The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-02-08
A TEMPERANCE MEASURE
CORREsPONDENTON DISPENSARY
SYSTEM
Money Making Feature is Not Chief
Claim the System Has for Public
pproval-Estimates.

EDITOR STAR: In discussing the
Dlspensury system people seem prone
to dwell upon the profit argument and
get away from the real idea alto
gether rhe dIspensary system is dis
tinCtly a temperance scheme, in the
boardest and probably the most logt-
cal sense III the world. 1t wipes out
bar room drinking and the custom of
treating and in that alone, in city
like Honolulu, a great step toward
temperance would be accomplished. |
have not the figures at hand just now
bur | do reCOlleCt that the first year
of the dispensary i'm South Carolina
BROUGHT about condition that stagger-
ed its bitterest opponents: Drunken
ness and crime (Which go tOgethe)
We're reduced about thiTty-three per
cent. county jails were empty and the
police expenses of the various cities
and towns went ,dOWn from ten to
twenty per cent This all happened in
a single year. From that time OS93-
9D to now there has been a still further
improvement. Former enemies of the
system have become its friends and no
legislator in that state would now dare
suggest a return to the old system.
Temperance is the king pin, the heart
Of the system.
Prohibition is as impossible here as
il is elsewhere. 1t has never existed
and will never exist except in the
minds Of the old women of Kansas,
The dispensary system meets the sit
uation half way, carries prohibition to
it's fullest, natural limit and there
stops.
1t has been ventured by you editOri-
ally that the system would be condu-
Give TO the manufacture and use of
impure cOncoctions and probably drive
many to drinking wood alcohol and the
like 1t will have the opposite effect
as to the use of substitutes Sand
paper gin and water whiskey with
cayenne pepper in it, which are sold
over many of the saloon counters of
Honolulu, will be done away with, and
viii be replaced by goods that have
passed the test of the government
chemist The police power of the de-
partment will turn its sole attention
to all distilling, as all distilling will be
Illegal and to the Illicit possession OF
liquors. South Carolina, which is con-
siderably larger than Hawaii, has not
failed to thoroughly end moonshining
and Illicit dealing in liquors, although
under the old system the police power
of the State and the revenue depart
ment of the central gOVernmnt never
attained more than what may be term
ed a check upon either,
Whether the State has a moral right
to monopOlize an industry, or system
of industries. is open to argument. 1t
would seem not unfair to the commun-
ity at large, however, to acquire such
profits as there may be in a business
that costs it so much in the loss of
manhood. the expense of courts, police,
prisons and asylums.
But the fact that South Carolina
made a million dollars last year out
of the system, and that the dispensary
would probably pay the taxes of Ha-
wall. is not an argument in favor of
the measure I respectfully submit
that the feature to be looked at is the
powerful influence for temperance;
constant in it's work and certain in its
results ~
Honolulu, February s.