The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-04-04

tion of any kind for a limitation law
 or for any excise legislation. Search
 the Republican and the Democratic
 platforms of the last campaign and
 see if there is in either any hint of
 legislation affecting our excise sys-
 tenn. Search the message of Cover
 nor Baldwin Ga man who stands TOT
 all that is best in right living and
 high personal cOnducD and see II
 there is in that document any word
 to indicate that he has discovered any
 need or public sentiment for a limi-
 tation law or other excise legislation.
 And surely a man of his eXtraoord1n-
 ary intellectual grasp, a man whose
 range of vision is comprehensive
 enough to take in everything from
 the need of a public utilities com
 mission to experimental legislation on
 the aviation subject might be expect
 ed to discover if there was any need
 or public sentiment in this State for
 such legislation. A man, too, who
 wasn't afraid to measure strength
 hardly lack courage to recommend
 such legislation did he find any need
 or any public sentiment for it! Let's
 look to the other side and note the
 magnificent address delivered in this
 capitoI a few weeks ago by U. $. Sen
 the echoes of which are still ringing
 throughout the Stale and bringing
 to it's author the praises or all who
 admire depth of thought, breadth of
 view and fecundity of expression. Is
 there in that remarkable pronounce
 ment any word to indicate that he
 discovered any public sentiment for q
 limitation law such as is here propos-
 ed? On the contrary, we find Sem
 ator Mclean deploring the overplus
 of legislation that marks the sessions
 of our various law-making bodies
 nd hXy ir11p T0 y~
 precision advocating let-up in this
 everlasting tinkering with existing
 laws. And to you and me and all
 of us who know Senator Mclean for
 a practical man, one who views hu-
 manity and human conditions as they
 are rather than as the advance agents
 of reform would have them to be, it
 is not a far jump to conclude that he
 had these excise tinkers distinctly in
 mind when he made his address
 Where then, may I ask, in view of all these things, do these gentlemen find the public sentiment that they assert lis back of them in their demand for a limitation law such as is here pro-
 posed? Where do they find the eN-
 cuse for asking your committee to the general assembly? Probably where I would find it did I stand up here and tell your committee that public sentiment in Connecticut de-
 mands that MT. Spooner over there or MT. Orr over here be hung. drawn
 and quartered, or that in the inter est of your peace Of mind and the peace of mind of the entire tegisla- ture both be sent on a six months excursion to Kalamazoo. They find it in their minds! Fortunately, how ever, the minds of your committee these men and the little band of re- formers behind them who like the
 three tailors of Tooley Street resolve that they are the people of Connectl- cut. No, Gentlemen, there is no considerable degree of public senti- ment in Connecticut for limitation law such as these reformers ask your committee to recOmmen unless we are willing to accept the ipse dixit of this little apostOlate of reform as constituting the public sentiment of this State; and in view of the large numbers of people and the consider able amounts of capital engaged ir 1 the liquor and beer trades and their allied industries for one am unwii- | ling to acknowledge such acceptance And now, Gentlemen of the Com mittee, is it true that reduction in | the number of drinking places in Con- | necticut will effect any reduction o1 drinking itself? In my Judgment | and in the light of the investigations | have made on the subject, I say Il i will not. If it were true that the | desire to drink is a result of the op- portunitieS offered for its qualification | then it would of course be true that
 a lessening of these opportunities | would correspondingly lessen the de- | sire to drink. Experience, however has shown that the desire to drink
 has no relation at all to the opportun. | ities that are afforded to drink, fol we find that the desire to drink ls l just as strong in the normal man whC l is not a total abstainer that lives ii | @ prohibition community, where the Oretically the opportunities for drink l ing are reduced to a minimum, as i l is in the normal man who is not z 1 total abStainer that lives in license | community. In other words, fewer 1 drinking places can have no effec | in decreasing mems desire to drinl
 or the total consumption of drink, fol | men who have the desire or the inc1i
 nation to drink will find in a smaller ! number of drinking places such op | portunity to satisfy their desire ol | inclination as would be afforded in I larger number of drinking places. l Eis possible, of course-indeed, it i! highly probable-that fewer drinkins | places in a community may make i 1 more incOnvenient for a man to sat | isfy his desire for drink: he may have l to go a little farther or to a little more trouble to secure his drink whe7 | he wants 1t: but even our prOhl lb1t1OI | friends will admit, in the light of ex | perience and in view of the United | States government statistics showing | the sales of liquor in our prohibition | communities, that he'll get his drinl
 when he wants it even if he does have
 to go a little farther or to a little more trouble to secure it. Men 1ik,
 John B. Cough and Francis Murphl and Father Matthew, who have tdont | more for the cause of temperance 1 than all the lawmaking and politica prohibitionists that ever spouted theil | geyser springs of gab, realized thi: ] fact: and their experienece taugh l them. as it has taught all men whose | interest in the temperance cause I! ! humanitarian rather than profes
 sional, that men can't be made tenn
 | perate through the enactment of law:
 or the wiping out of certain number | of saloons. Carrie Nation may pu
 an occasional saloon out of buslnes. | with her little hatchet. and the pro l hib1tlonlSts may cause an occasiona | tidal wave of drought to roll acros. | the face of America: but Carrie Ma tion never made a real convert tC | temperance, and the most successful prohibitionists never make a dent il ] the total consumption of drink I | is unfortunately true that we haze | no great amount of statistical dats | bearing on the relative consumption | of drink in our American communi ties as these are affected by 1imita- l ton or nOn-limitation of drinking pla.
 ces, but we have wonderfully il. | Illuminating illustration on this very | point in the findings of the StatiStica 1 Bureau of Switzerland after an in. | veStigation conducted under the au.