The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-07-24
THE LIQUOR
QUESTION
Rev. Edwards Points to
Flaws in License
System.

The following is the third instalment
of an address delivered by Rev. G. D.
Edwards on the liquor question:
Wherein is there any sort of excuse
for permitting the liquor traffic to live
tention to but one today, reserving two
for next week.
Perhaps the most important excuse
is that the traffic is going to 90 on any
way and a license system legalizing it
will give control of an otherwise I'M
controlled evil. l am willing to recog-
nize that there is something to be said
in favor of this position. Let US hear
from each side.
1. In favor of the license system
three points may be made. O) High
license lessons the number Criminals
are always more easily handled the
fewer there are. 81 There are, too,
degrees of depravity amongst crimi-
mails, and, high license, with other safe
it, tends to outlaw the worst ones and
to give us the more honorable ones to
deal with. 90 High license secures
that to a greater or less extent the
traffic shall pay the cost of dealing
with those forms of crime for which,
as the editor of the San Francisco
Chronicle says, ''the saloons are now
proved to be solely responsible. -
?. In opposition to the license sys-
tenn the following should certainly be
accorded weight.
In the first place, while there is some
measure of control obtained over those
engaged in the traffic, there is an in
creased element of danger entailed on
the more moral element in the com
munity who are sought as consumers.
Advocates of high license apparently
give this phase of the question little
thought. By license system of legali-
cation the lowest classes are excluded
from the traffic and an aspect of re-
speetability is infused into it. This
wins to the traffic few men who had
too much self-respect to engage in it
before it could be done with legal
sanction. and while it would require
companionship and competition with
the very dregs of society. Their
added degree of responsibility, to-
gether with that infused by legal
ization have wonderful infu-
ence in deluding the young; sometimes
the older, too, but especially the young.
have been legaIized and made as
reputable as possible when they would
not think of doing so were they under
the ban of law. Therefore, licensing
the traffic gives it widened influence.
1t capsules the poison until its nefari |
Gus influence lays hold on the better |
homes to drag them down along with |
the others it is grinding under it's feet. |
In the second place, the control Sc
cured through the license system of |
ism as great as we are |
asked to believe. We are told how
prohibition viii not work, but how high |
license will secure exactly the thing
aimed at. The truth is that high |
license controls just like prohibition
prohibits Most of tho agents of the :.
liquor traffic go just as far as they dare.
and take all the risks they think safe
exactly as they would under prohibi-
ion. We have law against selling on
Sunday. Every now and then our law
,nforcers make a pretense of enforcing
he law by running across country and
erking up Jap or Chinaman. They II
an occasionally find one OF them. But,
light here in Honolulu the white bench
men of the political machine are doing
he same thing every Sunday and moth
ne molests them or makes afraid.
)ne who has boasted but recently /
through the columns of the Advertiser
s being 'law-abiding citizen is a
onstant breaker of the law just at
his point. At least it is from his bar
hat the work goes on. Nor is even so
1uCn as q cracker served with the
Kinks Yet we are to seek Il law eX
luding the Oriental from saloon-keep
ne in order that fellows like these may
ave a monopoly of the traffic. We are
old that the Chinese are a curse to the
-omen of the community. l do not
oubt it. l should like to see every one
f them shut out. But, if we are to
ave the women, why stop with the
hinaman? Many of our white men S
aloons have their q Ladies' Entrance. -
rom some of these cafe attachments. |
20, women now come reeling drunk at
and clock in the morning. When
le Oriental is shut out you cansdepend
n the whites catering TO the classes
ow ministered to by the willy Oriental. &
here is no doubt that the Asiatic b
has no regard for our