The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1900-04-20

observe these eminently reasonable
restrictions.
The State law is also very explicit
that in place for the sale of liquor
there shall be allowed no gaming nor
any thing else which will make it a
disorderly house. Ii should not be
noisy place nor a resort for loafers
1t should give 20 more disturbance
to the neighborhood than a restaurant
or cigar store or a newspaper stand.
The man who cannot be fully relied
on to keep his place thus quiet should
not be granted license.
During the past year an ordinance
was passed by this Board that on
Sunday and mt hours when the sale
of liquor is not allowed all curtains
and screens shall be removed from
the windows so that the inside of the
sales room shall be exposed to pub
lie view BY this arrangement it is
made possible for the police or any
citizen to know that the business is
not carried on at prohibited times
and no complaints have been made
to us of such sales.
A matter concerning which we are
liable to be called on to take action
is the so called kettle trade" by re-
tail dealers. A retail license would
seem to cover only sales of liquor to be
drunk on the premises. And a retail
license allows sales only in quantities
less than a quart while it must be as
sumed that what is carried away in
pail or jug is more than a quart, an
amount which can be legally sold
only under a wholesale license.
1t certainly is not the desire of the
Board to institute proceedings which
are simply vexatious, but in the end
it will save trouble to all concerned
if we shall, enforce rigidly the re-
strictions prescribed by the State
laws and our own ordinances. Some
dealers will of their own accord OBJ
serve faithfully the conditions upon
which their licenses are granted and
surely we should not allow the less
scrupulous to do what the more care
full will not. Again if one man is al
lowed to overstep the law little, an
other will go farther and another still
farther till when at last the thing has
become so bad that we are obliged to
take stringent action the man brought
before us for punishment may be IN
fact one of the least culpable. Still
again, if a dealer knows that the
Commissioners are so strict that he
would endanger his license if he
should brake the law, he has an
excuse for refusing to sell at forbid
den times, etc. If we allow our rules
to be disregarded we leave everything
at loose ends, permitting each dealer
to make his own rules. The only way
in which we can know just where we
stand and can deal fairly by all alike
is to enforce all regulations to their
strictest letter. AS to the man who
refuses to observe the conditions on
which his license is granted he not
only trangresses the law but deals
unfairly with us personally in violat-
ing the confidence which we have re-
posed in him and when ne is brought
before us on charges he has no right
to expect much lenity at our hands.
1t is a pleasure to me to recall the
fact that ever since | have been
member of this Commission every inn
portant vote of the Board has been
unanimous. | trust that in each mat
ter which shall come before us in this
ensuing year, we may by thorough
study of the case, arrive at like
unanimity.
A word in conclusion ON the general
subject of Temperance and the Civil
Law.
In different communities different
systems for the better restraint of the
liquor traffic have been tried as High
License, Free Trade under Tax, the
Gothenburg or Dispensary System,
No License and Prohibition. / can
not find that under any of these, bet
ter results have been attained than
under our own administration. My
own opinion is that the laws of the
State of New Jersey in this matter
are about all that can be desired, that
under them licensing boards and the
courts can secure all that can be ac-
complished by the powers of the
State.
But--a second point-the powers
of the State in this matter are limited.
The laws of New Jersey provide
only against that sale of liquor which
involves intoxication and public dis
turbance. But of all the men who
drink there are hardly more than two
per cent. who are made thereby so
violent as to be dangerous or so noisy
as to be public nuisance. Ninety
five or ninety eight per cent. of the
buying and drinking of liquor in
wolves no breach of the public peace
and so is outside the restraints of the
civil law.
As to the man who takes a single
glass of claret with his dinner or an
occasional mug of beer, he is like the
one who smokes a single mild cigar
in day; the injury he may do him
self is too small to be provable and
the law refuses to interpose. And
even in the case of the man who takes
day, who keeps himself in a semi
pickle, destroying his health and
shortening his life, the law will take
no action so long as he retains suffic-
lent self-control to make no public
confined to himself. The State con-
sents to charge itself with the care of
minors or the insane or feeble minded
appointing trustees for their property
and guardians for the person, but it
declares that the average citizen must
take care of himself. So long as man
has not yet reached the point where
he must be declared non compos men
ais the law allows him to lessen his
estate by unwise bargains and to in
jure his health by irregular hours, or
injudicious eating or the excessive
use of tobacco; and so it allows him
to buy and drink liquor to his injury
so long as he commits no breach
of the peace
Therefore the only way by which
the sale of liquor can be fully stopped
is by dissuading men from buying it.
The bar can be completely closed only
by cutting off its customers. AS to the
few restraints which the civil law eau
impose ON the sale and use of liquors