The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1886-12-14
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TUESDAY. DEC. IA, 1886.
THE PRESIDENTS REPORT.
THE QUESTION OF THE DAY.
(Co0fiRNed.)

is too firmly embedded in society and
in politics to be eradicated, let us
make profit from it. Let us de-
mand q high premium on the iniquity:
let them pay us well for the privilege
of destroying the bodies and souls
of our brothers and sons, for the
ruin of families, for the broken
hearts of women, and the 100000
yearly victims of the traffic. Let us
demand a high license and thus
regulate the abomination. To our
surprise the rum seller smiled at
that. Nothing pleases him better
than to have his business legalized
and made respectable. Said Mr..
Cheezum, aliquor dealerof Indiana
polls, II believe most assuredly that
when saloonman pays for a license,
that makes it right for him to sell
liquors. If you pay for steak, do
you think you ought 10 eat IL? The
license puts it on a Legitimate basis"
Another saloon keeper of Cleveland
says, "What we are after is a lawful
standing as Legitimate line of trade.
We are willing to pay the tax, but
we are bound to be protected. L
belong to the Liquor-Dealers'
League, and l represent the feeling
of seven eights of the whole MEM
bership." DO you object to high
license? some one asks of a liquor
seller "No, if it is not exorbitant.
You see it clears out many of the
small fry, and does not decrease at
all the amount of liquor consumed.
OF course, that is all the brewers
and distillers care for. 1t makes no
difference to them how many saloons
there are, so they sell just as much
liquor. Then restriction curtails
some of the features of the traffic
which make it offensive" High
license meets the views and protects
the very men whose business it
should be designed TO curtail. But
that which is acceptable to the traffic
is the very thing that should not be
acceptable to the mass of the people
who oppose the traffic.
There are other fatal obiec-
tions to high license, at some of
which l can only hint briefly.
1st. 1t is wrong in principle. If
whiskey selling is wrong and deplora-
BILE at fifty dollars, il cannot become
virtuous and commendable at five
hundred dollars. If it is criminal,
as we believe it is, to give another
a poison which will destroy his body
and soul, no money paid to license
a man to do so, can lessen the crime.
End. High license has proved to
be failure in practice. Statistics
to show this are so numerous that
no one who is willing to be convinced
can fail to find them. y high license
is usually set at either five hundred
or thousand dollars, the latter is
very high. While such sum may
close few of the lowest groggeries,
it enables the gilded saloon TO pres
ent greater attractions, which more
than compensate. Besides, the pro-
fits of the business are so great, that
no taxation has ever been reached
that they could not afford to laugh
at.
3rd. High license gives the bust
ness all appearance of responsibility.
The time was when whiskey selling
was considered as respectable a
business as any other. But that
time has passed. One of the most
encouraging failures of the present
time is that the whole selling
and drinking is becoming disreput-
able. But Il license seems to lift
the saloon into responsibility again.
1t sets it upon the same footing with
any other legitimate business. And
the respectable saloon with its cut
glass and mirrors and works of art
is as truly the gate to hell as the
GROCERY, and much more attractive.
"Will you walk into my parlor ?
said the spider to the fly"
4lh. One of the strongest argu-
ments oflthe friends of high license
both here and elsewhere is that the
money thus received adds greatly to
the revenue of the country. But
from whom does the money come
which pays the license which is sup
posed TO reduce our taxes! Does it
come from the liquor dealer, or from
the hard earnings of those who can
least afford the expense, and from
their already impoverished homes?
Everlasting shame upon a Christian
land, be it there or here, which will
thus consent to become party in
this iniquity which breeds poverty,
insanity, idiocy and crime, which is
an enemy to God and man; which
Mr.. Gladstone says has slain more
than war and pestilence and famine
combined
Since, then, moderate drinking
tends always downward; since the
beer and the wine fallacy are ex-
ploded; since, in spite of our tenn
perance conventions and societies
and all efforts to reach the public,
the liquor trade fiourishcs and grows
rich and bold since license low or
high is a deception and a snare |:
what shall we do?
How can we be otherwise than
convinced that the only just, the
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