The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-04-02
LIMITATION BILL HEARING
PROvOKES LIVELY DISCUSSION
Attorney B. Klein Of This City Makes Telling Argument Be-
fore Excise Committee Says revolutionary Measures
Do Not Decrease IntempeTance

| more from too much gOVernm ent
from too much authority than from
too little. To abstain or not to alb
| stain from the use of alcoholic bever-
! ages is the right and duty of the in
| divtdual. 1t is not within the province
| of the civil authority to exercise its
| choice for the Individual. The great
virtues of moderation, which Pagan
| writers and Christian moralists have
placed at the apex of human good
ness, is a generic, not solitary vir-
! tue. 1t is the quality which distin-
| cuisines virtue from vice, and good
| ness from evil. Let US look to the
| state for the protection we need and
| to the individual for the goodness and
| honor due from him to others
F. w. Orr, of New Haven speaking
in rebutta1 after the advocates of the
measure had spoken at length, made
the following telling speech:
Il supposed when I same to this
hearing that we would be obliged to
combat arguments based upon facts
and figures. I am sorry to say to the
gentlemen of the Committee that there
were so few of this kind of arguments
presented here this afternoon that
there don't seem to be very much to
upon sentimentality on the one hand,
and statements based upon apparent
ly many things not facts.
There have been two main points
which our prohibition friends, our tenn
perance friends, a few good business
men have brought out in their discus
sion upon thds measure. They say,
in short, that the linita ton of saloons
according to the bill before you will
be the means of less drunkenness, it
will be the means of less consumption
to the people of this State of alcohol
ic bevera ges, and yet I don't recall
one gentleman who spoke in that vein.
having submitted to your Committee
any figures to substantiate that state
ment. AS has been inferred by re-
marks of gentlemen who have spoken
to you on this bill we are not here in
opposition to this bill because we fear
that there will be less liquor sold in
the State of Connecticut, because ev-
cry figure upon every fair statement
of facts, in every part of this coun-
try, even in prohibition communities
shows, beyond any question of doubt,
that the Limitation of saolons or the
entire wiping out of saloons has not
brought about less consumption of al
coholic beverages.
What astonishes me more than any
thing else that has occurred in this
meeting, is to sit here and listen to
C1eaveland whom I honor and respect
discuss this proposition, almost en-
tirely on sentimental grounds. I be-
Ieve he is one of that kind of men,
if he thought for a minute that this
bill might be the means of fnjuring
the young manhood and young wo-
manhood, more than it is injured I'M
der the present excise condition, be-
lieve he would be in opposition to this
bill also.
ct am going to try to show you by
figures and facts that in place of this
bill bringing about the conditions they
hope for, it will have the opposite eff
feet and bring about more dangerous
conditions than those now existing.
am going to quote the words Of the
United States Commissioner of the In
terna1 Revenue taken from his reports
of the years 1910 and 1911, and I am
going to take you back to that sun
ny land where the good people had
the same idea which many of you have
here now, that prohibition would wipe
out the evils of drink, am going to
ask you to listen to what he says
about, Alabama and Tennessee: All
of my forces avai1a bic for raiding have
been used during the year in detect
ing Illicit distilling,' will you please
mark the words which am about to-
steadily, especially so in those States
where statewide prohibitory laws
have been enacted. Does that show
whether or not the wiping out of sa-
looms did anything toward 1essening
the consumption of liquor? On page
1911, showing the Illicit distiI1eries
seized and destroyed from July 1, 1910
to June 80, 1911, by states and terri
tories, we find that in Tennessee there
were one hundred and fourteen, Geoa'-
gia, nine hundred and one, North Car
DINA, four hundred and forty, making
a total Of one thousand four hundred
and ffty-four in these prohibition
states or more than half of the two
thousand four hundred and eighty
eight seized and destroyed in the en-
tire country in the same period Does
1t need any further evidence to bring |
to the minds of this Committee or any
fair minded man, the fact that you
cannot possibly do away with the pro-
duction and consumption of alcohol
ic beverages
Some men come to meetings and
abuse the saloonkeepers because they
are in the business now they have
come here and abused the brewers be-
cause the brewers have made some
money, now they abuse the wholesale |
dealers because they have made some |
money in a legitimate line of bust |
ness, the State of Connecticut has
made it SO, and there would be no |
there would be no brew
er, if the People of the State of Con-
necticut would not require the pro-
ducts which they are dispensing to
the people who are asking for them
and yet they say there is a great de-
mand for this law, the people all over
the State, they say the best people,
It is such thing There has not
upon the floor of this house
to-day nor did there appear two years
four years six years ago a single
Committee appointed by a single
Board of Trade or by a Chamber of
Commerce or any large business in
situations from a single town, city or
state, asking this Committee Or SINH
ar Committees of other years, to en-
act this law.
ct think very kindly of Brother
Spooner, I know he believes in his
work and I don't believe there is a
single temperance body in the entire
country who has a more active work
er for his cause than Mr.. Spooner, and
read that little pamphlet, and L re-
sall in that little pamphlet nearly two
years ago a little remark, Now let us