Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-28


village licenses up to $500 in the large
cities
The liberal licensing bill was devised
as measure of temperance reform di-
rected to three main ends-the immediate
and progressive improvement in circum-
stances attending the sale of liquor: the
gradual but complete recovery for the
community of it's dominion over property
in licenses. and the greater power of
preventing the growth of drinking clubs
Having due regard for the British no.
ton of property rights. the bill created
special couiN of licensing justices,
whose duty it was to prepare scheme
of the reduction of the number of liquor
licenses to certain graduated scale
based on population. Under this scheme
10000, CT about one-third of the existing
licenses. would have been terminated.
Fourteen years notice was given be-
fore the arbitrary sections of the act
were to become effective. In the mean
time any old license extinguished was to
be paid for at a fixed rate of compenSa-
ton. which would give to the license
holder guaranteed annuity equal in
amount to the annual value of the Ii
cense, the annuity to run until twenty
one years after the pa Usage of the act.
Under this bill. had it become law, no
license could have been terminated for
fourteen Years except ' by payment Of
years notice of the termination of the
license must be given. In the United
States, where licenses are revoked at the
will of the authorities, and where abso-
lutte prohibition laws are passed with
out any notice whatever, this British bill
would not seem unjust.
80
No meaure in the legislative history of
England was so bitterly denounced. One
issue of lead
Bitter Denunclat1on ing tory news
of Licensing Bill paper used these
phrases in COM
menting upon this licensing bill: Utter
niquity,'' Sheer brigandage.'' 'Fanatical
legislation. "Socialistic confiscaton,'' "A
gigantic act of public theft "A raiding
expedition of partisan blackmailers" 1.-The
sum of hypocrisy with the maximum of
wrong "A measure of plumber, The
government are acting in the spirit of a
highwaymanF' Progressive and cumu-
lative plumber AN act of financial
slaughter" A nightmare" "A tremen-
dous scheme Of plumber and contiscation.'
"A profligate imposture.' "A scheme of
despotic plumber" "A colossal sham"
And after all that the editorial writer
apolosized for not doing better, saying:
I'VE feel the utter inadequacy of words
to convey due sense of the magnitude
Of this issue
II pIopoHcIllS vi d Dill
in an American state We're to give four
teen years notice, and then promise an
nuit1es for twenty-One years to all license
holders, and then some newspaper were
to say such things of the temperance re-
formers 1t is highly probable that some
rude person would insinuate that that
newspaper was controlled by the liuuor
trade. But, of course, there is no such
thing as subsidized press in Britain.
-
1t required exactly ninety minutes for
ing bill. The
Measure Defeated conser vative |
that they de-
plcred the evils of drink, but they were |
unwilling to attack the sacred institution |
of private property in order TO restrict |
Being defeated in their efforts at di- |
rect legislation, the liberal leaders re-
solved to attack the trade by using the |
power to tax as a power to destroy. The |
average liquor license was increased to |
S1,2OO a year instead of $500 year, and |
after the first year nearly 10000 bar
rooms went out of business because they |
could not afford to pay the new tax. |
Under the licensing bill 1t would have re- |
quired twenty-one years time and the |
expenditure of a million dollars in COM |
pensating annuities to close as many sa- |
looms as the high taxes already have |
closed. 1t would have been better for |
the liquor trade if it had accepted the |
licensing bill But the history of legis- |
lation against the alcoholic liquor traf- |
fc proves that the trade has suffered
more from the foolhardness of its friends |
than frcm the attacks of it's enemies. !
This is as true in Great Britain as it is
in the United States.
TOmOrrOw-THE BRITISH CRISIS. |
XIV. In Stratihed BarroOms.