SUMPTUARY LAWS AND THEIR SOCIAL INFLUENCE. 37 



taken that not only was the individual to be benefited, but that 

 society as a whole was to be improved. Prohibitory laws relative 

 to the manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors which have been 

 enacted in this country in our own times are based upon this 

 assumption, but the arguments that have been used by those ad- 

 vocating such laws show that this is not the only motive by 

 which they are governed. It has been and still is repeatedly 

 asserted in the speeches and writings of these people that those 

 who indulge in alcoholic liquors or in the use of tobacco spend 

 money which could otherwise be more profitably used, and that 

 indulgence in the habit of drinking or smoking directly conduces 

 to idleness and luxurious habits. These assertions are probably 

 true, and the laws against which the practices in question are 

 directed are essentially sumptuary laws. 



The laws which several States have enacted relative to the 

 manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors are true sumptuary laws, 

 notwithstanding the fact that it is claimed by their adherents that 

 they are measures which every independent State having a regard 

 for the welfare of society is in duty bound to enforce. On that 

 ground there are many other acknowledged evils against which 

 the law-making power might very properly direct its energies, 

 and which would interfere scarcely less with personal rights. One 

 chief difficulty with such laws is that if thoroughly enforced, they 

 do harm to those who never under any circumstances drink intoxi- 

 cating liquors to excess, and yet who are benefited by their mod- 

 erate use. As a matter of fact they never are enforced equally 

 upon all classes of the community. In the most severe of all the 

 States it is perfectly practicable for any person with pecuniary 

 means to import as much alcoholic liquor for his own use and 

 that of his family and friends as he chooses. The poor man, to 

 whom a glass of beer or of wine taken decently and in order 

 might not only do no harm, but might supply a positive want of 

 his system, has to go without, or else resort to all kinds of deceit 

 and subterfuge to get what he wants. States exceed their legiti- 

 mate powers when they undertake to prevent a person doing that 

 which is beneficial to him, and which does no harm to any one 

 else. Moreover, as I have already said, such laws, being in this 

 age of the world impossible of enforcement, tend to bring all law 

 into contempt. It is not necessary for me to go into detail on 

 this point ; every one who hears me knows how the prohibitory 

 liquor laws of the various States that have passed them are dis- 

 regarded and ridiculed. Every now and then we hear of some 

 instance where an offender is arrested and punished, but for every 

 one brought before the courts a thousand go unnoticed. In the 

 States of Maine, Vermont, and Rhode Island I know from my own 

 personal experience that, notwithstanding the stringent liquor 



