Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-04-04
Views of Many business Men on Local
Option.


10 the Editor of the Dispatch:
In your issue Of Sunday, March 2lst,
we find the views of large number Of
businessmen on the subject Of local
option. A large majority of those in
terviewed affirmed their determination
TO vote against it in connection with
their reasons for so doing. A large
number Of these gentlemen in the oppo-
sition are deeply interested in the vel
fare Of their city and State and have
helped to advance the prosperity Of
both. They are men of much intiu-
ence, and would be power in any
community. We respect and honor
them. We have carefully examined
the reasons they assign for their oppo-
siiion to local option, and it seems to
US that many Of these gentlemen have
an entire misconception both Of the
ground as well as the design Of local
option.
Local option inyokes the aid Of the
law in the suppression Of intemperance.
That intemperance is great evil in our
State none will deny. That the license
law for many years has fostered and
developed this evil is equally plain. Ii
has encouraged the manufacture of in
toxicants and greatly increased dram
shops in our State. The law has for
many years educated our people to re-
gard the liquor traffic as right, COM
mercially and morally, by making the
business legitimate. The resolution Of
the Nevada Liquor Dealers Association
voices a sentiment which licenses ever
lastingly tend to create. They say:
Resolred, That so long as our
business is licensed by the United
States, State, and county we consider it
perfectly legitimate and honorable"
This logic is irresistible with the peo-
pie, and it is largely responsible for that
undertow which flows so steadily against
local option all over the State. Law is
an educator, and it has confirmed thou
sands Of our fellow-citizens in the
opinion that the liquor traffic is good
and right thing, and that any attempt
TO interfere with it is fanaticism, Puri-
tanism, &c.
No fair.minded man can doubt that
the liquor traffic is the prolific source
Of at least one half Of the pauperism,
idleness, crime, and domestic unhappi-
ness with which society is afflicted and
burdened. For long, long time So
ciety has submitted 10 this burden and
endured this affection. The time has
now come when many thousands Of our
citizens for virtue, intelligence, and
love Of State equal TO any in the Com
monwealth) think that an honest, earn
est effort should be made to get rid Of
this burden and stay the ravages Of in
temperance. And how do they propose
TO accomplish this desirable end: |
reply, by invoking the aid Of the law
in suppressing the evils Of iutemperauce.
lntemperapce, with its direful evils, is
the fruit; the liquor traffic is the
tree which produces this fruit, aud
local option invokes the axe Of the law
to cut down this evil tree. Being con-
WINGED, after an experiment OF fifty years
or more, that there is law in opera
ton in our State that fosters quarrels
and murders, and entails poverty and
sorrow and ruin on thousands OF homes
in the Commonwealth, we ought not to
be expected to do less than earnestly
TO seek the repeal Of such law. Other
laws which after fair experiment
were found to be bsleful in their intin-
ence on society have been repealed.
The right to repeal is as sacred as the
right to appeal. IL there be no consti-
tutionsl barrier in the way, the right to
repeal a law that fosters so much evil
is unqusstionable, though the repeating
act may be followed by temporary
depression in business. The State can
better afford TO endure temporary
commercial depression than to permit
and sanction by law the ruin OF thou
sands of its citizens and homes.
Let US take an example ior
illustration A correspondent OF the
Richmond DispafeA Of July 20 1889,
writing from North Carolina said
:" There were forty Government dist'i-
lsTies in operation 10 Wilkes county last
winter IN addition to the Illicit con-
Germs, and they consumed nearly al 'ns
n