New-York tribune., 1886-01-10
IOc1L OPTION FOR NET-JERSEH.

A committee appointed at convention OF
temperance workers recently assembled IN
Plainfeld, n. j., has drawn up a local option
bill which the Legislature of NeW-JerSey viii
be urged to pass at its coming session. ms
bill prov.les that upon petition OF Onc-tenth OF
the legal voters in any county the judge OF the
Circnit Court of that county shall order an
election, governed by the regulations and pen
alties of the General Election law to be held
within forty days to determine whether or not
any intoxicating liquid shall be sold within the
county, and that majority of the votes cast
shall decide that no such election shall be held
within thirty days of q general election, nor
oftcner than once in two years, nor at any timc
except upon new petition signed by one-tenth
of the voters. 1t is further provided that upon
trial for violation of the law the proof that
any substance having tho appearance OF lntoX-
icating liquor has been furnished, or the exist
ence of the appliances ordinarily used IN the
liquor traffic, shall be deemed primd Jdcie evil
dence that the law has been violated. Inc
penaty upon conviction of the first offence
shall be a fine not exceeding 5000 or imprson~
ment in the county jail for six months or both
and the costs of the suit, and OF every adcl-
tonal offence a fine not exceeding 800, or
Imprisonment in the State Prison Tor term
not exceeding one year, or both, and the costs
of the suit. The bill permits druggists to
supply medicinal, manufacturing and sacra-
mental requirements and does not inyalidate a
license issued before the election.
The proposed law presents several cOnspc-
uOusly strong features. Ii Ia simple clear,
compact and decisive. Its defining and prohib-
itorg clauses are exact and comprehensive, and
the provision respecting primd Jacie evidence Is
particularly valuable. 1t is emphatically not II
bill through which it would be easy to drive n
coach and four. Ii is strictly nOn-partisan, and
it intrusts the great liquor problem to the
people, with whom it belongs. and not to Il
party, in whose hands it is sure to come to
grief.
We sympathize with every movement which
wisely seeks to place in the possession of com
munty which has the will to lift from its
shoulders the crushing burden of intemperance
the power TO do So But the proposed local
option law for New-Jersey suggests anew the
inquiry: Should not the town instead OF the
county be the local unitR After hiS own family
it is to his own community that the sobriety oi
a citizen is most important; but more than
this, if local option Is sound principle, town
the smallest unit OF government and close TO
the people-has the right to say that its Will, as
expressed by n majority of its citizens shall
not be nulliied by other towns which. happen
ing to be within the same artificial county
limits happen also TO will otherwise. There
might be, for instance, enough license votes IN
Long Branch to overcome the prohibition pref
erences of all the rural towns in Monmouth
County, and in such case the people might
Justly complain that the clear purpose OF legis-
lation had been defeated and that they were
living under a local option law the practical
operation of which was something very different
from local option. 1t could, of course. be
argued on the other hand that township option
might enable Long Branch to set its ncighbor-
at defiance and provide drinking facilities for
the whole county. But more drunkenness
comes from alurcmenU than from delberatlon,
and in the case supposed the well-meanng but
weak minded Of other towns would not flock to
Long Branch to get drunk. We do not offer
these considerations by way of opposition to
the measure which the temperance workers OF
New Jersey have prepared, but rather in the
hope that they may promote the broad purpose
which that measure seeks to accomplish.