TJie Liquor Question. 



1G3 



"If the public safety or the public morals require the discon- 

 tinuance of any manufacture or traffic, the hand of the Legislature 

 cannot be stayed from providing for its discontinuance by any inci- 

 dental inconvenience which individuals or corporations may suffer. 

 The State having authority to prohibit the manufacture and sale 

 of intoxicating liquors for other than medical, scientific and mechani- 

 cal purposes, we do not doubt her power to declare that any place kept 

 and maintained for the illegal manufacture and sale of such liquors, 

 shall be deemed a common nuisance, and be abated, and, at the same 

 time, to provide for the indictment and trial of the "offender." 



It would be an easy matter to multiply authorities, but I fear that 

 I have already trespassed too much upon your time, in treating, 

 with some detail, the current of judicial thought upon these questions. 

 Assuming that the right of the State is now fairly established to in- 

 terfere by such legislative enactments as it may think appropriate, 

 either to prohibit, or restrict, or license the traffic, we turn briefly to 

 the political aspects of the question. It is not, properly, within the 

 scope of this discussion to speak of the relative merits of proposed 

 methods to correct the evils resulting from this traffic. Enough haa 

 been said to show that the subject-matter must be treated at the 

 hands of the legislative branch of the State. It is a subject that can- 

 not be treated from an ideal standpoint, for many and obvious reasons, 

 among them that the citizen must be left to enjoy his own rights 

 and property, without interference, beyond that which may be neces- 

 sary to protect and secure the equal rights of all others; and that in 

 determining the scope or manner in which he shall enjoy his rights, so 

 far as the question under discussion is concerned, regard must be had 

 to the will of the majority, as expressed by legislative enactments. 

 With us public opinion, that indescribable force that seems to direct 

 the actions of men in many of the public and private concerns of life, 

 is a factor too important to ignore. Aye, it is the most important 

 factor in working out a solution of this or any other great, far-reaching 

 question affecting the common welfare. " I know one," said Talley- 

 rand, "who is wiser than Voltaire, and has more understanding than 

 Napoleon and all his ministers, who ever were, are or will be, and this 

 one is Public Opinion." 



"We must remember that the man who believes, and acts upon the 

 belief, that it is not wrong or injurious to indulge moderately or im- 

 moderately in intoxicating liquors has the same right to exert his in- 

 fluence upon the public mind as the one who believes it to be the 

 S 1 *e t c >f the age. Here, then, are two forces struggling for 



