The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-06-14
LOCAL OPTION.

LOCAL OPTION.
All social questions are world wide
and world old They owe their birth
not TO the economic and industrial con
ditions Of a nations life but to the
instincts and desires of the human life
itself. Economic problems are the re-
suit of external conditions but social
problems are the result of mans ma
ture, and because they are a part of
the man and touch the inner life, and
because they affect the spiritual side
of man S life and because any attempt
to regulate them is looked upon as an
effort to destroy personal liberty, they
are more deadly and more difficult to
control than any economic problem the
world has ever faced. No evil touches
life so closely and so constantly as in
temperance It's effect is felt in the
home, in the family, in politics, in So
ciety, in the body, in the mind, and
in the soul.
In a republican form of government
two principles are held as essential,
personal liberty, and the will of the
majority. The former gives man the
right to do as he pleases so long as
he does not interfere with the rights
of others, even though it ultimately
ends in the destruction of the man him
self. Governments look upon some So
called rights as evils and surround
them with restrictions and prohibitions.
To this end We have the sale of liquor
restricted by licenses and various other
methods. AS yet few commonwealth
have called it crime against child
hood against womanhood, against man
,,robihito1 10
The real way of eliminating the liquor
evil is by public opinion expressed in
the will of the majority at the polls.
Thus the second principle can regulate
the first and moral law can be made
civil law when the consciences of the
majority so desire it.
Total and complete prohibition is the
ideal and must be the final goal of all
efforts, but as yet public opinion has
not demanded it. There are however
communities where the people wish 1T,
but because of the general liquor laws
cannot control it. 1t is not just that
such communities should have saloons
practically forced upon them. To
remedy this local option is suggested.
This provides that at the biennial cleo
tions, each precinct shall vote whether
there shall or shall not be any saloons
in that precinct. This does not force
prohibition nor saloons upon commune
ties which do not wish them for the
people decide that question for them
selves every two years.
In precincts where saloons are allow
ed there should be restrictions to pre-
vent the evils as far as possible from
iniuring the people. Such a bill was
proposed in the last session of our leg
islature but it was voted down and IN
it's stead we have a law which has IN
creased drunkenness, and is disgrace
to our territory.
Local option is not dream for 1t
has been tried and found effective IN
many states. 1t has been in existence
for nearly IS years, and Is now law
in 80 states. Many of our Southern
States can be ranked as almost totally |
prohibition states through the working |
of this law. To show just what 1T Is |
able to accomplish let US take the State |
of Massachusetts which has had such
= law for many years. Certain people |
complained that there was as much |
On 1nkenness in the towns which had |
voted against saloons as in the towns
which had voted for them. The State |
LEGISLATURE Investigated the matter
and found that in license towns there |
were 81 arrests for drunkenness to eV-
cry 1000 people. while in the towns
without saloons there were but 10 ar
rests to every 1000 people, and the leg
islature was satisfied that the com
Dlaint was not well founded. In 1903
there were Is of the 80 cities, and 23o
of the $40 towns of that state without
saIoons In order that our statistics
MIGHT be conclusive we will not com
mare two towns, but viii compare the
conditions in the same town during
neriods with and without saloons. In
the towns of Waltham and Salem. the
arrests for drunkenness were less than
one-fourth as many during the no
saloon wear of 1901 rs compared with
the saloon year of 1900. The clty OF
Quincy in 1881 had saloons, from that
wear until the present they have not
had any During the 20 years ending
1901 that city has increased 40 per
cent in population but the amount gwen
-o parpers had decreased Il per cent,
similar statistics from other places
prove that there are less than one-half
IS many paupers in the no-llcense cities
- there are in the license cities. Take
.ha city. of Cambridge which voted IN
,avor of saloons from 1875 to 1850, but
,ipce then has voted against them. In
hat city the growth of population, and
he increase in the number of new | ,
,ouses annually erected were nearly
vice as great each year during the
,o-license period. During the period
vben saloons were permitted the val ,
,ation of that city decreased S3,ooo,-'
100. while in Is years of ''no-saloons
: increased $S6,0o0,000. In the same ,
itv the deposits in the saving banks {
we're three times as great each year
without saloons as they were when {