.
We must still "call evil good, and
good evil, but darkness for light and
light for darkness, bitter for sweet and
sweet for bitter" Notwithstanding the
woe thereof. We must try this new
feature, and stop awhile at the next
halting place between right and wrong,
called "High License" This, it is
said, is tie remedy. 1t cannot fail to
put away ''the greatest evil" to which
''the evil-the liquor traffic-sives
RISE cit will diminish the number Of
drinking saloons fully one-half, perhaps
more and improve the character Of
the remaining ones greatly. At the
same time the public revenues would
be vastly increased in this way, sthich
is no slight considerations" These
are the high claims of high license
And yet there are those-and they are
legion-who think that we have gone
far enough on this road. That this
new compromise measure is only in,
suit added to injury already inflicted
that it is a scheme of the devil, whose
patent upon it ought not to be in,
fringed upon by people calling them
..,l..,.. Cl n,,I tLn4 Il nil ,,,e,.e