REV. WM. BANCROFT HILL. 25 



be altogether unreniunerative ; but the returns are not 

 great enough to make it a favorite investment. Persons 

 interested in the manufacture of liquor are forbidden 

 holding stock in the company ; and no single individual 

 is allowed to own niuie than a fixed small number of 

 shares. Thus it cuts the taproot of the liquor evil, the 

 love of money. Poliiics can enter only at two points : 

 first, when the question of adopting the system is before 

 the public. Then undoubtedly the saloon will exert 

 itself in combination with some party to prevent the 

 measure. But a community, not strong enough to carry 

 local option, may be able to carry this less advanced 

 measure. The temperance sentiment of most towns is 

 stronger than any party combination, provided it is 

 called upon to support a measure which really seems 

 practicable and efficient. Politics again may enter into 

 the question of the distribution of the profits. But if 

 t he law distinctly specifies in advance the method of their 

 distribution, and if the accounts of the company are 

 always open to public inspection, this danger may be 

 avoided. 



It is easy to raise objections to any measure, for no 

 measure can escape all difficulties or be carried out with- 

 out watchfulness and eflfort. Certain persons will say 

 that this legalizes and makes respectable a nefarious 

 business. They might as well say that nailing up a 

 notice from the board of health on the door of a typhus 

 stricken house and prescribing who shall enter it, makes 

 fever legal. Law does not create the right to sell liquor, 

 for without a law every man has that right ; the purpose 

 of law is to restrict it as far as possible. There is, 

 moreov.,f, this vital difference between a license under 

 the old system and under the Norwegian : the old system 

 said, "You may sell all the liquor you can" ; the Nor- 

 wegian sj^stem says, " You must sell as little as possi- 

 ble." One is a license for revenue ; the other a license 



