St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-02-16
THE HTGa LICENSE moyEmrNr

The high license proposition before the
legislature presents some queer features. 1t
looks odd to see gentlemen who are sincere
prohbitionists supplicating thaegslature to
grant any sort of license for selling liquor.
Another queer feature is to hear individuals,
who are in the habit of denouncing the liz
uor traffic as not only immoral, but crimi-
nal, advocating measure upon the ground
that it will make the vocation more respect
able, as if Responsibility could be given to
vice.
There is a sort Of queer Inconsistency in
this whole movement and can be accounted
for only upon the theory that the movers are
seeking to accomplish Indirectly what cannot
be secured by direct means. They seem to
abandon prohibition as naked proposition,
and, to borrow an old vulgarism, ''are seek
ing to whip the devil around a stump" In
this view of it they are mistaken. License
and prohibition are diametrical ideas aud
cannot be brought into any sort of harmony.
To license the liquor trafi: is one thing,
to prohibit it is an entirely different
thing. They won't mix. If, on the other
hand there is anything in the argument that
a higa license would give more toue to the
liquor traffic why would temperance people
seek to make respectable a trade which they
look upon in the light of erime9 1t Is said
that high license wouid weed out the small
dealers and make more osperous, and con-
sequently more genteel, the larger and
Weather dealers. Is thai the proper spirit OF
legisationg Must traffic be licensed by
law aud then let the law undertake to dis
eriminate between the rich and the poor!
The effect of such legislation would be to say
to the rich liquor dealers: ''You have
money, that makes you respectable, go ahead
with your business;" while to the liquor
dealer with a small capital the legislature
would say: "You are poor, that makes you
disreputablc, and you must close up your
business
High license will not prohibit, nor will it
bring increased revenues into the state treas
ury. A high tariff always reduces revenue,
in that it cuts off the supplies of revenue.
II the $500 license be substituted for the 800
license at least nine out of ten retail dealers
will be forced out of business. The niue
who go out will suffer sacrifice because of
the change in the law. They will be poor
fellows who may be ten times as respectable
as the one who stays in, but because of their
poverty they are forced to suspend business.
The one who stays in because he is rich
enough to pay the license has monopoly.
His competitors are rooted out by the law
and he has the trade in his own hands. And
yet the quantity of liquor sold is not dimin-
shed, the bad results from its use are not
less frequent, the rich dealers grow richer
and the poorer ones become poorer.
AS long as the traffic is licensed by law let
there be equality and justice. Let the police
and municipal authorities see TO executing
the law, and if a dealer violates 1t, let him
be punished according to the penalty whether
he be rich or poor. That is the true spirit Of
| legislation AMI the enforcement of law. We
feel confident that when the legislature
comes to look at it in an impartial light that
body will ind that the high license PROPOSE
ton will not bring increased revenues into
the treasury. that it viii not make the liquor
traffic more respectable, that 1t only creates
monopoly and draws class motions; that
it is violation OF justice, and as au improve
ment upon the present law has not a single
moral ground to rest upon.