| Show WORKINGS WORKING soe OP TELE THE MAINE liquor LAW IN 7 by the eighty sixth chapter of the general statutes of massachusetts it is provided that persons shall be imprisoned in ned in the house ouse of correction for selli selling n g cider malt liquors or wines the expediency and rightfulness as well as the good resulting from the workings of this enactment being questioned a special committee was appointed in the legislature of that state to consider the expediency of licensing the sale of intoxicating drinks which committee reported on the the committee state that the inquiries lead to a possible change of policy by the state and in order to ascertain as fully as practicable the working of f the present law witnesses asere examined from all parts of the stute the first question proposed was are spirituous or fermented liquors drunk by the people of your neighborhood and if so to what extent and how generally when when compared a r ed with the time immediately preceding ced eed ing the enactment of the first prohibitory hibi tory law and with previous times I 1 the answer to this was that what was called the cause of intemperance was on the decline in all parts of the state many of the gentlemen who testified had been connected with the temperance reform from its inception and were able to trace in their own experience peri per ence the progress of public sentiment men t their testimony was that the culmination of the temperance excitement was between 1845 and 1850 when a large majority of the people sufficient to control elections and public pu me opinion had sanctioned and adopted the theory of total abstinence the committee quote from a large number of witnesses and the following is the substance of the testimony on this point intoxicating drinks are freely sold old oid in every city and largo town in the state in most of them without any attempt at concealment and in soine boine some with considerable ostentation in some smaller towns and in one or two clusters of small towns none is known to bo be sold but in these cases such inhabitants as choose to drink can be freely supplied from the shops in some larger town within easy distance in the greater number of towns the statement is no doubt true that it is easier for a stranger to get a glass of spirits than a glass of milk in most farming towns however the traffic is disreputable and private I 1 in no city town or cluster of towns w with the exception of spencer and its neighborhood n e I 1 agh I 1 Ibo and arid perhaps one other town in worcester county is the tile sale of intoxicating drinks more restrained or prohibited than it was before the passage of the prohibitory law of 1859 1852 in most of them the sale has decidedly increased since that time the committee next propounded the inquiry why is not the law invoked to suppress this traffic and if invoked why is it not more successful the testimony of the district attorneys summoned upon this point is that in practice all the cases are tried under what is called the nuisance act the penalties being less and proof easier there has also aiso been a dilli difficulty culty with uri juries url es which has been felt in all the coun counties t les leg but more particularly in boston and has contributed to prevent the enforcement of the law there is an indisposition on the part of all juries to convict respectable people and when convictions do occur pr prominent i onlin ent citizens interfere and the tho penalty is not enforced the mayor of springfield said in the course of his testimony I 1 1 I made special efforts to suppress the sale of liquors under the law they were a mixture of success and failure I 1 stopped sunday sales and public sales on week days but f I 1 dont think there was much less sold when I 1 ceased to be mayor than when I 1 began the substance of the testimony on this part of the inquiry is that while there are difficulties in in tile tile enforcement of the law both from juries and witnesses witness esthe the greatest difficulty is from a want of operation cooperation co by the people the people though not content with success so imperfect and necessarily become more so accept it and make no persistent effort to improve the condition of things they are much more attached to the law than to the enforcement of it and BO so long aa as matters continue in this way not only are their efforts to aid the officers intermittent and weak but they constantly embarrass these officers by interfering in favor of the crimi criminals pals pais in what am are represented represent ea as hard cases of penitent offenders which after they get to court such persons commonly are after summing up the general arguments against a prohibitory law and against allowing a law to remain on the statute book which can not be enforced or which is opposed to the convictions of a large ina inn majority maio malo j rity of the community a majority of ace the legislative committee state their final conclusions as follows that a license law is expedient and i that the sale of wine beer and malt liquors should not be punished by imprisonment pris ament in the house of correction they vh ca report no bill because they believe that none is expedient or desired the law which they recommend is one of strict regulation merely limiting the number of persons licensed and enforcing its provisions by heavy pecuniary penalties upon unlicensed st sales ales they would reserve to the cities and towns the right within their jurisdictions to refuse tk to grant licenses if in their opinion not demanded by the public good such a lav law properly applied would as they hope essentially improve the condition of the cities and large towns and would place the rural districts where they were in 1852 mr allen alien one of the committee assents to the report except as to its recommending comin ending a license law depre he prefers fers retaining the present prohibitory y I 1 law lav aw with the change of the penalties for the sale of fermented liquors from imprisonment to fine A minority of the committee present a supplementary report in which they give their reas reasons n s for ass Iss dissenting assenting enting from the views and lon con conclusions clu of the tile majority they say that the present law is well executed except in the cities and that it can be executed there that the policy of the state is a against alast licensing an evil and that no exigency has been shown for a change of that policy they therefore report that it is expedient to license the tiye sale of intoxicating drinks philadelphia age all things is slow to anger and on his hia grave is written I 1 4 he went about doing good in these three things are the great elements of human health the restraint of the appetites the control of the passions and that highest type of physical exercise going about doing good it is saiu said of ne the eminent quaker philanthropist joseph john gurney that hat the ib e labor and pains h he e took to go and isee see personally the objects of his contemplated charities so that none of them should be unworthily bestowed was of itself almost the labor of one man and he attended to hi his s immense banking business besides in fact f let lct he did too much and died at sixty the average length of human life of all countries at this age of the world is about twenty eight years one quarter of all who die do not reach the age of seven one half die before reaching sen benteen ben se Anteen teen and yet the average of life of ni friends ends in great britain and ireland 1860 was nearly fifty six years just double the average life of other people surely this is a strong stron g inducement i for all to practice for the themselves m selves and to inculcate it upon their children day by day that simplicity of habit that quietness of demeanor that restraint of temper that control of the tile appetites and propensities and that orderly systematic and even mode of life which friends friends discipline inculcates and which are demonstrably the means of so largely increasing cheaver the average of human existence I 1 reasoning from the analogy of the animal creation mankind should live nearly a hundred years that law seeming to bd be that life should be five nive times the length of the period of grow growth thil at least the general observation is t that at th the longer persons are growing the longer they live other things being equal naturalists Natura lists say A dog grows mor tor 2 years and livest 8 an ox 4 16 A horse 5 25 A camel 8 10 40 man 20 should llva live but the sad fact is that only one mail man for every thousand reaches one hundred years still it is encouraging to know that the science of life as revealed by the investigations of the physiologists and the teachings of educated medical men is steadily extending the period of human existence the distinguished historian macaulay states that in 1685 one person in awen twenty ty died each year in 1850 out of forty persons only one died dupin says that from 1776 to 1843 the duration of life in france increased fifty two days annually for in 1781 1181 the mortality was one in twenty nine in 1843 one in forty the rich men in france live forty two years on an average the poor only thirty those who are well to do in the world live about eleven years longer than those who have to work from day to day for a living remunerative munera tive labor and the diffusion dif dlf lusion ruslon of the knowledge of the laws of life among the masses with temperance and thrift are the great means of adding to human health and life but the more important ingredient ingred lent happiness is is only to be found in daily loving obeying and serving him who us all things richly to enjoy I 1 halas its journal of health |
