The Jennings daily record. [volume] (Jennings, La.) 1900-1903, 1902-02-24
= The eDtspe,saty~ system.

Atlanta Constitution.
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= THE eDisr,ensafy system. 3
All schemes Of licensing practically
fail as. temperance measures. They
may succeed as revenue. measures. but
no state has the moral right TO treat
the liquor traffic from the point of
view of revenue. That must be entire
ly secondary. But two legislative
measures that have ever been tried
have in any true sense grappied with
the problem-prohibitio and state
control. Prohibition obtains large y
in Norway and Sweden. in seven OF
our own states, and in large areas of
thirty-three others, particularly in the
south, under local option. In Ala
bama, fifty out of fifty-siX counties are
under prohibition; in Kentucky ninety
out of 119; in Georgia al the state eX-
cept four cities: in Massachusetts, 125
out of 175 towns. Prohibition strikes
at the elements of private profit and
of political power by destroying the
business, but the plan has almost uni
versally failed to succeed in the cities
OF the world, and it has been over
thrown in nineteen out of twenty
seven states in which prohibitory laws
were passed largely because it antaso-
niZes so largely the drinking element
of the people, and those who believe in
letting men drink If they want to- and
because breaking in the cities, it has
been crippled in the rural districts.
do not think that prohibition can sue
coed in the cities until great change
comes over the convic1isIs and habits
of our people. l think this change can
be brought about and that it ought
and will be brought about. The traffic
is so dangerous in any form that the
state must look to its ultimate sup
preston.
II is chiefly because municipal own
erShip destroys all these cardinal
sources of the power of the saloon that
l believe in the dispensary plan. This,
the most hopeful method of dealing
with the saloon, provides in brief, that
the state directly. or that the counties
and cities by a state local option law,
shall take over the retail trade entire
ly. and also. 1t may be. the manufac-
turing of liquors. It takes t e business
entirely out of private hands pri-
vate capital is no longer involved. and
there is no saloon element. h ghly CAPT
talized and organized, to corrupt the
body polite and to fight restrictive
measures. 1t may gain the support OF
that large element of the population
who are unwilling to inte.f re with the
drinking habits OF the people. because
it allows an opportunity, under careful
restrictions. for those who will have
it, TO get liquors. 1t also acts at the
same time as a safety valve for the
drinking element of the people. En-
perience has conclusively shown that
this safety valve is necessary under
existing social conditions, otherwise
a state of corruption will ensue that
will be as dangerous as the present
situation. But. best of all. municipal
control has hopes of success in the
cities, where everything else has fail
ed. If it can be put under proper man
agement it will do more to purify city
government than any other single
measure. 1t can succeed in the cities
chiefly because of the ease with which
the dispensaries can be controlled In
the first place the drinking places
enormously decrease. In South Caro-
lima in 1898 there We're ninety-three
dispensaries to 6i3 bars in 1892; the
city of Charleston in 1892 had 80
saloons and in 1895 only seven d.spen-
saries. In North Carolina Fayette-
willie had twelve saloons. and now has
one dispensary. In Norway and Swe-
den there has been a similar reduction.
Indianapolis has 5SS saloons, and ten
dispensaries would meet the needs of
the city. In itself this is a great gain
in every way. But beyond Ihis is the
comparative ease of control. At pres
ent il is almost impossible to enforce
liquor laws, or to get convictions. If