The Newtown bee., 1905-02-17

Having noticed the other methods of dealing with the sale of intoxicants
 Prohibition, and License: I propose
 simply to quote, in conclusion, the
 words of the Hon Carroll D. Wright
 on Local Option, with perhaps mere
 mention of State Account which has
 not as yet been adopted in this >coun- try. Dr Wright treats the whole sub- ; Ject of the so called Temperance Ques- tion from the standpoint of the so-
 ciologist. He is non-partizan, and
 without prejudice. His conclusions
 are the results of extended investiga-
 tlons, and are therefore based upon
 statistics and other collated facts. The
 work, Practical Sociology, to which I
 refer, embodies the results of more
 than twenty-five years official service.
 It is high time that temperance ad-
 vocates should cease abusing one an-
 other; and looking the situation in the
 face, begin to talk with intelligence; and to act in harmony, with sanity of
 purpose.
 ''There is another popular method employed" he says, "combining pro- hibition and license. Under local op- tion the legislature of the State pro- vides that any municipality which chooses to vote against granting any licenses for the liquor traffic may do so, or it may vote to issue licenses This leaves the whole matter to local public will. It is curious to note the experience of municipalities under a local option system in shifting from one method to the other, one year granting licenses by popular vote, and another year prohibiting them. On the other hand, several large cities, especially Cambridge, Mass, have for long terms of years voted against the liquor traffic, and have, so far as votes show, nearly crushed it out.
 "The prohibition party condemn this method more than any other for the reason that by it the legislature delegates the power to define crime to municipalities, instead of defining it by law for all municipalities within the State, and for the further reason that if in one town licenses are pro- hibited and the sale of liquor made crime, persons who wish to obtain it | can, by crossing the line into a town that grants licenses, purchase it with out criminal results. So what is a l crime on one side of the boundary l line is not crime on the other, and the result is sometimes a curious compli- cation.
 ''The advocate of local option and l license answer the prohibitionisu, | when the argument of immortality is l raised, that under prohibition, when liquor saloons are closed, the proprie- tors furnish their customers with in- dividual keys and turn their saloons into private clubs. This practice in an Eastern State some years ago be- came so thoroughly abused that it re- suited in the repeal of the prohibition laws and the enactment of license reg ulationS.
 "All these methods are on trial Each one is open to many objections; each has some advantages. Only through long experience will the pub lie be able to determine just which is the best method of regulating the liq- uOr traffic. In the mean time the cru sade against the manufacture and sale of liquors and in the interest of tenn perance goes on, the drinking habits of the people change, and the reform is quietly being accomplished, for not withstanding the increased consump- tion of malt liquors, there is de- crease in that of spirituous and dis titled liquors, the use of the latter be- ing considered far more harmful than the former.'
 The system known as State Account, in operation in Sweden and Norway, has been tried with fairly satisfactory results in those countries. Under that method ''The government grants to competent company a monopoly of the sale of liquors within certain limits, and sales must be made only at certain advance be- ] yond cost, usually not exceeding six per cent profit; the surplus over ex- penses is to be disposed of by the State in various ways, usually in the support of some line of charity work : or kindred Ohiect