Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1890-06-21
THE NEW YORK POST.
A Reform Journal Discusses the Effects
Hs~l, T1cau.n

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The New York Post Is one Of the most
conservative journals In the country. II
has for years been considered the CHIEF
supporter of political reforms, has fire.
quently called for protection against the
liquor traffic, but has never favored Pro
hibition. High license has been it's IA
vorite policy. With these facts in mind
we print below some editorial utterances
from The Post Of June 10, under the
heading High License in Massachu
setts.' No fair man can read such state
ments and say high license is temper
ance measure.
The Post says: Massachusetts has nov
tried its high license law for year and
instead of finding it a solution of the
Temperance question" is even deeper ir
the mire of intemperance. The opera
ton of the new law has been attended
by such an increase in the arrests fol
drunkenness that the party Of mora
ideas which was responsible for it's enact
ment has been at its wits end to know
how to appease the increasing clamor 81
its temperance members, and at the
same time retain the allegiance of its
new allies. the liquor dealers.
A year ago the Republican managers
were rubbing their hands at their sue
cessful management. Their reputation
for favoring morality was to be main
tanned by an increase of the minimum Of
the license fee to 81 900, the small liquo,
dealers and their political influence
generally Democratic) were to be Gu!
off by the law limiting the number OF
licensed places to one for each thousand
OF the population. and the more infu.
entail men were to be managed for the
good of the party. The Prohibitionists
were supposed to be silenced by the vote
on the constitutional amendment. The
people were duly impressed with the
efforts of their legislators, and at the
annual elections under the local option
law eighteen of the twenty-five cities
voted in favor of license by large MAORI
ties.
The licensing boards fixed the fee in
many cases far above the statutory min
imumj In general throughout the state
the license fees were increased from two
to four times their former amount,
while the number of saloons was about
one-third of the number licensed the
previous year.
With this great blow at the liquor
traffic the people of the commonwealth
settled themselves for an era of quiet
and sobriety. AS soon, however. as the
new system was fairly inaugurated the
arrests for drunkenness and disturbance
began to increase In Boston the month
of June showed 1899 arrests for drunk
enness, as against 1850 in the same
month the previous year, and the whole
summer showed an increase Of nearly 1t
thousand arrests over the previous year,
with marked increase also in disturb
ance.
In Fall River June showed jump
from 80 to 1876 in the arrests for drunken
ness over 1883. In Lowell the effect was
more immediate. and in May the arrests
for this cause were 315, as against 246 in
the year before. This carnival of drunk
enness went on in other cities also, and
the report of the prison commission for
the year, five months of which had been
under high license, showed an increase
of arrests for drunkenness throughout
the state of 5,0O5. 80 per cent of which
was in the cities No statistics, how
ever, were needed to bring this state of
things to the attention of order loving
citizens; it was too apparent, and the
voters expressed their views at the next
annual vote on the license question.
Lowell, which the year before had given