Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1897-02-19
THE LIQUOR PROBLEM.
From The Outlook

l HE LIQUOR PROBLEM.
From The Outlook.
The subcommittee on legislation of
the committee of fifty organized in 1893
to study the liquor problem has made its
report. 1t appears in the form of an ar
tlcle by President Eliot Of Harvard in
the "Atlantic Monthly" for February.
President Eliot and his associates on the
subcommittee, President Low and Mr..
James c. Carter. have spent several
thousand dollars in investigating the
workings of the liquor laws in Maine,
Massachusetts. Pennsylvania, Indiana,
Iowa, Missouri, and South Carolina.
The conclusions reached cOrrObOrate the
facts and views often presented in The
Outlook. President Eliot reports that
prohibitorv laws as eXemplitied in Maine
and Iowa have resulted in the removal
of the temptations of the saloon In dis
trlcts where public sentiment has sup
ported the law He urges, however,
that they have had "unlooked-for
effects" in schooling Ia whole generation
of lawbreakers in evasion and shameless
ness" and breeding contempt for the
public service" Whether the public
service is in greater contempt in Maine
and Iowa than in the license States
between them is not stated. Regarding
local option, President Eliot reports in
favor of the Missouri system, by which
the residents in any county may vote to
exclude the saloon from the rural dis
tricts even if the county town votes to
license them, and majority of the prop
erty-owners on any block or square may
prevent a saloon from being located
thereon.
In Missouri the question os license or
no-license can he submitted only once in
four years. Ip the license States and
cities the power TO grant or withhold
licenses is so emphatically a power to
enrich or impOverish salOOn-keepers as
to endanger the corruption of the Off
cials President Eliot seems to commend
the Ohio system, by which the payment
of tax secures equally to all applicants
the right to conduct saloon. He makes
the businesslike suggestion that where
the rental value of property is greatly
increased by the possession of a license,
the license fee should be raised so as to
cover this increase Regarding the
South Carolina dspensary law, President
Eliot reports that 1t has been enforced
with exceptional success because the
governor of the State has power to
organize a metropolitan police force in
any city where the local officers fail to
do their duty. The statistics relating to
drinking and drunkenness under different
systems he declares to be unSatisfactO Y
and incOnclusive except in South Caro-
lima, where the decrease in drunkenness
under the dispensary system has been
marked. Pres ident Eliot is inclined TO
attribute this decrease largely to the fact
that the dispensaries close at six o'clock.
The retiring message of Governor
Evans to the legislature of South Caro-
lima is spirited defense of the dispen-
sary law. He declares, that the city
press has "magnitied into an embeZzle-
me mt" every error IN bookkeeping, and
characterized as oppressive" every ar
rest of the Illicit liquor-dealer. This
misrepresentation he believes to have
destroyed popular faith in the press.
"1he dispensary law he declares, "is
stronger today than at anv time since its
enactment" Governor Evans reports
an increase in the net profits of the dis
pensary, and a decrease in the number
of arrests for violations of the law. To
the criticism that he violated the princi-
pie of home rule in organizing a metro
politan police force IN the city of Charles
ton, he replies that if "home rule" means
"the absolute power of a muncl lpality to
abrOgate and nullify the statute laws -
he does not believe in home rule.
The only serious embarrassment to the
enforcement of the law is the decision of
the federal courts that liquor manufac-
tured in other States can be imported by
citizens of South Carolina without pas
sing through the hands of the dispensary
authorities. In accordance with this de-
clsiOn-whlch the United States supreme
court has now sustained-any resident
in South Carolina can import as much
liquor as he wishes without paving any
tax to the State. With this decision it
will be impossible for the dispensary sys-
TEN to yield large revenue, for any rise
in the price of liquor would make more
profitable the Illicit traffic. So long,
however, as the South Carolina dispen-
saries sell liquor at a small pre- fit, rela-
lively few citizens will care to import
from other States and attempt to sell at
the risk of the penitentiary. 1t is worthy
of note that the success of South Caro-
lima in cOnfining the liquor traffic to the
spensaries-where neither loafing nor
treating Is permitted. and where, in fact
no liquor is sold to be drunk on the
pTemises-is leading to the introduction
of dispensary bills in several State legis
latures. In Alabama dispensary law
has already passed the senate, while In
North Carolina and South Dakota similar
bills are under discussion.