The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-04-15
High License, Local
Option and Politics

! Editor Advertiser: To shorten con-
troversy, the Anti-Saloon League ia
! vors local option, or, at least, it did
when the matter was up before the
last Legislature The most ardent
| prohibitionist on record might favor
| local option BY means of local option
| prohibition has been secured eyes, pro-
| hibition, Mr. Editor, despite the COM
mon darkening of Words in about half
! the territory of the United States.
/ That's the form of 'hysteria' / share
with the citizens of Pasadena and
many another city of the great Wine
| growing state. 1 hate the saloon-way
| down to the ground (and below it, 10
refer to our late figure). There is lit
! tie virtue in that; it would seem that
all good men must. L hate, too. and
| fear that product of high license, your
| gilt-edge high-class saloon. That is
/ the form of saloon most dangerous to
| the communicate our part of the
community. Your boy and mine will
go there in preference to resorting to
low groggery, and 1 would like both
of them to think I voted against it.
That's where local option comes in; it
gives men a chance to vote against
the saloon. Your most rabid liquor
man has the same fair opportunity and
ought to welcome the chance to have
indicated at the polls the high char
acter of his profession.
But what if we lose? Suppose my
district votes saloon? Why, we will
have to make the best of it-cut and
slash at the great hydra with scissors
and pencil sharpeners, or throw spit
balls at it according to our several
fancies.
If we win We will have local prohi
bition; let's not make any more owlish
fuss over that word.
In the end the only remedy for the
licensed saloon is NO SALOON.
THEODORE RICHARDS.
1.-THE Advertiser is, as in the past,
favorable to local option. But it wants
high license, in districts with a pro-
liquor vote, as a means of leSSening
the number of man-traps in the Terri
tory. Under local high license before,
saloons were few and far between and
every drink cost two bits. That con-
dition was better than the present,
where saloons are plentiful and drinks
cheap. AS to the saloon which entices
your boy and mine,' we must remind
Mr.. Richards that boys under age are
not served in the first-class places and
that, having paid heavily for a license,
the dealer does not risk it by violat-
ing the law concerning sales to minors.
Under low license the saloon man can
take more chances
The Advertiser has tried to make
clear that it does not doubt the eff
cacy of prohibition WHERE PUBLIC
SENTIMENT SUPPORTS IT. Pasa-
dena is a paradise of wealth and Gull
ture, where good people have their
homes. Nonconformists who drink
there can drink in their households or
run over on the trolley to Los An
geles. But between Pasadena and Ho-
noluIu, what a yawning divergence. |,
The one with the highest type of
American citizens constituting a vot-
ing majority, the other with a voting
of aborigines, population OF
Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Porto Ri
cans, negroes and a small colony OF
whites, the latter containing a prob
a Bile majority of people who make
some social use of liquor. Are there
any points of contact between the
Pasadena situation and that of Homo
lulu? Because the California city has
made prohibition a fact can this cos
mopoltan seaport hope to do likewise?
We repeat from yesterday: rs there
a seaport outside of Maine or any
tropical city in the world where ten
per cent. of the population can be
rallied to the cause of prohibition?'
Ii not, where could a prohibitory law
in Hawaii secure the support which is
required for maint enance?
The Anti-Saloon League pledges it
self. in it's constitution. not only to
abolish saloons where that be posi-
BILE, but to ''minify' their influence.
Here, in the high license cause, is
chance to minify. Surely if 270 of the
300 saloons, or any reasonable fraction
of them. can be shut UP, the minimiza-
ton will be to some purpose.-Ed.