Morning journal and courier., 1893-06-19
A STIRRING ADDRESS

1t Has plished-Delivered in
 Greenwich Last Evening.
 GREENWICH, Conn, June 18.-[Speoisl. 1 The union meeting of the Greenwich alli- ance of churches was held in the Congre- gational church this evening and was, as usual, well attended.
 The speaker of the evening was MT. 8. P. Thrasher of New Haven, secretary of the state Law and Order league, who spoke as follows:
 Asked to address you on the general subject of law enforcement, wish to lay down the follow ing proposition az the basis of my remarks:
 Indifference to existing laws loads to anarchy. The enforcement of them promotes progress in legislation and insures good government
 First let us survey the field in which we are to labor; in order that the application may be more
 Connecticut is called the "Land of Steady Hab- its," and 1t may be that our standard of morals is on higher plane than that of other states and that laws are better enforced here than else where, but that our laws are most flagrantly vio-
 viii attempt to deny. 1t is also wei1-known that
 the seat of lawlessness I Is the saloon. Were it
 more generally obeyed than they are.
 My experience teaches me that large major
 ity of liquor dealers are habitual law-breakers.
 am aware that this statement is squarely de-
 nied by them and their friends but believe am
 in @ position to know. find In nearly every
 town where no-license suppants license that
 In the town of Bristol the people voted 'no"
 on the license question at the last election.
 There were at the time fifteen or twenty places
 licensed to sell liquors. Now, what happenedf
 town? Of course not! They did not even take
 down their signs. Under the guise of selling
 ''soft stuff" they continued as before. sent detectives there and found all of them,
 without exception, openly violating the law.
 Arrests were made and convictions secured in
 In the town of Putnam there were nearly
 twenty places legalized under the law; After
 the town voted mo license, the same thing g; oc-
 against every one of them. Many pleaded guilty and paid their fines Those who appealed were convicted in the higher court.
 Our law prohibits the sale of liquor on Sunday, and yet believe majority of the dealers are selling on that day. Selling after certain hours at night and On election days is prohibited by law, but who believes that the law is obeyedt [ There is law against selling to minros, and yet will venture to say that this very night will find
 boys yes and girls, from thirteen to t~ enty years of age, being educated in vice in the drinking The laws on gambling are very strict, but there is not a town or any size which is free from the biightpg influence of the gambling hell. Houses of ill fame tiourishng in every city and large town, and also in many small ones. Prostitutes soliciting boldly on the streets of our cities in open violation of very strict statute law. We have law enough concerning criminal and obscene Hterature put BO one QeDleS tuau Sucn matter infests our schools ana families 10 an alarming degree. Professor McCook has already sounded the alarm concerning bribery at cleo tons, and has shown to what an extent our pres ent laws are defied.
 Some one may ask "Why are not the laws enforced?" Many reasons may bs given, but it must be apparent to all that the chief reason is the influence of the saloon in politics. The ward politician knows the power Of the dramshop, and uses 1t with effect at every election. It Is stated by responsible parties that every licensed liquor shop influences-ifi it does not ccntrol-the ton to any important office of any one hostile to the liquor traffic is an utter impossibility. What every city and large town in Connecticut. Dean Wayland says:
 "The saloon hob-nobs with the police, whom its agents have appointed, smiles at and with the magistrates whom it has placed in office reJoices in a mayor of it's own election, fears no hostile legislation from the solons whom it has sent to the state capitol"
 Theodore Cuyler says:
 mThe liquor sellers are bound together and, mand there is no eligarchy in the land that com pares with them in power.~
 did not enter Charleston harbor with his feet of | ironclsds; he gave this reason and that reason | and the other reason When he had finished ! Farragut said, "Ah, Dupont, there was one more | reason" "What was that?" "You did not be- | lieve you could do it.''
