The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-04-27
COMMUNICATIONS.
The Law and Order League and Temperance
 Legislation.

The Law and Order League and Temperance | Legislation.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER: am glad to observe that several
 prominent citizens of New Haven have 1 associated themselves with several other gentlemen equally eminent and
 residing elsewhere for the very com
 mendable purpose of upholding the laws
 and promoting good order and decency
 in the state. There is certainly need
 enough of such an organization. Law essness of all kinds Is rampant through
 out our cities. and there is probably
 no other country in the world where law is so constantly violated with such easy impunity as in the United States. It is much to the credit of these
 gentlemen that they are willing to un- dertake so difficult, not to say so thank less a task. I presume they fully ap- preciate the difficulty of their work, and that they will gladly welcome any
 assistance which may be offered, even in the way of suggestion. To offer
 such suggestion is the object of the
 present writing.
 The license system which is probab-
 ly the best for the state under present
 conditions, is yet weak at three distinct
 points. First, the man who pays high
 for his license is for that very reason
 under strong inducement to sell reck-
 lessly whenever and wherever he can,
 so that he may be able to get back
 the license money and, if possible make
 something besides, This is human na-
 ture and Is inevitable.
 Second, regarding the license money
 as indemnity to the town TO state for the expense caused by the traffic which it is in effect, however the license principle may be eXplained-there the indemnity is not applied where the principal damage Is done. Even in case of a family becoming paupers and be- ing sent to the poorhouse through the intemperance of the husband and father, the family suffers vastly more than the town. Saloon keeprs are not the only parties to whom license is is- sued by the state. Some men are H. censed to keep saloons and others to keep dogs. The difference is that in one case the license money Is applied where Il the damage is done, and in the other the town takes all the money--not too much either-and the principal sufferers get nothing at all. This is illogical and unjust.
 Third, the law fin the present license system will not enforce itself The officers whose duty it is to enforce the 1 penalty for violations, do not and will | not enforce such penalties unless moved | thereto by such moral and patriotic 1  hope to exert But it is private in- | terest which prompts to the violation | of the law, and experience has repeat edly shown that private interest in | such matters has always the longest | wind. Good people at length become tired of an endless and thamkless task, | and their efforts are sure at some time to be relaxed. Hercules can perhaps clean the Augean stables once, but will be sure to be discouraged by persist ent, nay endless accumulations. It | would help much if private interest could be enlisted also on the ornet side. That would never lack induce ment and would never tire.
 Now I have learned that there is | bill already before the legislature which 1t seems to me might be so shaped as to supplement the license law and remedy these three defects. It proposes that besides the license money saloon keepers shall furnish bonds to the se- Iectmen of the town, and that the sum lf these bonds shall constitute a fund from which individuals who suffer damage at the hands of the saloon may be indemnified for the injury re- ,eived.
 Not long ago in one of the cities of he state, a man perfectly peaceable when sober, made the rounds of the saloons one night, drinking at several, md before he reached his home he had stabbed another man to the heart, kill h