The Washington critic., 1890-05-01
A NEW LIOuOK LAW

ne Dlll WnlCn congress IS expected
81 the instance of the Commissioners to
pass for the regulation of the liquor
traffic is one which will commend itself
TO the good sense of the citizens of the
District. 1t fixes the wholesale liquor
license at $500 and makes it necessary
10 pay $500 for retail or bar-room
license. Every other feature of the
bin will be approved as soon as it is
examined, and it is in every way salts
factory that Commissioner Douglass
should have drawn up an act calculated
70 win such general appreciation.
This act is in the line of the legisla
lion which has been found most ef.
fective in all the great cities of the
country for the repression of the abuses
of drinking. The evils of intemper-
aDce are sufficiently serious to chal-
lepge the attention and to enlist both
the sympathies and the services of
every good citizen. But among good
citizens, two methods of suppressing
those evils are proposed, and unfor-
l'lhcteiy tuOse u0IuouS dT6 dhldSO-
nistic.
Some excellent citizens contend that
the Government cannot issue license
10 carry on the liquor traffic without
sharing in all the evils of that traffic
and without accepting its need of re
sponsibility for every consequence that
can, nearly or remotely, be attributed
TO drink. These contend that the only
way in which this inveterate evil can
lie stamped out and utterly suppressed
is by prohibition pure and simple. They
say, prohibit the manufacture an
sale of the deleterious poison and all the
resultant evils will disappear.
Ii is not at all wonderful that this
view should readily gain the assent Of
good men and women. The great won.
der is that in the presence of the evils,
hardship and misery which the drink
traffic is known to involve men and
women of all classes should not be more
eociferous for its suppression. But i'm
pulse and sentiment are seldom good
guides in the management of human
affairs. In actual experience prohibit
riop has not proved successful mode of
coping with the evils complained of.
Prohibition has failed wherever hitherto
il has been tried. He would, therefore,
be foolhardy man who would now
suggest absolute prohibition in the in
terest of any community.
Where the sentiment of a neighbor-
hood will sustain it, local option salts
ties every requirement of the special
case, and in rural districts much good
has resulted from restrictive legislation
But in the cities of the country expert
encs has been the other way. Where
Irohibition has been enacted I'M
beensed and unlimited drinking has
been the rule. In like manner, when
low licenses have been levied, myriad
of places have been opened, with neitheI
responsibility nor respectability, ant
have Piled nefarious business de
ssruetive of all personal welfare ant
sn1agonistic to the public veal
1t is because the adoption of the pro
hibition methods have led to the prac
tiee of low and disastrous drinking tina
il Is necessary to oppose the plans o.
the prohibitionists; and. equally, it il
because Commissioner Douglass bill
10 enforce high license is chuck full o
the most ordinary. most experienced
and most solid sort of common sens
that it should receive the approval o
very man and woman in the District