The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser., 1916-03-24
Friday, March "A. 1916
A TEMPERANCE VICTORY.

hostile to legislation on the sub
ject of eliminating the liquor
traffic.
That DR.. Hare, the executive
head of the Prohibition party
should be disappointed at not
having secured the passage of a
Prohibition law is not surprising,
but we believe this will prove
to be one of the many, instances
where the practical man is a
wiser legislator than is the
theorist. In other words, DR..
Hare, thoroughly convinced Of
the evils Of intemperance, says,
Let us make all our citizens
temperate by law, whether they
would or would not be- the
legislator on the other hand says,
Let us make it possible for
each unit of government to abol-
ish by law the sale of alcoholic
stimulants as fast as the major
ity of its citizens are ready to do
So"
This is the foundation of all
legislation in a free, representa-
tive government, and any laws
forced on to a people by a minor
ity are conceived in injustice,
and are a guaranteed failure in
their enforcement. Most of all
this is true in the case of prohib-
ition laws, as their history univer-
sally proves when majority of
citizens are opposed to them
they are defantly broken; when
majority favor them they are
efficiently enforced and general
ly obeyed.
The salient features of the
bill as passed are;
(a) All dry" territories are
eliminated from its provisions
and these temperance people
may bend their energies towards
bringing into the fold existing
wet" territory; this makes i'm
possible any steps backwards.
(b) wet" units must
vote on the subject next Novem-
Der. It has happened in the
past that in certain sections
many voters were anxious to do
this but were not given the
legal right to do so, hence this
Is an important step forward for
the "drys'' and eliminates all
charges Of gag law. If a ma
jority votes dry" the law will
become operative eighteen
months later, giving those run
ming saloons a chance to dispose
OF their stock and put their real
estate to other purposes, in
stead of working practical con-
fiscation by making the law
effective at once. This is abso-
lutely fair; it never has been
and never will be the policy of
our government to practically
confiscate private property. If
on the other hand the ''wets"
carry the election few will fail
to agree that these people are
not yet ready for prohibition,
and it will be the duty of tenn
perance advocates to concentrate
their energies at this point so
that at an early day the rapidly
increasing ranks of temperance
voters may be in the majority.
(c) That manufacturers in
an existing wet" section which
may show a dry" majority may
continue to manufacture but
must not sell in dry" territory
is both fair and expedient, y
fair because their large plants
will not at once become dead
property on their hands and
their product can go only to that
retail public which has the legal
right to buy; and expedient be-
cause under these circumstances
many electors in such a section
will vote dry" who otherwise
would be unwilling to help con-
tiscate so much valuable private
property. No fear need be en-
tertained that such plants may
engage in illicit retail business:
the strong hand of the General
Governmer.t IS a controlling pow
er over every branch of the busi-
ness, and a retail business would
not under any circumstances be
possible. The requirement that
no new factories may be started
in such territories will gradually
weed them all out, especially
as the business, in response to
modern temperance sentiment in
the South which was formerly
the chief customer for Maryland
whiskey, is rapidly growing un-
profitable. We believe that un-
der this provision of law Balti-
more cOlntv whore most of tho