The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1890-06-21
The First Step Towards Organ
IZatiOn.

No friend of the present prOhibitory
law viii doubt the importance of organ
lzstion in its behalf, and the desirability
OF public discussion as to whether it is
or is not success in Cecil county. On
the affirmative side of this question the
convictions of The WING have been
and still are positive. To the agency
of no law upon the statute books do
the people of Cecil county owe more
for the peace, sobrietY and good order
of their respective communities than to
the prohibitory law now in force in
Cecil county. This assertion we be-
lieve is matter of fact supportable by
proof and undenlable testimony, and
not mere defamation. The present
law would be worth sustaining had it
done nothing else than break up the
cross-road groggeries throughout the
county, which in the unsavory days of
license in Cecil were the bane of the
farmer and the curse of the working
man. In every community can be seen
the multiplied evidences of the benefits
of prohibition. Whiskey outlawed and
lodging up the blind alleys of cur
towns and villages, is comparatively
lmpotent foe to community, especially
the young to whatit is whenrespectable-
lied by high license, and hedged about
by the enticements and allurements of
legalized traffic. 1t is merely begging
the question to say that some men still
drink liquor In Cecil, and others sell it
illicitly and in defiance of law. These
assertions of the enemies of prohibition
are undeniably true. Some men would
still continue to drink 1t and Others per-
slstently continue to sell it by stealth,
were prohibition to prevail throughout
the state much less throughout the
county. What weight, however, shall
We attach to individual follies, or crimes,
compared to the aggregate good &C
complished2 Is it an argument against
the power, the influence and the use
fulness of the christian church as an
organization to assert what is the fact,
that all members of 1t are not religious2
Because it does not accomplish its full
mission in this world, must we abandon
and abolish it2 In the same measure
possibly that the church as an indispen-
sible agent of good to man, does not
do all it might because of the short
comings of some identified with it, so
the prohibitory law fails to accomplish
ALT might accomplish, through the
obduracy of a few persons in the com
munltY.
In word, a much larger number are
benefited In mind, body and estate by
the present law than those mi lred by
it pecuniarily in Cecil county, because
those who make money by the traffic
are few in number compared to the
great body OF those who have no bust
ness interests in its sale, to say nothing
of the moral aspects of the liquor traf
fc. We are led to these passing re-
Elections by the fact that as will be seen
in our local columns, a step looking to
general organization of the friends OF
prohibition III the county has been
taken, in the call for meeting to be
held at Rising Sun on Thursday, the
10th inst, looking to county mass
meeting at Woodlawn in August or
September. We think the proposed
meeting would open the fall campaign
very auspiciously, and we urge the
friends of the law throughout the county
to an enthusiastic declaration OF their