Year: 1874

BOSTON, June q, 1874.


To the House of Representatives:


GENTLEMEN: :- The history of the
struggle with the evils of intemperamce
is most instructive. The earliest at
tempts to check the Use Of intoxicating
liquors were in the direction of license
and regulation. These attempts contin-
ued in the commonwealth for more than
two hundred years, with Il constantly
increasing Stringency, which can only be
explained on the ground that mild
measures were found TO be insufficient;
until 1856 the experiment was determin-
ed upon of adopting prohibition as the
only logical and effective method of
dealing with the matter. Without as
serting that this has proved so success
full i'll overcoming the evils it aimed to
remedy, as was hoped by those who ini-
tiated and those who sustain the pro-
hibitOry policy, am fully of the opinion
that more progress has been made
toward the desired end than was ever
before made in the same period under
any other system.


In considering what has been accom-
plished, we must recognize the great
changes that have taken place since this
system was inaugurated. Our rural
districts have undergone a gradual de
population, and large numbers of our
young men have becomed maSSed in cit
les, away from the restraints of home;
we have been subjected to the demoral-
izing influences inseparable from civil
war long continued and the necessity of
pressure of business has forced us into Il
feverishness or restle: sless of life that
rapidly wears and wastes Exactly what
the effect on public morality would have
been, had the sale of intoxicating liq-
uors, especially in our cities, been free
and open under color of law, during the
past sixteen or eighteen years, no one
can assume with positiveness to declare;
but am quite confident that no com
monwealth in which the license system
has prevailed, can point to nObler rec
ords or achievements in material inter
ests. intellectual pursuits, or moral
reforms, and equally certail that We
could not have made greater progress in
any good direction under law promo
tive OF the traffic i'll intoxicating liquors.


So far as attempts have been made to
compromise the two systems of prolIibi-
ton and license by legal zing sales thrO'
druggists and town agents or by permit
ting the unrestricted sale of malt liquors
and light intOXicants, the result has been
unsatisfactory. Abuse of the grossest
character We're found to creep in at once
where any privileges were granted, and
subsequent l. 81 : "a ture have been
obliged to epeal what seemed to be on
the passage most carefully guarded en-
actmentS of restrictive character.
Compromise in this regard, that shall not
be abused in the most ilagrant manner
all experiences with which am familiar
proves to be an inpOsibility. If intem-
perance is not our ineXorable doom, if
the poverty and wretchedness and crime
brought on by the Use of intoxicating
LIQUORS are not our inevitable heritage,
what can we do better than to set our
selves in unyielding opposition to the
traffic which promotes it:


| am aware that il Is said intemper-
ance increases under our prOhibitory law
that the sale of intONicantS is as great
as it would be under the license law.
But ! call your attention to the absence
here of the Haunting and attractive bar
rooms that spread their Snares to capture
the thoughtless and easily tempted in
cities where license prevails; to the con
stantly growing sense of disfavor with
which the liquor traffic is regarded by
the country generally. and TO the pow
erful, systematic and unrelenting activity
of those interested in it to break down
the law, and the officers who try to en-
force it. Here iS evidence that the stat
ute does impose an effective and Grip
pling restraint, from which relief i
sought in the elastic and easily evolved
providence Of lic,n,e. Even if some
sincere friends of intemperance prefer Il
stringent license law TO IL prohibitOry
system, there can be no denial that the
men who have money and business at
stake in this contest, are the most ar
dent and urgent advocates of license.
and cannot doubt that they understand
themselves, and calculate shrewdly the
advantage they will gain.


It Is easy To mistake the clamor OF in
terest ad parties for the voice Of the peo-
pie.


When | seek to ascertain what the
latter really i. | recall that license law,
elaborated with so much care III 1865,
was permitted TO remain on the statute
books only till the people could next be
heard. at the ballot box. With the sin
gle exception that public bars are pro-
hibited. the measure now under cOnsid-
r.
and i'll soITe respects less stringent than
it was. The notorious evasionS of the
law. and the open way i'll which all in
toXicants We're then sold-under the pro-
lection of the innkeeper's and victualer's
licenses. demonstrated the pOwerlesSnesS
of such enactInents to protect the com
munity against the evils of intemper-
ance. And the pending bill seems TO me
simply prohibitory measure with eX-
ceptions that totally destroy its moral
force as an instrument for the promotion
of temperance and the well being of our
people.


Ii Is objected TO our present liquor
law that the enforcement of it Is irregu-
lar and unequal. Admitting this TO be
true, for the sake of argument, what as
surance have we that a license law
would be more thoroughly enforced.
Are the penalties imposed any more Sc
verel Are the penalties any greater in
centiveS TO officers or citizens to do their
duty, The prohibitOry legislation Of
1856 had its origin in the deep-sertled