Year: 1879

Attention and our poople dTe seTiouoiy
looking for the causes and then asking
what can be done to check the carnival
oflcrime. Naturally enough, as the liquor
traffi, has the blame of being the cause
of nine.tenths OF the crime that is COM
mittsd, it is one OF the first things
thought of, and most of our people will
ask why are not the liquor laws more
rigidly enforced =! They very naturally
suppose that the liquor laws are made
for the suppress sioa of crime, and there
fore the enforcement of them should,
ifnot entirely oblteratethe evils flowing
from the traffic, at least mitigate them.
There is where the great mistake is
male, in our opinion. The laws are
not made to suppress crime, they are
made t, raise revenue for the State
with which to carry on the Government.
A part Of the money raised from Ii
censing the liquor traffic is paid into
ths school fuld of the State, and is
used for the education of our children.
In all the recent legislation on the liq-
nor traffic, the greatest care has been
exerci sed that the State revenue shall
not be interferred with, and whether
there were many or few licenses granted
the object was to raise a certain amount
of money from such indulgences for
State purposes. Every effort made
by the people to secure pro-
hibitory legislation for any part of
the State even by the mild form of To-
cal option, has been determinedly op-
posed by those who make the laws and
in this opposition they are most un-
doubtedly supported by large major
ity of the people of the State. That
the present license laws are worthless
for the suppression of crime there can


be no doubt, and in this they are just


as they were intended to be. When
ever the people can get it into their
heads that the liquor law is only rev.
enue law then they will begin to see
the true point. The results of the law
show that it was never intended for a
moral law, or else license would not BE-
given to many who are set aside by the
State to deal out Intoxicating liquors.


A glance at the list of applications
granted and refused reveals the fact
that many of those refused are moral


ly better if there i such a thing as
morals in the liquor traffic, than those
to whom license are granted. The fat
is that there is such an utter incOnsist-
ency in the liquor license laws that it
is scarceIy Iy considered crime by many
to vic ate them, and this is why there
ar. so many unlicensed saloons about
the city of Wilmington. The law sin


giles out an s,le5t5 some person whom
it lie ms to possess the requisite quail.
fica:ions for carrying on the traffic,
whil- ere are hundreds and thousands
of persons who ara ptorily de,
ME the tme privilege. II a law were
to be pa Sc the tenets of which re-


suited in constituting three or four per.
sons and no others, the sole persons in
the city to sell dry gool5, groceries, or
hats, or to build houses or to manufac-
ture cirriages, lrs, morocco, leather


to build ships, or to carry on any other
industry, the people would feel insul-
ted AMI outraged, and would demand
the immediate repeal of such law, and
if they wele not repealed the people
would consider it NJ crime whatever to
violats such inconsistent and un just
laws. Yet Just such law is the pres
ent license law. Some forty or fifty
places in the city are thus licensed to
wholesale and retail all the intoxica-
ting liquors that are deemed necessary
for the people Of Wilmington, while ali
the others are refused, or rather bar
rier is p!acel in the way of them en-
tering into the traffic. Some two or
three hundred disregarding such a law
are selling liquor without the sanction
of law, but with the indulgence of the
STATE. Many good, we'll meaning peo


pie, who have the mistaken idea that
the license laws are temperance laws,
and that they have in view the sup
preston of crime, will no doubt ask
what is to b. done under these circum-
stances 1t is not for us to say what
i to be done, but we have an idea Of
what would be right and proper in the
case, and in this opinion we tlatter our
selves that We will b. supported by a
large majority of our citizens. Our
idea is that the liquor traffic should
stand upon its own basis, the same as
the traffic in any other merchantabl-
article, without any special State law
for its protection. Any other law than
this we have no doubt would b. de-
clared unconstitutional upon an appeal
to the Supreme Court OF the United


States. As long as Intoxicating liquors
are IN .rchantable articles to BE- bartered


and sold for the benefit of thu people,