The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1886-01-29
High License a Crime.

lie iitluTdi dhu only TcSultS Ill CLOSING
the small groggeres would be to make rum
selling and rum drinking more respectable.
There are many who would not be seen
going in a low, filthy saloon, (becausc they
know it would be II blight on their reputa-
tion), but with scarcely a twinge Of con
science they enter one Of those gilded sa-
looms, or woud-be respectable establish
ments.
Now suppose all these small groggeres
are closed, and in their place you open
your high licensed houses in the most
prominent places. Every honest person
knows it is not the rookeres Of alcoholism
that do the damage to health and charac-
ter--they are only the places where the
customers Cor victims) from your would-be
respectable, high licensed establishments
graduate. Ordinarily students take theil
lessons in the common schools and gradu-
ate in college. But in this school of in
temperance, students take their first les
sons on Broadway and graduate in the
low saloon on a filthy alley. They all grad
uate, but the order is reversed.
| ask where did that bloated. ulcerous.
Wheeling wretch, staggering out of that
rum-hole, get his first glass from? He
once spurncd the thought of entering such
u low place lie had money and occasion
ally he entered 4 so-called tirst-elass, high
licensed hotel and took social glass Of
l. G,,, +1,a
pie and he was elected to highly import
ant office in this land, but the unnatural
appetite was created and by rapid strides
the insidious serpent made his encroach-
ments, until in few years he had fastened
his death grip on his victim, and the
wrctched man in the strength Of his years
staggered from low groggery only to die
in filthy alley.
This high license dodge is a trick of the
devil Ii is vicious stab at the heart Of the
best homes in America. 1t is at war with
the highest and purcst domestic circles in
this nation it is the Moloeh to whom hun
dred thousand are annually sacrificed; it is
the ,Iuggernaut that has crushed its mill
lions and it proposes to pave the road TO
hell with the skulls Of the flower of our
youth.
Now if high license is right and Just,
why not be consistent and carry it out in
other things? Why do you not stop all the
bakers, and butchers, and stores, and small
groceries until they pay Il $1,000 license
for the privilege Of selling dry goods and
groceries? 'Oh" yon say THAT is differ
ent thing" How is it different? "Well,
you say, ''the sale of bread and meat
and clothes Goes no damage. while the free
sale OF whiskcy docs damage" So the high
license advocates are compelled to concede
what We claim, namely that license (high
or low is a crime. And the higher the
license the greater is the crime, as it lends
a shadow of responsibility to the death
dealing business.
But Just here we are met by weak knccd
politicians who say we cannot enforce a
prohibitory law. They say thousands will
violate such law every day. Now we
have stringent prohbitory laws against
robbery and blasphcmy, and murder, and
Sabbath breaking, and yet multiplied
thousands violate these laws every day we
live. Now | ask why not be consistent
and abrogatc or abolish all these laws be-
cause it lisa conceded fact that by many they
are daily violated And let lis Gin the
place Of prohibition) select few men (of
good moral character) to whom we will
give high license to rob, and swear, and
murder and to desc crate the Sabbath as
much as they please by paying the state
or government $4,000 each for the privilege
of cuftailing or lessening the evil by sub
sttution of high license for prohibition.
But the very men who plead for high IL
ccnsc for the sale of whiskey say you will
never put an end to such vicious practices
or crimes by license high on low They
safeguards against such crimes, so danger
Gus to society. So we say no license for
the crime Of wliislley selling, because ii is
conceded that the sale and use of intoxi-
C'llli9 II at INC very bpltbH ol All biititS;
profanity, murder and Sabbath dissertation.
You will never kill the tree by pruning it.
The way to destroy it is to dig out the roots.
II we must have the curse OF the rum bust
ness on us, let it be as free from license as
dry goods or groceries, until the people, by
voice or vote, are ready to put an end to
the crime.
The time for petitioning the Legislature
has passed Christian gentlemen have
been insultcd by whiskey guzzling politi-
tions, and we now propose to agitate and
TO keep on agitating. Truth and right
never lose anything by investigation We
propose, by the logic of votes, to compel
the Legislature to legislate against the
rum business as against other crimes.
High license has been tried in Missouri.
Kansas, Iowa and in other States, and has
failed in every instance. Prominent citi-
zcns say that instead of diminishing
drunkenness, high license increases it
wherever it has been tried And the
fact that every whiskey seller is 50 bitterly
opposed to prohibition, is the strongest
possible proof that prohibition does pro-
hbit, and where this law has had a fair
chance, it has done its work as well as the
law prohibiting murder or other crimes.