Year: 1874

In less than two months from this tim


the people of Ohio will be called upon t.


express themselves at the polls, as to tn,


adoption of the new Constitution anC


also for and against minority representa-


ton, railroad aid and license. 1t is with


the latter question, that in this place we


propose to deal Much difference O.


opinion exists, even among temperance


men, as to the adyisability of com batting


the License clause. Many men there


are who are bold to assert that the traffic


in Intoxicating liquors can only be con


trolled by a high license law. But &


careful consideration of the question will


show that this conclusion can be reached


only through fallacious reasoning. What


remedy wrong by acknowledging that


it is rightr Check an evil by legalizing


it? Put public morality up at auction,


and make the Goddess OF the Sword and
! Scales the auctioneer This is Just what


licensing the liquor traffic means We


shall oppose the license clause to the
bitter end, for two most excellent


reasons


The first is, because we believe such a
| provision to be pre-eminently wrong.


Intemperance is recognized the world


over as being a great evil, and as being
productive of more crime than all other


causes combined 1t is the cause every
year of 100000 people being imprisoned


for crime, while 10000 go down to


drunkard's graves, leaving 100000 beg


CARED orphans. All these cause the an


nual expenditure of $200,000000 in


money. There is not a saloon-keeper


nor drunkard in the land but what will
acknowledge the terrible results of this


terrible traffic, and yet sane, honest,


temperance men will advocate making
legal business like this: For this reason,
If for no other, we should oppose the
license clause; but there is another,
which, though perhaps not morally so
sound, is yet an excellent reason. The


license clause aoiU not diminish tie traffic in
6qator. True, it may close up some of the
smaller saloons, but they will do just
that much more business in the larger
ones. The license advocates tell US that
in consequence of the heavy tax the
saloon-keepers will have to pay, the re-
tail price of liquor will be higher. Then
we reply it will be that much worse for
the consumers family The drunkard
will have his regular supply of liquor, if
he has the money to buy it, should it
cost four-fold its present value. The only
result to the community the passage OF
the license clause would bring, would be
that the deluded victims would be worse
vlctimized than ever. Instead of paying
a profit of three hundred per cent on
their whisky, they would have to pay
fve-that would be all. The quantity of
liquor sold would remain the same. The
license question we regard, therefore, as
being gotten up solely in the interest of
the anti-Temperance cause, and as such |
1t does not become any genuine advocate |
of temperance to give it its support. 1t
is but a bait thrown out by them for |
luke-warm temperance men to bite at,
and at the present juncture there seems |
a probability that some of them will |
swallow the bait. Many temperance
men there are who claim that if they had
their way, prohibitory measures should
prevail, but support the license clause
because they deem it the only practicable
measure, and because popular opinion,
they assert, is opposed to anti-license. I
What makes popular opinion? 1t is but /
the expression of the will of the majority,
and if the entire temperance element
would but discard the idea that popular
opinion is against them and resolve to
stand, each upon their own ideas, there |
is no doubt but that the anti-license
clause would carry. There was time,
and that not a great many years ago,
when the Abolition party was apparently |
IN hopeless minority, and to all ap-
pearances seemed likely to remain so for
all time, but they were in the right and
they triumphed and triumphed so glo-
riously that there is now scarcely cor
porars guard of voters in the United
States but are glad that America is, in
fact as well as in word, the home of the
free. So it will be with the Temperance
cause. Let US be frm-make no con-
cessions to wrong-dare to do right, no
matter how the prospect may appear, J
and in the future, as in the past, the
right is bound to triumph.