PROHIBITION. 



portions of the State, the Maine law has sup- 

 pressed open drinking, and reduced secret 

 drinking to a minimum, and may, therefore, be 

 considered as effective as any other measure 

 on the statute-book ; that the class of liquor- 

 sellers who defy the law are the same class 

 of men who, under a license system, would sell 

 liquor without license." 



Constitutionality. The constitutionality of pro- 

 hibition has been repeatedly considered by the 

 courts. In January, 1847, the cases of Thur- 

 >w vs. Massachusetts, Fletcher vs. Rhode Isl- 

 id, and Pierce vs. New Hampshire came up 

 >r hearing before the United States Supreme 

 >ench. In these cases license had been denied, 

 id the decision covered two points the ex- 

 mt to which licenses might be conceded, and 

 le right to prohibit unlicensed sale. Chief- 

 Fustice Taney, in delivering judgment, said: 

 Although a State is bound to receive and per- 

 mit the sale, by the importer, of any article of 

 merchandise which Congress authorizes to be 

 imported, it is not bound to furnish a market 

 for it, nor to abstain from the passage of any 

 law which it may deem necessary or advisable 

 to guard the health or morals of its citizens, 

 although such law may discourage importa- 

 tion, or diminish the profits of the importer, 

 or lessen the revenue of the Government. And 

 if any State deem the retail and internal traffic 

 ardent spirits injurious to citizens, and cal- 

 sulated to produce idleness, vice, or debauch- 

 ry, I see nothing in the Constitution of the 

 Tnited States to prevent it from regulating and 

 jstraining the traffic, or from prohibiting it 

 altogether if it thinks proper." Justice McLean 

 concurred, saying that " in the exercise of that 

 reat and comprehensive police power which 

 ies at the foundation of its prosperity " the 

 State may "prohibit the .sale," and u every- 

 ling prejudicial to the health or morals of a 

 city may be removed." Justice Grier said, 

 " Police laws for the prevention of crime and 

 protection of public welfare must of necessity 

 have full and free operation, according to the 

 exigency that requires their interference." 

 Said Justice Catron, also concurring, " I ad- 

 mit, as inevitable, that if the State has the pow- 

 er of restraint by license to any extent, she has 

 the discretionary power to judge of its limit, 

 and may go the length of prohibiting it alto- 

 gether." 



The State courts which have declared uncon- 

 stitutional the prohibitory laws passed on by 

 them, have done so, without exception, on some 

 technical ground and not as regards the prin- 

 ciple. In Kansas a plea was made that the 

 amendment contravened the fourteenth amend- 

 ment to the Constitution of the United States, 

 which provided that no State should pass any 

 law which would abridge the privileges and 

 immunities of citizens of the United States; 

 but the Supreme Court decided otherwise. 



In Foreign Countries. In Great Britain, pro- 

 hibition has made considerable progress. Sales 

 without license are punishable by fine or im- 



prisonment ; and all licensed places, in the 

 metropolitan district of England, must be 

 closed from midnight on Saturday until 1 p. M. 

 Sunday, and from 3 till 6 that afternoon, then 

 from 11 at night until 5 A.M. Monday. 



Ireland has a similar Sunday-closing law, 

 which first took effect in 1878, save in the 

 cities of Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Belfast, and 

 Limerick ; yet, notwithstanding these are great 

 centers of population, the law reduced by $15,- 

 000,000 per annum, for four years, the con- 

 sumption of beer and spirits; and, contrjj.-tin^ 

 1877 with 1882, there was a diminution in the 

 arrests for drunkenness, throughout Ireland, 

 of over 20,000. 



In the Dominion of Canada, under the act 

 of 1878, every county or city may petition the 

 Secretary of State, and have a vote of the 

 electors taken as to whether the liquor-traffic 

 shall be prohibited or not, and if the major- 

 ity favors prohibition it must stand until that 

 vote has been repealed. In Ontario all licensed 

 places must be closed from 7 P. M. Saturday till 

 6 A. M. Monday ; and the council of any mu- 

 nicipality may pass a local prohibitory by-law, 

 or thirty electors may propose such a by-law, 

 and demand a poll to determine its adoption. 



Sweden started a temperance movement in 

 1835, which resulted in the Gothenburg plan 

 of license, in 1853, whereby every individual 

 is prohibited from deriving any private gain 

 from the sale of spirits, or having any interest 

 in extending their consumption. Licenses are 

 sold by auction to a company organized for the 

 purpose, which pays over the profits of all sales 

 to the town or provincial treasuries to apply in 

 reduction of taxes. In ten years, it is claimed, 

 this system reduced drunkenness 40 per cent 

 By a permissive bill, also in operation now in 

 Sweden, the local authorities may prohibit the 

 traffic altogether. 



Russia has the Gothenburg plan for the na- 

 tion at large, and limits the traffic to one dealer 

 in each village, with privileges equally restrict- 

 ed ; while any commune can enforce total pro- 

 hibition at pleasure. 



Several towns and counties in Great Britain 

 maintain prohibition. Saltaire has not had 

 a drinking-place in many years. Bessbrook, 

 Ireland, has 4,000 inhabitants, with no poor- 

 house, no pawn-shop, no police-station. In 

 Tyrone county, Ireland, there are 61 square 

 miles of land and 10,000 people, without a pub- 

 lic-house or (in 1870) a policeman. In 1,456 

 parishes in the province of Canterbury, con- 

 taining over 230,000 inhabitants, and- in 80 in 

 the province of York, no public-house or beer- 

 shop is permitted. On numerous private estates 

 prohibition prevails ; and there are large areas 

 in the new portions of Liverpool and London 

 where, by title-deed provisions, the sale of 

 liquor is forever prohibited. One of these 

 tracts, in the south of Liverpool, is one and a 

 half by two miles in extent, and has 50,000 

 people. The annual death-rate ranges there 

 between 10 and 12 per 1,000, while Liverpool, 



