The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1888-01-27
Prohibition or High License.

Inc topic uppermOst IN the mlndS OF the
taxpayers OF Hartford county, just now, is
the local option law and the expense TO the
county attending its attempted enforcement
1t has now been in operation for nearly five
years, and the evils it was intended to cure
sofar from being abated, have rather grown
worse and we believe this result has followed
as ma ural sequence from the character oil
the evils which this law was intended 10 do
away with
The people of the county are pretty
generally convinced that it is Intellectual to
prevent the sale of intoxicating liquors, and
further that the loopholes Of escape it leaves
open to violators of it are so numerous that
despite every legitimate effort made by those
whose duty it is to see that the laws are en-
forced, the evidence brought before them is
seldom such as to secure conviction.
ltappears that even our County Temper
ance Alliance have no longer any hope that
the law in its present form can be enforced,
since at their meeting in Bel Air, on Tuesday,
Geyset forth an amended law, which is in
tended to obviate the defects which by costly
experience the present one has been found to
contain.
Signatures are TO be obtained 10 petitions
in favor of this law, which if passed by the
Legislature will be submitted to the voters
of the county next November. Should it fail
to be ratified, the present law will remain in
force
The cost to the taxpayers of the county OF
trying the numerous indictments under the
law is another phase of this subject that is
causing a considerable amount of thinking
among those out of whose pockets the taxes
come. 1t Is evident that number of the
more intelligent and thoughtful minds in the
community have serious doubts that any pro-
hibitory law which the wit of man can devise
would effect as much good in diminishing
drunkenness as stringent high license law
would. The testimony in places where the
latter remedy has taken the place of pro-
hibitory law is claimed to be altogether in
favor ofhigh license, and taxpayers, it is said,
find that the revenue from high license sys-
TEN decreases the amount of their tax bills.
While it is true that alone the latter considera-
ton ought not to have any weight, still, if it
can be shown that under high license law
the number ofdrinking- places is reduced and
the character ofthose which remain improved
that would furnish strong argument in its
favor, since it is an obvious fact that the
fewer drinking places we have the less drunk
enness there will be. Ifa high license law will
operate in reducing the evils of drunkenness
to minimum and diminish the expense ofour
courts 1t certainly seems worth considering,
at least In our opinion the experience of
other communities in the operation of pro-
hibitory and high license laws may be of value
to US here in Hartford, in determining the
best course to pursue in dealing with the
liquor problem, which is by far the most vex-
alious and troublesome one with which we,
as community, have to do. In dealing with
it let no good citizen, in his zeal for some
pet scheme of his own, lose sight of, or under
value the welldigested, cool judgment of
those who, while differing from him as to the
best means, arc united with him, heart and
soul, in desiring TO promote the end he has
in view, the prevention of drunkenness and
the thousand miseries and crimes TO which it
leads. Let us all exercise wise moderation
little of the "wisdom of the serpent" along
with any amount of "the harmlessness of
the dove"
The world has yet to see the fist real good
growing out of fanaticism.