THE EXPERIENCE OF A NORTHERN STATE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 141, 12 June 1908, Page 4

THE EXPERIENCE OF A NORTHERN STATE

[Atlvt.l The Slate indicated li.v (his heading 'is .Massachusetts, one o'f the smallest States in Hip Union, but yet morally and intellectually one of the fort-most. Ho»l<»i. its capital, is the chief literary centre of tin- C.S.A, Tlic: experience ■of suck a State is certainly worth quoting, l'|) t« 1873 -Massachusetts bad a law »f State prohibition, but in that year (hey fi-il bad; on a system of loeal option. .11 first ilk- power to prohibit or {rrant licenses was vested ill an elective authority; this, however, not proving' satisfactory to the people, in 1881 a system of direct popular veto, annual and compulsory in all titles and towns 'was adopted. ]!\- this plan the question of whether licenses for the sale of intoxicants shall be granted is decided !»• a simple majority. Xo make, if possible, the liipHH-. trade more select a high license fee i> imposed, with a miiiimum of JL2OO a year; and further, the 'number of licenses is limited to not ■more than one. license, to each 11)00 oi the population, the citv of Boston alone being excepted from this limit. For mure than a ipiarter of a century Massachusetts ha, managed their 'liquor iraile en this principle: and with what result-.'- In 1000 out of :W1 towns 2-18 voted lor no-license mid (he remaining 73 accepted licenses with the above limitations, This is practically how the country districts nave stood' ever since prohibition was repealed and loeal option adopted in 1881: that is, Unit threequarters of Ike rural parts of the Stale has no licensed liquor rude. It is a curios fad thai during the last quarter of a century there have occurred ;!;ll elections, in these parts, where not a singe vele has been iv.-„nled ill favor ol license. 11l the cities however, it is •somewhat 'diU'ci-cnl, In the great change which took place in 1881 when local option became law there were :i;i ■plan's classed as cities, and of these 2!) were under license; but since then, In" degrees, fully one-liftli of these have been reclaimed for no-license, and are now steadily held for that principle. The most noteworthy of the.-s nolicense cities is Cambridge. Cambride is really a suburb of. and forms part of. ilreatvi Boston, and has had no-licens-for more than 2u years continuously unci with an increasing vote. A comparison might be made between the no•license cities and the cities where licen-.' prevails in many ways; as to pro sperily. health, education,'or crime. In tin- mailer of crime Cambridge and its imitators stand at the lowest rate, ■while in regard to the other items at the highest■■; the no-license cities had in ■lhe live years lilOO-4. a death rate of •13 per 1(111(1. while similarly situatei., eities with license had a death rate ol ,17 per 1110(1; the average school attendance in the former was 8.3.,84 per cent., while in the latter it was 71.4"). For these bi'iielits the no-license cities have in a sense, to pay in that when they vote out the licensed saloon they also ivote away (he high license fees, which for Cambridge would amount to about to about a.yiuo. Ami they seem quite satisfied with the bargain even at that, price.