The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-02-26
DRINK LEGISLATION.

and in Europe President Eliot of Har-
ward has been giving great attention
to the matter and is the spokesman
of a committee of fifty prominent men
who have been investi- Eating the
problem. President Eliot in his report
deals with prohibition, state control,
license and tax systems of dealing
with the liquor traffic.
Reviewing the prohibitory legisla-
ton the President finds that it has
been successful in abolishing the man.
ufacture of alcoholic liquors in the
districts where the laws prevail-and
further the means of obtaining intoX-
icants being made very hard, the
young generation is not exposed to the
temptations of alcoholic excess. This
is the gain of prohibitory legislation.
But as to its success in excluding in
toxicating beverages from the mass of
the people President Eliot claims that
it is a failure. He says that in Maine
and Iowa there have always been
counties and municipalities in success
full rebellion against the law"
The professor brings rather a strong
indictment against prohibitory legisla
ton, which is here quoted in full from
the report. He says:
"There have been concomitant evils
of prohibitory legislation. The efforts
to enforce it during forty years past
have had some unlooked-for effects on
public respect for courts, judicial pro-
cedure, oaths, and law in general, and
for officers of the law, legislators, and
public servants. The public have seen
law defied a whole generation of ha-
bitual law-breakers schooled in eva
sion and shameiessness, courts inetfec-
tive through fluctuations of policy, de-
days, perjuries, ncgligences, and other
miscarriages of justice, officers of the
law double-faced and mercenary. leg
islators timid and insincere, candidates
for office hypocritical and trucking.
and officc-holders unfaithful to
pledges and to reasonable public eX
pectation. Through an agitation which
has always had a moral end, these inn
moralities have been developed and
made conspicuous. The liquor traffic,
being very profitable, has been able,
when attacked by prohibitory legisla-
ton, to pay fines, brides, sush-money
and assessments for political purposes
to large amounts. This money has
tended to corrupt the lower courts,
the police administration, political or
CARNATIONS, and even the electorate
itself. All legislation intended
to put restriction on the liquor traffic,
except perhaps the simple tax, is more
Or less liable to these objections; but
the prohibitory Legislation is the worst
of all in these respects, because it
stimulates to the utmost the resistance
of the liquor-dealers and their support
ers.
"Of course there are disputed effects
has or has not reduced the consump-
ton of intoXicants and diminished
drunkenness is matter of opinion,
and opinions differ widely. No demon
stration on either of these points has
been reached or is now attainable after
more than forty years of observation
and experience"
The summing up of the report shows
that Professor Eliot prefers taxing
system to a license system. But if
licenses are issued he contends that
they should only be for one year. In
cidentally he mentions the principles
of licensing in Massachusetts, where
the license is one for every thousand
inhabitants, except in the city of Bos-
ton, where it is one for every five hun
dred inhabitants.
The South Carolina system comes
under consideration, in the following
terms:
THE South Carolina dispensary law
well illustrates the theoretical difficult
ties which beset liquor legislation. 1t
proposes to maintain a highly profit
able state monopoly of the sale of in
toxicants. The revenue purpose is eX-
tremely offensive to prohib tionists;
yet this motive appears plainly in the
practical administration of the law, as
well as in its theoretical purpose.
Thus, for example, the state dispens-
ers sell the cheapest kinds of distilled
liquor, because it is more profitable to
sell that liquor than any other, the
tastes and capacities of their custom
ers being considered. Again, the law
does not prohibit the manufacture of