The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1901-08-30
MAYOR FOX AT
JAMESTOWN
Paper on Municipal Restriction
Of Vice we'll Received.

Considered from Various Stand
points-Before League of Ameri-
can Municipalities.
(From Jamestown journal, Aug. 23.
Among the delegates to the conven-
ton of the League of American Munlci
palities now in session here is Kew.
Norman Fox, mayor of Morristown, N.
j., whose paper on Municipal Restrlc-
ton of Vice, presented on Thursday,
attracted the utmost attention. The
paper is presented in full below:
There are three institutions that de-
mand municipal watchfulness = the
drinking house, the gambling house and
the house of ill-fame. Let us consider
each.
There are comparatively few who
demand that the drinking house be en-
tirely suppressed. AS clergyman and
an advocate of temperance / advise men
not to drink, but fail to see on what
ground can call on the law to forbid
all drinking. When the gentleman OF
the old school, tells me that he finds
little whiskey not only harmless but
absolutely benegcial may dissent from
his view but if he prefers to act on his
opinion rather than mine ] do not see
but must accord him that liberty. His
right to drink however carries with 1t
a right and this again covers some
mans right to sell.
All however will allow that the sale
of liquor should be suppressed so far as
it involves public disturbance. 1t
mans drink makes him violent and
menace to others, it makes him torpid
so that he sinks down on the pavement
in deep sleep becoming a disgusting
the sale of liquor to him should be for
hidden. AS We may prohibit the sale
of tobacco to children SO we may forbid
the vending of liquor to minors. The
law of New Jersey condemns the sale
of liquor to one who is already visibly
under the influence of alcoholic drink
and also to one who is "known in the
neighborhood to be of confirmed intem-
perate habits" - in other words the
dealer cannot plead that he did not
know that the man was in the habit of
getting drunk or that no one had noti-
fed him. for if the neighborhood knows
of it he should know. Again license to
sell may properly be refused in place
where congregate railroad hands or
others in whose case drunkenness would
be especially dangerous. The sale OF
liquor like the sale of dynamite or ar
senic involves certain dangers and there
fore, while the business may not be en-
tirely prohibited it should be put under
all restrictions necessary to safeguard
the public.
Nor should noise be allowed in or
around drinking place. A saloon
ought to be no more of a nuisance to its
neighbors than restaurant or cigar
store. The saloon keeper who cannot
keep his place just asquiet as newspaper
stand or barber shop has no right to
continue in the business.
My program of temperance effort is
this-so far as the use and sale of liquor
like the use and sale of tobacco involves
no public disturbance, deal with it as
YOU do with the use and sale of tobacco;
use every proper argument to dissuade
men from it but you cannot properly
invoke the arm of the law. So far how
ever as the sale of liquor involes distur-
bance of the peace we should strike it
quick and without mercy.
Excise commissioners have such wide
discretionary powers that they can con-
troll the traffic fully. In a large city
where applicants for license are too nu-
merous to be known personally, informa-
ton should be supplied by the police.
Let it be fully understood that sales to
improper persons or at improper hours
will surely involve loss of license and
such sales will instantly cease, And
when such sales, are stopped all is done
that the law can do. The diScontinuance
of other sales of those which do not in
volve breach of the peace, can be
brought about only by the pulpit, the
platform, the press, the schools and
the other moral forces of the community
When all men have been dissuaded
from buying all sales will cease.
AS to gambling it may be said that
when few men meet in private room
and play for small stakes or even large
ones, the law may have no call to inter-
fere. But in the case of gambling
house it is different. Here is an organized
institution, place that Is open not
merely for the convenience of players,
but practically for the encouragement,
of gambling and therefore must be re-
garded as melting to evil 1t is tru,
that the law cannot make men moral,
but it can restrain them from schemes
to lead others into immortality. In some
foreign countries lotteries and gambling
houses are maintained by the govern
ment, but in nearly, if not quite every
one of our states, gambling establish
ments are declared illegal and there is
practically no one who complain
of their proscripti IN. All there