The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-12-05

Does the legislature really want to lessen
the whisky evil without resorting to ALSO
lutte prohibitionl If it does, it can do SO by
amending the liquor license law. The pres
emit liquor license law is unjust, because it
| discriminates against the incorporated
towns WHY it was ever permitted to be-
come law in its present shape, is one of
those things known only to those legisla-
tors who, apparently, seek their own popu-
larity, rather than the good of the whole
people.
| AS the law now is no one can get a bar
room license outside of an incorporated
town until he has the written consent of ten
! of the residents nearest the location of his
proposed barroom, five of whom must be
free holders. In the incorporated towns,
however, the consent of the residents in the
neighborhood of the projected barroom is
not necessary.
Why not amend the law so as to make it
uniform throughout the statel What rea
sonable objection can there be to give the
residents of the towns a chance to say
whether or not barroom shall be set up
within the shadow of their homes! Does
not everyone know that a barroom makes
the surrounding property less valuable!
Few men with families care to have the in
fuences which flow from barroom-par-
ticularly those whose customers are of the
lowest class-brought to their very thresh-
holds. Men may not be seriously disturbed
by oarroom brawls, and the profanity and
indecencies Of drunken men, but surely
women and children ought not to be I'M
willingly exposed to such things.
The law ought not to permit barroom
to be located in any neighborhood in which
ten good citizens cannot be found who are
willing that it shall be there. Many bar
rooms are quiet enough places, but the
majority Of them are not, and surely the
people Of an incorporated town are entitled
to have their property protected and the
quiet OF their home life preserved. The
present liquor license law, instead of being
a protection to them, is virtually an at
tack upon the sanctity of their ZONES Go
wherever they may within the limits OF
their town, they are liable to have ba--
room of the lowest grade located next their
residence, or so close to it that they cannot
avoid whlsky's wretched victims, nor es-
cape the sad, and sometimes terrifying,
sights which whisky produces
If the temperance members of the legis-
lature want to do little practical temper
ance work, let them amend the liquor license
law so that the incorporated towns will
stand upon an equal footing with the rural
districts in the matter of barrooms. The
law, amended as proposed, will bring about
great reduction in the number of bar
rooms, particularly the class known as
groggeries, and in proportion as the bar
rooms decrease, drunkenness, and
the crimes which grow out of
whisky, will decrease. In proportion
as crime decreases the expenses for courts
and police will decrease There will then
be more money to apply to improving the
cities, thus making them more healthy and
more desirable places of residence.
Are there not members of the legislature
with grit enough, and who are sufficiently
willing to do the people of the Incorporated
towns real service. to take hold of this
proposed reform and secure its adoption9
If there are not, then we are greatly mis-
taken in the present general assembly.