TEMPERANCE ITEMS.
How Local Option Works in Practice, There is an interesting short article in the ' Sunday Magazine' for August which sheds some light upon the probable course of events in England when the teetotallers have their will and local option is,the law of the land, It is entitled," A Prohibition of Drinking Shops: How.it Came About, and What Followed." Tho writer says ; Sometimes I have been asked: "Is the removal of the drink traffio a counsel of perfection, the dream of the hopeful temperance reformer ? Can a whole community be found, voluntarily and through a course of years, to free itself from tha main cause of its demoralization ?" My answer is; tliat it has been done. And by the healthful developement of the moral sense of communities it can be done everywhere. In the southern part of the State of Now Jersey, forty miles from Philadelphia, stands the town of Millville containing a. population of 10,000, almost wholly of working men and their families. I know of only one college educated man in the town. A generation ago it was speoially for its intemperance. When the day came that, by the terms of the charter which incorporated the village into a " city," the State granted the privilege of local option, an inor«aßing number became convinced of the practicability of the suppression of tho liquor ti'rtffio, Opposed to them were the habitual drinkers, backed by the peouniary interests of three llge hotels and twenty lower olass drinling saloons. Year by year the number of the Prohibitionist The first step gained was the suppression of the smaller saloons, in which the three large taverns heartily joined, in order to obtain a monopoly of the sale. But in tho following • year the irritated saloonkeepers, by way of retaliation, joined the Prohibitionists in closing the three taverns. Thus, by a pro« cess of mutual decapitation, the city got rid of both classes of licensed houses.
It was the' elected City Counoil I which controlled the question o! licenses, In the decisive years elections it gave a majority of one in favour of tlie sale of liquor, The deciding vote against Prohibition was that of a butcher, and the wives of the artisans let 'him know that if; by the aid of his vote, the tavern licenses wero renewed, they would bay meat elsewhere, He absented himself from the City Counoil, pnd that year for the first time, cations for licenso were granted, \he three tavern-keepers now V struck," and tried to force licenses by declining to entertain travellers. In this new emergency a lady, who had the principal house in the place, temporarily received all travellers. The reformers triumphed. Two of the taverns became temperance boarding-houses, and the third received visitors to the plaoo, •
For many years tho battle was a cloao one, not without risk of defeat. But the inorease in the prosperity of the town, the welfare of individual families—most of all, the improved character of the young men—was so evident that the prohibition' vots grow greater year by year,'until finally the question was no longer contested! This result was mainly owing to the wise and unfaltering effort of the local branoh of the National Womens' Christian Tempsranee Union. Now for tho results of fifteen years of this "homo protection." J*£oad of three taverns and twenty rang poisoning the moral and physical life of the community, a thriving median* to' institute, costing £4,000, was built, where a reading room, musical arid debating societies, and leoturea occupy the evenings of the young, Three musio shops are established, with an annual sale of several hundred pounds of cottage organs and musical instruments, and it is literally true that young men have grown up never having seen or tested alcobolio liquors, On tbe occasion of & soionufio leotare there could not be found iri all-tlie' town-enough to'furnish the material for the experiments. " ' Two policemen are found amply sufficient to watoh over a town of 10,000 iobatotants.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WDT18921031.2.10
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4257, 31 October 1892, Page 2
Word count
Tapeke kupu
661TEMPERANCE ITEMS. Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4257, 31 October 1892, Page 2
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
No known copyright (New Zealand)
To the best of the National Library of New Zealand’s knowledge, under New Zealand law, there is no copyright in this item in New Zealand.
You can copy this item, share it, and post it on a blog or website. It can be modified, remixed and built upon. It can be used commercially. If reproducing this item, it is helpful to include the source.
For further information please refer to the Copyright guide.