Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1907-12-26
ANT|-SALOON CRUSADE.
State League Preparing for Vigorous
Campaign Before the State
Legislature.
APPEAL TO GOVERNOR FORT

ITO the Honorable j. Franklin Fort,
Governor-elect State of New Jersey:
Dear Sir:-As officers and mem
bers of the Headquarters Committee
of the Anti-Saloon League, and under
the direction Of our State Board Of
Trustees, representing over three hun
bred and fifty thousand Christian men
and women, we write you.
1T is unnecessary for us to call
your attention to the position which
New Jersey occupies among the
States in respect to license legisla-
ton. Bonfort's Wine and Spirit Circu-
lar, in a report from representatives
of the trade throughout the country
on wet" and dry counties, but a
few weeks since, said in regard to
New Jersey: New Jersey; twenty
one counties in ALL Twenty-one coun-
ties wet. No counties dry. New
Jersey is one of the four States in the
Union in which the people have no
power of local veto on the license
question
New Jersey is the only State east
of the Mississippi River in which the
people are denied all power of local
veto on the question of the issuance
of licenses.
almost daily in some locality of the
State a city Council, or excise board
or a county judge, is thrusting upon
community on the request of lii
censee, and in a majority of cases un-
der the direction of brewery, a IL
cense to retail intoxicating liquor,
without that peoples consent and oft
times against their almost unanimous
protest. The fostering of this traffic
in New Jersey through the denial to
the people the right of majority rule
in their respective localities is giving
to New Jersey a distinction among
the States of the Union as unenviable
as the basis of this distinction is un-
just.
'sThe courts have declared the re-
failing of intoxicating liquor to be
criminal in its tendencies and having
as traffic no inherent right to exist
Advancing civilization has pronounced
the institution infamous, as it under
mines the health, lives and morals of
nations. We conceive that the right
Of the people to preclude such an in
stitution from their midst by majority
vote, is among the basic principles of
a free government. That the people
of New Jersey are becoming daily
more aroused over this situation, and
desire their rights, needs no sugges-
ton from u.s. We point to the col
umns of our daily public journals, the
utterance of the pulpit, the discussion
by the politicians, and the unification
of the forces of the State for this very
purpose, to show most clearly that the
interest is universal and the demand
large and increasing.
1--WE would call your attention to
the fact that this law not only guar
antees the people a right, fundamen-
tai principle of our constitutional sys-
TEN, but it is largely solving other
phases of the saloon problem, mas
much as when the liquor men violate
law in communities to the extent of
arousing public sentiment, they are
voted out of existence entirely. And
so there is tendency everywhere to
obey present law where there are 10.
cal option laws on the statute books,
to prevent the people from completely
eliminating them.
4 Eve recognize that some are urg-
ing that the right to preclude the is
suance of licenses entirely, involves
the power to allow the sale at such
times as it is now prohibited. We
certainly would allow this contention
If there was no wrong in the saloon
itself; If it had an inherent right to
exist, if it were like other trades and
lines of legitimate occupation. But
by the call decisions of courts, and
by the almost unanimous decisions of
mankind generally, that is not the
case. All contend that it is wrong in
some phase and many in every phase
of its operation. Surely the power to
allow wrong to come in can by no
hypothesis of craftsmanship be placed
on the same basis as the right to pre-
clude that same wrong from opr
midst. The maintenance of such
position would defeat the very purpose
of government. Any other contention
would be to urge that it was right to
do wrong, or that wrong is right
/ eve would therefore respectfully
request that in your inaugural mes
sage you suggest to the Legislature the
need of legislation in the State of New
Jersey granting to the people this
right SO long withheld to decide for
themselves as to whether they shall
have this institution placed within
their midst
eve make this request of you on
behalf of the entire people of the
many localities of the State, who GER
tainly are as qualified to decide this
matter for themselves as are the citi-
zens of all the other States. We
make this request on behalf of the
many localities of the State which GER
tainly are as qualified to decide wheth-
er the retailing of liquor is for their
veal or woe, as are the excise boards,
city councils, or county judges, to de-
eide for them. We make this request
in the name of rights denied; of indie
pendent and patriotic citizens, who
believe that any traffic that must die
under the application of the fair and
democratic principle of majority rule,
is not fit to live; we make it in the
name of values reduced, property con-