The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1886-11-06

ed successfully elsewhere, let us try 1t
in Cecil county," 1t is plain that at
that time the friends of local option at
least hoped if they did not positively |
believe that it would succeed, but there
were hundreds of voters in Cecil coun
ty, who voted for the present law in
1880, who were really not friendly to it,
and who believed it would be failure
wher adopted, but who voted for 1t
simply in Difference to public sentiment,
and to what seemed a reasonable ex-
pertinent and popular movement.
But its enemies were ready primed and
aggressive of course from the moment
it went into effect, May 1, 1881. They
were shrewd enough to know that the
question OF enforcement as the rock
upon which the friends of the present
law must be split. They therefore en-
couraged the most fragrant violations
OF the law, and which its defective fea
lures unfortunately favored. They took
4 defiant attitude generally towards it,
embarrassed prosecutions tor its viola
ton by every means in their power, and
went Just as far as they dared in break
ing down public confidence in the ex
pediency of such laws generally, and
the practicability of their enforcement.
In all this, the aim was apparent to
every intelligent observer of the history
of local option in Cecil county. Its
enemies did not intend that the ques-
ton should be submitted second time
to the voters Of the county upon its
merits if they could prevent it. The
opportunity offered in 1886 to do again
what had been done in 1880, viz, to
adopt better law by non-partizan
consideration of the necessities OF the
situation in the county. But the poll
ticians in Cecil county would not allow
it to be so. The unworthlest appeals
were made to partizan followers against
the amended law, by men bent upon
maintaining their political influence
through the potent agency of rum.
Partizan Democrats we're persuaded that
thi. whole thing Of prohibition was a
Republican dodge TO capture the coun-
ty, and if they voted tor it, they were
practically although indirectly hasten
ing Republican success in Cecil AL
legged local leaders on the Republican
side in the interest of the local Rum
traffic, made equally specious appeals
to their small contingent of personal
followers. Although they knew that
the outcome of this issue in Cecil was
in no sense involved in politics, either
local, State or National, yet they worked
up all the sentiment possible against
prohibition, by whispering into every ear
they could reach, that prohibition had
defeated their presidential candidate
in 1884, and that its success
in Cecil county this fall was but
the stepping stone to the organization
nationally of the Prohibition third party.
All these false and misleading appeals
had their effect, and we assert that no
man who is posted in the history of the
campaign which closed on Tuesday,
will claim, that the reduced majority tor
the amended prohibltory law cast on
that day, is the result of non partizan
consideration of the question on its
merits and which its friends hoped to
secure. 1t is true that this result is for
the present to be accepted as the indi-
cation of public sentiment in Cecil
county on this question. That the
prohlbitionists of the county after an
energetic local canvass, and an intelli-
gent presentation of their cause through
every honorable means available, have
secured a very reduced majority in
their favor.
But it is enough. If we read their
teTpers Alright, they mean to make it
their business to see that the amended
law is enforced They have every mo-
tive to do SO. They know that for the
next two years prohibition will be on
trial, and that its questionable success
only during that period, means an inev
liable return to the license system,