The Brookhaven leader., 1891-02-05
ANS Not Gold that Glitters."


law regulating the issuance of licenses
to retail liquor is published in anoth
er column of today's paper. The
opinion was rendered by Justice
Campbell, the author Of the law in
the Code of 1880 on this subject, and
is therefore entitled to additional
weight, inasmuCh as the author of n
law, of all others, is supposed to know
its full intent and import.
This decision will have n salutary
effect in some portions of the State,
as it has already bad in Monroe, and
for that reason as well as for the sound
prohibition doctrine it enunciates, we
hail its deliverance with qualification !;
but in the light of actual experience,
we can account for the extraordinary
merit ascribed by the learned Judge
to the admirable law" of the Code of
1880, only upon the principle that a
father is generally apt to be blind to
the faults and unduly proud of his
own progeny.
The Court is right in terming it an
"admirable law" 1t is an admirable
law, it is beautiful lawn theory !;
but its practical operation has been
anything but commensurate with the
high purpose and conception of its
distinguished author and expounder.
Judge Campbell makes an invidious
comparison between this law and the
local option law, which he is pleased
to refer to as "that mischievous law
approved March IL, 1886, miscalled a
local option law; but with all of
its defects, practical ProhibtiOnists
very mach prefer the local option law
to the petition law of the Code, and
have achieved much greater success
under il than they ever have under
the latter. Moreover, PrOhibitionists
are not responsible for the very serious
defect in the local option law referred
to by Judge Campbell, nor for several
others that might be mentioned. The
law, as it is, was the very best that
could he obtained from a Democratic
legislature after years of hard fighting.
1t was bitterly opposed at every step
by the friends of tho saloon (who ex-
pressed decided preference for Judge
Campbell's law, and they never were
brought to see anything so very cad
mirable" in it until seriously threat
ened last summer with Constitutional
Prohibition. Numerous efforts have
been made to secure the amendment
of the local option law, but thus far
without avail. At the last session of
the Legislature the writer succeeded
in getting the House Committee on
Liquor Traffic to adopt an amend
ment providing that no license should
be granted in any county voting III
favor thereof, except upon the petition
of a majority of the real estate own
ers (instead of 25 as now and even
then only in towns containing so or
more real estate owners but the bill
was not reported back to the House
until late in the session, and was then
promptly killed with genuine "ghoul-
ish glce."
A great advantage of the local OPP
ton law over the petition law is, that
it gives whole county-the smallest
political unit-the right to decide the
question at the polls, and at the same
time preserves the right of counter
petition to incorporated towns and
supervisors districts in case the cleo
ton goes in favor of license whereas,
under the petition law majority of
the voters of a supervisors district, or
even a very small incorporated town,
have repeatedly demoralized and in
creased the taxes of the citizenship of
an entire county by setting up grog
shops.
The saloon men generally have an
eye to the election of Boards of SUI
pervisOrs and town councils friendly
to their business, and the fact that
Judge Campbell's law has been in
force ten years, and the question of
the right of a board to refuse license
has just now reached the Supreme
Court, proves how little city councils
and Boards of Supervisors are inclin-
ed to exercise the well-intended dis
erection accorded them by the author
of the law. This point, now decided
and made so clear by Judge Campbell
in his decision, was urged over and
over again in BrOOkhaven, while the
Prohibitionists were trying to defeat
the issuance of license by petition,
but to no avail, and there is not the
slightest doubt but that Brookhaven
would have saloons today but for the
vote under the local option act.
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