Milford chronicle., 1907-09-13
LICENSE COMMITTEE.

afford to add to the number of is
sues"
Chas. E. Tucker, Esq, said that
prohibition had been in force so
long in Queen Anne's that a COM
paratively young man could not
say what its effect wason business.
The law does not prohibit. -Four
men would club together and get
gallon for So. Thus they drank
more liquor and worse liquor than
they would if they paid ten cents
for a drink over the bar.
Mr.. Walter Wright, the largest
dealer in hardware and agricultural
implements on the Eastern Shore,
if not on the peninsula, when inter
viewed, remarked: II am perhaps
not a proper person to interview on
this question because I am not
prohibitionist. l am opposed to it,
because it interferes with personal
| liberty. It does not interfere with
drinking with the men who can
afford to send away for it. I have
often thought as I have travelled
through those hustling towns OF
New Jersey and New York, with
fine hotels and even saloons, that
it would be better to control the
traffic by means of a high license.
There ought to be one good hotel
in every town and it appears that
hotels cannot be properly maintain
ed without the privilege ola bar. "
Alfred Green, the leading dry
goods merchant, promptly said,
"Yes," when asked whether he
was satisfied with prohibition. He
thought it kept "whiskey from the
rabble. Did it prohibit drinking /?
ooh, no, there is quite as much
drunkenness here as ever, but its
not so public. -
When asked as to its effects on
business, he concluded there was
not as much business now at Cen
terville as there was before 1888,
before the act was inaugurated,
nor did he think that the morals Of
the town had much improved.
Mr.. Lewis Evan, a well-known
official of the Queen Anne's Nat
ional Bank, had no difficulty in de-
filming his position against this al
legged prohibition. He called 1t
farce. Convictions were rare, prac-
tically impossible. Every man in
volved in trials perjured himself.
The county paid the costs of at
tendance Of hundreds of witnesses,
while, there was no let up in the
illicit traffic. AS a business pro-
position it was all out and nothing
| in. As a moral question the per
iurers were worse than the drunk
ards.
The hypocrisy of it ramifed all
classes of society and debauched
the integrity of the people of the
county infinitely more than whiskey
could do. Whiskey is as common
here as it is in Delaware, and yet
we get no revenue for the county
from it. The men who drink, and
that covers nearly everybody, drink
more, because the bottle is more
tempting than the bar, and yet If
there was a bar here, few men would
send to Baltimore or Wilmington
for stuff.
It kills business. There is no
business here. The country people
90 where they can get the most
readily get drink. High license
would give us a good hOlel in every
town in the county, and that means
business. That is what I see in
other States, and I am convinced
that is what we ought to have here.
I believe this county would go for
high license if the opportunity
came"
The opportunity will come much
sooner than any of these honest
men believe. Thirty years of any
system iuculcates its truth or falsity
in a generation. In the language
of Mr.. Wright Prohibition inter
feres with personal liberty and
the new generation in this latitude
will stand for it. The more Georgia
in its brutal course is quoted, the
stronger will become the resentment
on the Eastern Shore to these aribi-
tary and hypocritical pretentions.
They have passed the line Of local
option in Delaware and demanded
county option; and in Georgia they
have enforced State option. The
next effort will come from the south
in its passion and senseless insis-
tence in the shape Of a bill for Ma
it, XTTbat, f14of comes