The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1889-08-03
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
THE GRAND JURY AND THE HIGH
LICENSE CRAZE.


Messys Editors - see that special commit
tee appointed by the Grand Jury of Baltimore
county to examine our liquor licensing system
reports that after due consideration they nave
determined to recommend the high license law
of Philadelphia as the best method of regulating
the liquor traffic. They also cite the agitation
in Baltimore for such law as an additional rea-
son for their recommendation for a high license
law for Baltimore county.
We admit that no citizen has a better oppofJu.
nifty of learning the crime producing power OF
the liquor traffic than grand juryman Nor
does any one know better the lawless character
of the average Baltimore county saloon than ne.
He is brought in contact with both the crimes
committed and the persons perpetratlng them.
Nor is he less conversant with the infamous
places in which they occur. And he also knows
full well from what is disclosed in the evidence
disorder, crime and brutality exists than the
saloon. And yet with this demonstrating knowl-
edge before him, that three oufthS OF the crime
committed in the county is directly or remotely
traceable to the liquor traffic, the Grand Jury
committee seriously recommends that high
license fee be imposed an effective regulation
of this foul source of crime Regulation of such
curse! and proposed by intelligent, honorable,
substantial citizens! J!
And has the high license craze captured the
Grand Jury? The committee do not propose to
abolish the licensing of saloons, as they ought,
but simply increasing the fee for running them.
Their abolition or decrease in their number is
only incidental, not certain. Instead of fifty
dollars the committee proposes TO raise the
license fee to two more hundred dollars. The
large tdT will condone for the infamous charac-
ter of the contract. What an abject surrender
mothers of Baltimore county to the saloons. If
the citizens are base or inconsderate enough to
endorse proposition fraught with so much evil
as this, heaven pity the rising generation, Tor
surely the parents will not.
AS we have said, the Grand Jury is not ignor
ant of the baneful effects Of the liquor traffic
upon society. The members of the jury know
at least from observation that the saloons. high
or low, are schools of drunkenness, profanity,
idleness and debauchery. They know or have
reason to know that in the saloon manhood is
debauched and the patrons of the bar-room are
often debased and as often rendered bestial,
loathsome and murderous. They are intelligent
ly aware that drink has done more than any vice
for collins, grave yards, prisons and the gallows.
killed mora wives and mothers. hung more men
and damned more souls than any agency OF the
devils devising. And yet it is this system, this
source of assassination, this hot-bed of anarch-
ism, as proven in Chicago, and this law defy1ng
liquor curse that the committee proposes to per,
petuate and regulate by a license of nae hunareG
dOlldrS!! To license crime, the curse of civiliza-
ton, the enemy of God and man, the ally of hell
and the scourge of the world, and get as a pecu-
mary consideration few hundred paltry dol
lars. Are we to have the crime of Judas lscarlot,
Are the gentlemen of this committee prepared
to betray thus their wives and children (the
Lord pity the innocents) to the saloon with
kiss or do they presume upon the hardness OF
other mems hearts that they should do this great
evil.
Instead of consulting as to the speediest and
most effective way of destroying the liquor curse,
the committee seems only to have extended
their examination far enough as to simply can
was not the abolition but the preservation of the
saloon they apparently endeayored to secure.
1t does not appear that prohibition of the traffic
was even considered. This they have thought
was fanaticism, or at most only worthy the at
tention of 'cranks'' or third party fools. The
legal status of the saloon, its continuance, re
Spectability and proper regulation were the
salient points to be determined, and to these
points their consideration was specially directed.
The result as we have seen was the legaliZation
of the accursed liquor traffic under the taking
title of high license law. And thus this Grand
no
proposes to the Christian voters and others of
Baltimore county as worthy of their endorse
ment and suffrage! Ponder well, fellow-citl-
this tlattering scheme ST. thus give new energy
and if possible more faI-l power to traffic al
ready threatening your homes, families ana
And now who is prepared to say that such
recommendation, efnanating even as it does from
within the precincts of the very halls of justice
and law, cOnfers any credit upon baltimore
county or its citizens Does such a proposition
reflect any honor or give any snns5antial cyl
part of those who suggest for the peoples adop-
tion. And is it certain that those who are the
published authors of this plausible scheme of
high licensed rum selling are the safest men TO
intrust with the moral and civil interests OF the
county.
mtIhity against the criminal depredations upon
the rights of persons and property. and the
saloon which fosters If il does not indeed school
men for crime ought 10 receive, as i merits, the
distinct reprohaton of the jury and not its con-
ditiOnal approval. If saloons were proven TO be
the direct source of malignant typhoid no jury
would so outrage the tender feelings of our COM
mon humanity as 10 propose 70 run them under
a nigh tax. Why then propose to legalize and
protect the saloon when il demonstrated that
seven tenths of the crime of the county are
traceable 20 their existencel Why not destroy
them as would the community mad dog? Grand
Juries do not propose to regulate murder by tax
ing il but by hanging the murderer. Why then
should men torture their brains TO invent some
scheme by which 10 put the liquor traffic under
the sanction of law and thus run the devilish
traffic as a legitimate branch of businessf
Liquor selling is a crime not to be sanctioned
under any circumstances, but to be outlawed.
Not its preservation but its legal suppression
should be the memorable purpose of the people.
The motives of the committee are notquestion-
ed, but their suggestions are unwise and un-
worthy of them. w. L. ID. GLENN.