United labor bulletin., 1909-10-29
LOCAL OPTION" EXPOSED.

A local option bill was proposed at the
last session of the New Jersey Legisla-
ture. Before the Committee on Municipal
Corporations on March 2, 1908, the Rev.
DR.. E. A. Wasson, of Newark, n. j., de-
Evcred the following telling argument in
opposition to the measure.
The general issue to which this bill is
contributory falls into three heads.
First, shall the alcoholic beverages in
controversy be sold or not?
Second, Under what conditions, if AT
all, shall they be sold?
Third, Where shall the discretionary
power be lodged?
The bill before us is not formally or
directly concerned with the first two
questions, Shall these beverages be sold
and Under what conditions shall they be
sold? Ostensibly and on the surface this
bill deals only with the third question:
namely, With whom shall the discretion
ary power be lodged?
Its answer is, With the community
most nearly affected. BY community
it means the town, township municipal
ity or ward.
The principle of this bill is generally
understood to be local option and the
friends of the bill encourage this under
standing of it. 1t is said to be local
option bill. This term local option has
gained friends for the bill 1t has DEM
ocratic sound, suggesting the obvious
thought that the people of the political
unit most nearly affected know better
than any others the good and evil OF TINS
traffic, and are therefore most compe-
tent to handle or regulate it.
Now the propositions in question may
be good or bad considered as theories.
They might likewise be good or bad in
their actual working out. But there is
question anterior and superior to these
questions for the legislature to ask and
answer. That question is, whether this
is or is not one of those issues on which
they ought to seek direct mandate of
the people before acting. That there are
such questions will hardly be denied
questions namely that the Legislature
ought to refer to the body of the voting
citizenship of the state for instructions.
The obligation to refer some questions
to the people for their determination is
equity
The Legislature is not ethical So
ciety to voice moral yearnings of its
members or to body forth lofty ideals.
1t is, on the contrary, representative
body. The Legislature is sent to Trenton
to do what the people wish to have done
The Legislature is hired servant. If it
is faithful servant, it will seek to do its
employers will, not its own. This is
democracy.
But in fact the Legislature is more
than an amanuensis. From the nature
of the situation, from the numerousness
of the people and their preoccupations,
it is manifestly impossible for them to
give their representatives minute detail
ed instructions. Much has to be left to
the good sense. and to the loyalty of the
legislator servants of the people.
Now where is the line to be drawn be-
tween issues that as a matter of political
equity ought to be referred to the people
before the Legislature acts on them, and
those issues on which the Legislature
can rightly originate action?
The principle of discrimination is here;
IN lle IudlleI Vi plllSlplSo Vi III Sie'H7S
Importance, the Legislature ought to be
instructed by the people. The duty of
the Legislature is to put into effect the
principles approved by the people. That
is really the true legislative function
to give effect to the express will of the
people, together with its corollaries and
implications. 1t is for the people to tell
their Legislature what they wish done.
1t is for the Legislature to do it.
New Principle.
Now this local option principle, So
called, is something new in our legisla-
ton SO far as it affects the traffic in al
coholic beverages. The local option prin-
ciple for the regulation of the business
in question is no mere detail of princi-
pie approved by the people, nor is it a
method of giving effect to the expressed
will of the people. The local option
principle in this field is a principle of
first-class Importance, distinctly a new
principle in our state jurisprudence, and
commended as such by it's friends en-
bodying a great reform, a great reform
not only in its working but as a princi-
pie of regulation. 1t is a proposition for
fundamental change IN our treatment
of great branch of industry, and in our
treatment of the privileges and liberties
of the citizen. From the dim emergence
of civilization the commodities in ques-
tion have generally, and certainly among
the great peoples who have accepted the
guidance of the scriptures of the Old
and New Testaments, been looked on and
treated as legitimate beverages. And in
this state the prescriptive right and priv