The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1892-01-01
LOCAL OPTION.

He who is secure in the almighty for
tress may know the eternal calm. Let
us take this temperance question from
the lower levels of contention and strife
into Heavens clear ray, dissecting it
with dispassionate temper. 1t was the
Pharisee who thanked God that he was
not as other men. May we escape the
Pharisee's condemnation. Temperance
presupposes the strength of ones posi-
ton.
Local Option sounds abstruse, but is
simplicity itself. In its essence, it is the
choice or option of the locality, place, or
of the individual. Our license or
no license vote has associated
it so intimately with the temperance
question that we forget that it is local or
individual option every time unclad Gu
pid enslaves two fond hearts, only too
glad to feel the letters that hold them in
thrall. 1t is local option every October
when the voters choose between Repub-
lcan and Democratic tickets for town
officers. 1t is united local option in the
State at large every two years that tries
to elect State officers and a still wider
local option in the United States that
chooses our President every four years.
In each case, it is the individual voters
massed in the local community who fix
the fate and policy of town, State and
nation for the next allotted term of
office. 1t is vox populi, vox Del and it is
to this safe principle of the modern CEN
turtles that we anchor the temperance
question in closing this debate.
Our Christian civilization is continual
ly uplifting and increasing the power
and influence of the individual. By pu-
rifying and enlightening the soul, it
makes it monarch in its domain, master
of passion and prepared to join friendly
alliance with kindred neighbor mon
archs for the triumph of righteouness
and peace. 1t is the rule of the majority
instead of the autocrat. 1t calls for faith
in and charity for an opponent that will
accept his rule if he prove more power
full in his allies. 1t demands virtue and
intelligence that the issues at stake be
not sold at the auction block of filthy
lucre and selfish interest. 1t begets agi-
tatiOn in pulpit, press and platform that
the individual be not only enlightened,
but instructed in his option of the best
method of reaching desired ends.
Into this arena descends the temper
ance question, with other questions of
tariff, currency and matters of far reach
inn - r. g
minority were as ready to accept hearth
ly and with law abiding faith no Ii
cense victory as mere party triumph.
A license victory is rarely disputed. The
money at stake in the profits of the liq-
uor BUSINESS is then safe. Money and APP
petite ever fret at a curb.
In "a republic, where local option is the
universal arbiter of public interests, To-
Cal option must of necessity decide the
temperance question, and it is equally
fair to the prohibitionist and total abb
stinence man on the one hand, as to high
license, the moderate drinker and the sa-
loon on the other. 1t calls for the edu-
cation of the individual until he and his
y
the town in which he lives and, town
joining town, the State follows the ma
jority. 1t is, moreover, the wisest poll
cy. In splitting knotty log, no man of
you would think of putting the butt end
on the log and trying to drive a wedge
home by striking on the thin blade. In
this knottest log of all the days moral
issues, that of temperance. Prohibition is
at fault in seeking, first of all, State and
national legislation. That BELTS Mon
archy not Republic. The thin blade is
the individual voter and, then, in logic
al sequence, town, Or county, State and
nation.
A law without public sentiment to
enforce it is worse than useless. Local
Option tests the strength of public senti-
on the law books now. We do not need
more law but more public sentiment.
Law does not create public sentiment,
nor can it take its place.
The saloon is wiser in it's day and gen.
Grafton. 1t brides the voter to vote IL
cense with its fees. These fees, it says,
will meet public expenses that must else
come from the voters own pocket. When
assaled, the saloon lifts high the ex-
pense to the town of prosecuting it's law o.
breaking propensities.
With all his faults, give US the citizen
king in preference to the thin blue blood
of title and lineage, though with this
proud privilege comes duties of educa-
tion that lazy shriekers of all stripes
detest. 1t is so much easier to howl
than to work; so much more natural to
call names than to convince with fact
and argument. Yet no one can fail to
see that radicals are always pioneers to
dynamite rocky Indifference.
And local option is supremacy wise, in
that it furnishes chance of continued ag-
Itation. Though defeated by hopeless
as in Newtown, the requisite =
humber of voters can bring the saloon
question, with its system of treating
hat turns man into sWill barrel, rec :.
peatedly before the public, It is not the !
stagnant pool into which the fisher casts !,
ais line for the beautiful trout and gamy :
oass. The vacant mind is the strength !.
# czars, The stern hreezas of the tenn
3erate zone are not the airs that breed :
Any fig-leafed cannibals of the tropics. q
New England's granite hills preserved :
he commune, the town, direct descend
mt Of the early patriarch aud his family
dependents. But, while IL ahated patri-
lrahal reverence, it made the man, nur-
,lred by church and school. the poten-