The Portland daily press., 1892-01-21
"Resubmission."
To the Editor of the Press:


pondents, who are, apparently, in favo'
of hcence or sre-submission," | Woul(
like to say that the mere fact of the ex
istence of strong public sentiment in
community favorable to the continuance
of acknowledged public evils and crimes
is not good reason for their existence
or continuance. There is always div
sion on any and every question of public
Importance, and it is generally division
of classes or parties, and it is fair thai
the class or party which comes neares
to the standard of right, true progress
and high morality should rule. This
view of the case has not only been reeog
nized the world over, but it has been es-
pecially and strikingly exemplified where
civilization is compelled to struggle
against brutal forces to gain foothold.
1t is, in fact, the first thing demonstrated
in all new and lawless communities.
where the ''scum of creation gathers,
intent only on reaping a quick harvest
by gambling, theft, murder and rumsell-
ing; and where is no sort of doubt that
the submission of constitutional amend
ment making rumselling, horse stealing
and gambling illegal offenses, would be
buried clear out of sight, and the pre-
yailing sentiment, represented by MAJ
jority of voters, would decree that it
would be altogether better to leave mat
tiers as they were, right or wrong. But
do the depraved and vicious have their
way in such communities? Scarcely.
1t happens that there are men of right
purpose and strong minds in that COM
munity; in a minority to be sure, but
that does not deter them from attempt
ing to correct a manifestly wrong Dablic
sentiment, legally if they can, but often
forcibly, because they must. Judge
Lynch is at hand, and the disturber of
the peace, against the manifest will of
public sentiment is sacrificed for the
general good. In default of code or
statute it is decided best to execute an
unwritten law against the will of wrong
public sentiment. What an advance is
this over the old civilized communities
But after all the Judge has made a
mistake. He allows the rumseller to es-
cape because rumselling is not reeog-
nized as a crime, when, in nine cases out
of ten, he is at the bottom of about all
the mischief. This fact is as true of all
communities as of those lawless and
reckless hordes who swarmed to the Pa
cific coast in 1S49 and for many years
after 1t is as true now as then that
society and, in general, the law, over
looks the real culprit, the root of the
and Furnishes the firebug, burg
lar and murderer which he has created
and made possible. I do not propose to
go into the question of Intention"
whether or not the rumseller is deliber-
ately an accessory before the fact, but
even that is an open question, since he
knoaUs the general evil consequences of
his trade and sells himself to the devil
for money. am dealing with effects,
and the effects in all our boosted civil
lied centres, from Chicago to Bangor,
are not only widely and generally known,
but Tb very ga gen o Koa aoEn1wledgd
by license for i the purpose Of Of
raising the wherewithal to support the
paupers and insane is-well,
what is it? 1t is proposition to first
ill our jails, prisons, poorhouses and
asylums, and then take the proceeds of a
traffic which has made these institutions
necessary, to pay the bills. Where does
the profit come in, to say nothing of the
and misery entailed upon a con-
siderable portion of the community?
In a mere financial sense the balance
is all the other way, and to verify the
statement here that rumsellers and rum
selling are at the bottom of nearly all
The crime committed in a community, or
N the country at large, it has been stated
oy no less an authority than Chief JUS
Davis that 80 per cent of all the crime
committed in the country is caused by
and this fact has been sub
stantiated by others who have arrived at
5he facts through substantial and statis-
5ical evidence furnished by the wardens
Ind superitendents of prisons and other
public institutions.
AS to the profit represented in the
'evenue to be derived from licensing the
liquor traffic, should be willing to rest
The decision on the comparison between
5he revenue derived from the liquor
lraffic, in license states, and the expense
n such state in maintaining so per cent
If her paupers and in the conviction and
support of her criminals. We know the
liquor revenue of the United States
amounts to about 100000, 900; it is esti-
mated that the expense to the country in
her pauper and criminal pop
llation is about one billion.
/ believe that no fair-minded man
claims, to-day, that the prohibitory
effect of license laws amounts to any
hing, and such men will generally ad-
nit that license laws are quite as likely
% be broken as prohibitory laws. Such
icing the case, on what ground good,
Democrats SteetotalIers,'
AN favor license fail to see. 1t would
be supposed that, although
prohibition had as yet been only par
ial success land this it certainly has
)een, outside of the cities of prohibitory
tates) genuine temperance men in either
'arty, would naturally prefer it to law
which distinctly authorizes the commits
ion of an evil which they profess to be
irving to prevent. There is quite as
title consistency in the advocacy of
license law by temperance men, as
here would be for professional Christ
ans to go back on religion and the Bible,
ecause the ten commandments have
'een broken ever since they were writ
en-.
In substance the two arguments adj
anced by the opposers of prohibition
re first: that the traffic in liquor, though
n acknowledged curse to the community
hall be sustained, licensed, because the
agree to pay, in part, for the
amage arising from it; and secondly,
ecause certain portion of the comml-
ity, both moderate and non-moderate
favor of