 So hold that the chief reason for the non en- forcement of law is found in the fact that ma | jority of our citizens do not believe it can be | reign of anarchy and communism. Phillips Brooks, for whom the world now ! noprns. once said; 'the one imperative need of | the hour is the enforcement of law" ! Now to the main proposition. To say that in difference to existing laws tends to anarchy, is
 like saying that indifference to religion promotes were needed to prove the assertion. We all know that indifference to law does exist to an alarm ing degree.
 lam astonished at the communications I re
 frS all pa psrs S5 the eeo One v ph fIItui ia Tn anFn ha and
 ssaSy taxes to ,s support @ tdem think T my duty 3
 is done." will not comment on such state | ment.
 A letter from 8 prominent clergyman reads as
 follows: "1n order to c2untenance your league
 failure in the two divine societies, % the state and | church. and that am net prepared to do."
 Gos vel ell fbs but ! town in which this good man lives and breaches such doctrines has law forbidding the sale of intoxicating liquors, and that that law has ceived this communication a few citizens of ! the agency of the state league, have revealed a terrible state of things regarding the viola
 tion of law, and the guilty parties are to be pun ished.
 Another letter from a prominent gentleman in eastern Connecticut reads like this: I've have a state government, whose officers are sworn to support the laws-from the governor down to the constable and to organize system of usurpa- tion, though in a mild form, will prsve failure' dlton not theory that confronts us. The law is not enforced and it takes but little investigation to understand why it is not.
 My correspondence along this line is very in terestng and it goes to prove that not only does this indifference exist but exists among the very people who should be most energetic in behalf of law enforcement.
 A recently published article of miae contained q am in hearty sympathy with evefy pract:- cal effort to suppress the liquor traffic, but it seems to me tcat these peopl. are shooting wide law which prohibits selling liquor on Sundays, on election days, after certain hours at night, ard to minors is vicious, yet their utterances would Replying to this Mir. J. A. Lewis of Willimantic says:
 "Wi,l some one suggest what can be that man g theory who maintains that law which forbids the traffic in the cases named by Mir. Thresher aBd for a reward of some kind protects the evil doers in some cases, is not vicious? Our govern ment was established with great sacrfice to es- tablish justice. insure domestic tranquility and promote the general welfare.
 "Lat us demand first that laws be enacted which may be claimed at least to promote these objects. and then we can defend a demand for This man voices the sentiments of large class
 of citizens. While applaud their motives, be- follow that endorse the law as whole, because
 believe in getting whatever good it may con tain. It seems to me that these people should
 realize that with no law on the books relating to the sale of liquor, intoxicants would be sold as freely as pork and potatoes
 Now, the framers of the present law sought to control and prevent, So far as then seemed possi
 ble, the evil results of unrestricted traffic, and we have a law which totally prohibits the gale Of tally prohibits the sale of liquor to minors which totally prohibits the sale Of liquor after II o'clock at night, which totally prohibits the sale
 of liquor at all times and to all persons in every
 town in the state where majority of the citizens
 so decide at the ballot box, also a law which pro-
 hibits gambling, a law which prohibits criminal
 and obscene literature, law which prohibits bri-
 bery and corruption at elections; in fact, nearly
 to be nonsense for these people to maintain de-
 liberate indifference to these laws, while they
 clamor for more stringent Legislation. Mr. Lewis says, "Let us demand that laws be
 mote the general welfare, then we can defend q
 demand for obedience to them" MT. Lewis and
 his friends have been demanding better laws for
 to rease tbs o 6s o9er looked by them. repeat my general statement, that we must demand obedience to present laws
 if we should hope for the observance of future enactments. To maintain this indifference, which
 the enforcement of such laws as we have, very
 seriously threatens our institutions. Every man who violates the law cannot well
 prevent the growth of disregard for law in him. has the same poisoned seed planted within him.
 Every illegal dram shop in the state is, of neces
 sity, school where disregard for law Is taught
 What l have related in regard to Bristol and
 has beena work. Yes, am convinced that the
 violation of the law and the existing indifference
 regarding It promotes anarchy. Proceeding in
 natural order, will now comment on the second
 ment of present laws promotes progress in leg
 islstion. At nearly every session of our general
 assembly there is a great display of intellectual
 pyrotechnics over the enactment of new laws
 temperance element and other moral reformers
 to change old laws and make new ones have