Norwich bulletin., 1914-04-02
ARGUES THAT LICENSE
 SYSTEM IS ILLOGICAL
Rev. C. H. Ricketts Speaks on Liquor
 Question at Shop Meeting.

Rev. c. H. Ricketts addressed the '. NJ C. A. shop meeting Wednesday held at the Richmond Radiator com pany. Mrs. l.. Q. Potter sang several well rendered solos, accompanied by Miss Letitia Kramer. Rev. Mir. Rick etts spoke on Why the Sale of Liquor Should be Prohibited, and in part said:
 In my talk a week ago little more was done than to introduce a vast subject. The liquir question is one of such proportions. and is so far reaching in it's influence that one can touch the circumference only in a short speech. When we remember that this question has claimed the at tention of some of the keenest minds the country has produced in the last 50 years, that every one of our state legislatures has delt with one or more phases of the problems that pull pit, platform and editorial chair have devoted much thought and space to the discussion, some idea may be gained of it's size and importance.
 Now the law of protection furnishes a powerful argument against the rum traffic and every other baneful influ- ence. The foundation of this argu- ment is grounded in nature whose first law is that of self preservation. The defenses built up around every bodily organ show this to be true. If a man is attacked by the beasts and reptiles of the fields. he will instinc- lively defend himself. Now if the ar gument presented last week is valid. that alcohol is harmful to the body in health and strength, then it is just as natural for a man to defend himself from it. as from wolves and rattle snakes. Someone will say that wolves and rattlesnakes strike their fangs in- to human flesh because they want to- but man drinks rum because he wants to. Very likely at first, but not at length. Some are born with an inherited taste for liquor, while others have not enough strength of win to resist 1t. Where nature does not furnish man with defensive ar nor the state ought to make up the lack. And that means it ought to pro- hibit the dram shops.
 Why Not Protect Ourselves.
 We protect the individual from other harms, why not from rum? If a man is caught on the streets selling vile pictures to the boys and girls we run him in. Everybody is satisfied because our youth must be protected. IT a man, drunk or crazy, brandisheS revolver on the streets or sIashes the air with a razor, he is at once ar rested as a nuisance to human life If an individual was known to sell opium, cocaine. vodka. it would be looked upon as criminal. for the same reason. At agricultural fairs some times fakirs slip in with their gamb- ling devices. If detected they are quietly told to slip out. The raw lad must be protected. It is doubtless true that these things: vile pictures revolvers, razors. opium, cocaine. CO., rosive sublimate and gambling have slain their thousands, but rum has slain it's tens of thousands Why. then, don't we run in the man who sells rum?
 It is generally recognized that the state as well as the individual has a right to protect itself. The state has the right to override the will of the individual. Through it's laws the state says thou shalt or 'thou shalt not" Its decrees are ultima tums. It can draft men into it's ser vice for the purposes of protection when by so doing it may mean sure death to the individual. The greatest enemy to the state is rum-this state acknowledges in her laws against drunkenness. Why then should she permit community to sell what she condemns as wrong for an individual to drink?
 License System illogical.
 The license system is illogical from beginning to end. If rum selling is right why penalize the rum seller by extorting from him a big license fee? That is exactly what the license svs- tenn does. It tells a man he may rol- low certain trade and then punishes him for doing it. We don't treat oth- CT tradesmen in that way. The H- cense system is a self confession of a nefarious business. The argument for the liquor trade is that some men want to drink, others, engaged in the business. want to have them hence let us go on destroying individuals and