Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-10-27
Letter Box.
Can You Make Wrong Right BY
L icensino II?

| Licensing u!
The liquor traffic is either right. help
| full and beneficial, or it is wrong injuri-
Gus. demoralizing and degrading to the
public. If the former. it is entitled to the
encouragement and protection of the law
If the latter, it has no rights which white
| men or black men are bound to respect.
If it Is wrong, can it be made right by
a license law? Is getting drunk or Ii.
censed rum any more respectable and
harmless than on unlicensed? If your ia.
| Their or brother or son becomes a gutter
drunkard. a miserable degraded sot, is it
| any comfort to you to be able to say, he
never drank anything but licensed rum?
| Does any state in this union license
prostitution, gambling or any other
wrong Why should we license the sa i.
loon. more destructive wrong than
either? Can any reason be given in favor
of licensing the liquor traffic that will
not apply with equal force in favor of
licensing prostitution and gambling? To
cure. remove or suppress wrong by IL
| censins it is the most absurd proposition
| that can possibly ne stated
We license circuses, theaters, etc and
not necessarily connected. We do not
license the wrong. The liquor traffic is all
wrong. There is no right to it, There isn't
one possible redeeming feature about it,
Why shouldn't we treat it as we do every
other evil?
Why don't we talk about moral suasion
and legal suasion. prohibition and Ii
cense. high license and low license local
option, county sheriffs and Stursis depu-
ties in suppressing other evils and
crimes? This evil and crime is like other
evils. and should be treated in the same
common sense way. The only possible
explanation why we have for the past
% years separated it from other evils and
treated it differently from others is. be-
cause. first. it has been so common for
the large political and business interests
connected with it. If we could come to
ourselves and realize that although this
evil mas always existed among us, it is
the greatest and most destructive curse
that has ever scoursed the human race
and that it is like other evils. and should
be treated in the same way. and stop all
this senseless talk about moral or legal
suasion, prohibition, license high or low
local option, and in a common sense way,
treat it as we do theft. murder. gambling
and other crimes, the whole question
could be disposed of in one year.
| have spoken Of the absurdity of right
ing wrong by licensing it. Suppose
some good father who. like every good
father, enacts a law prohibiting lying
in n ilxr
the law is continually and repeatedly vi
olated. Who ever heard of father say
ing, prohibition doesn't prohibit. My
boys will swear and there is great dan
ger that my prohibitory law against
swearing will be brought into contempt
by habitual disobedence. AS the boys
will lie, swear and steal l might as well
get some revenue out of it. Suppose
repeal my prohibitory law and try license
or local option. Suppose I say to one Of
my boys, if you will pay me 81 per year,
you may do all the swearing lying and
Stealing for the whole family, and if any
of the other boys are guilty, you will of
course let me know, and we will punish
them The boy says. I shall be glad to
pay you the 81, as l can easily make
that and a good deal more by lying and
stealing, if We can keep the other boys
out of the way. This seems to be an ex-
cellent arrangement. The father gets the
dollar and the boy is all right. He is IL
censed. He has a right to swear and
steal, and he helps to keep the other bows
straight
suppose teacher has difficulty in en-
forcing his prohibtory law against whis.
pering. chewing gum and pinching. He
says, this mischief is going on more or
Tess every day in school. Prohibition
doesn't seem to prohibit. Hadn't | better
Try license? He says to the boys, if one
OIL you Will pay me well for it, / will H. !
cense you to whisper, chew gum and
p'hch all you want to. on condition that
you snail report to me if any other boys
10 the same, and we together will punish |
lhem. This scheme seems to work well. |
me teacher gets some money and he |
mas helper about keeping the other
boys in order: and the one boy can't do !
any wrong because he is licensed.
B. c. JORDAN.