The Newtown bee., 1905-02-24

some facts and let us discuss these
 fairly. l can accept even without his
 qualification the fact that there are
 men in every community vicious
 enough to commit any violation of
 law. The liquor seller may be less in evidence in prohibition Maine than in license tor rather local option) Connec-
 ticut, where his business may be legal but whether the legal restrictions are greater or lesser, some criminals will
 be found who will break the law for
 their own profit. The fact that liq-
 uor selling is forbidden by law in any place usually makes the business in
 that place all the more profitable. The only thing which makes it unprof- itable is such uniform public senti-
 ment against it that nobody wants to
 or though wanting to, dares buy or sell. That men have grown to maturity in
 Maine without ever coming in con- | tact With an open saloon is quite like
 ly. have grown to what maturity
 have in New Haven, and have passed
 my majority with wide margin and
 yet nave never come in contact with
 an open gambling house, yet l know
 by hearsay and by the results of prose-
 cutlons in the courts that gambling is ] very prevalent evil in New Haven.
 The mere fact that men have grown to
 maturity in some parts of Maine, nay,
 the fact, if it be fact, that men,
 have grown to maturity in all parts of 1 Maine without ever coming in con-
 tact with an open saloon is not the slightest evidence that liquor is not
 freely sold. It is merely evidence that
 it is not publicly sold.
 But Reformer raises the point that
 the law against burglary is not en-
 forced and attempts to establish there
 by the deduction that since such a
 law is properly on our statute books,
 therefore prohibition law may stand
 there with equal propriety and go un-
 enforced. This at first glance appears
 almost unanswerable, but I believe
 that really Reformer has confused
 cause and effect to some degree. Let
 us straighten the matter out if we
 can. It is self evident from the events
 in Bridgeport that the prohibition of burglary does not prohibit. But theft is
 one of the greatest of crimes, an offense against one of the ten Biblical con-
 mandmentS. If Reformer can find as specific command against liquor sell
 ing in the Bible will accept his dogma ho 1,; tol
 and ethical grounds. If he cannot
 fail to see how he can demand any
 other treatment of the subject than
 treatment on grounds of public utility.
 For person may take single drink of liquor and no further consequences ensue (except such as are connected with his own processes of digestion and circulation). The act, therefore, does not constitute a moral crime as distinct from a statutory crime. But if one person steals another's property other consequences must inevitably ensue, beginning with the loss to the other Of that to which he is rightly 1 entitled. Theft is in itself crime. 1 The taking of drink of liquor is not in itself crime though it may lead to l crime. Obviously the two acts cannot be considered as of the same nature | On grounds of public utility, however, when overwhelming public sentiment | demands not only the enactment of a | prohibition law, but demands also it's enforcement honestly and uniformly | n l manner that other laws are enforcedn such law may be justifable on the | ground of public utility, but where | the law has the reputation of being en- forced but single week out of fifty | years it does not appear on the face of | it to be very valuable addition to the statute book. Is the theological doc- urine of free will anything more or less than a doctrine that the Divinity allows us mortals local option to sin and suffer or to do right and obtain our re- ward? It is certain that no law, Di- vine or human, has ever been absolute ly enforced, but the best laws we have are the Divine laws because they are so elementary that they are enforced to the maximum degree by united pub lie sentiment in every human commun- lty. After the Divine laws we find very few statutes which are we'll en- forced by overwhelming public senti- ment. Behind these struggle today a long line of feeble, half made, well meant but i'll enforced laws As the strength of the battle line is only the strength of the weakest regiment on the line, and as the speed of the fleet of battleships is only the speed of the slowest vessel in the fleet, so the eff ciency of our best laws approximate the efficiency of the least enforced law in the whole body of law, and are enforced in the same way whether it be carelessly or conscientiously.
 If all the other laws were strictly in Bridgeport do you imagine there could be any such thing as an epidemic" of burglary there? And is 1t not true that in great city like New York or Chicago. where public sentiment is against the excise laws in particular, and against many other statutory restrictions which are more or less unsuited to city life, the effi- ;iency of the police is at a minimum md bribery, robbery murder and nros. ]