A New License System
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A New License System.
Among the most difficult questions now before the Legislature of New York is that of regulating the sale of intoxicating drinks. The debris of the Prohibitory Law revoking all former legislation, and then itself declared unconstitutional, occupy the space on the Statue Book which should be filled by some living enactment, which should mitigate, and so far as possible remove, the evils resulting to the community from the present unrestricted liquor traffic; yet without vexatiously and unnecessarily restricting any man’s personal liberty.
The Assemblyman from this district, Hon. John Hanford, has given notice of, and will be in the course of a day or two introduce, a bill, the leading idea of which—to license the consumer instead of the dealer—is novel and suggestive, and in our view entirely practicable and useful. It is proposed that aldermen of wards and justices in towns should have power to issue parchment or other durable licenses, according to the following schedule: Payment of fifty cents to entitle the holder to drink lager bier only; seventy-five cents, strong ale, porter, and domestic wines; $1, whiskey and other domestic spirits; $1 50, brandy and other foreign spirits; $5 champagne, besides any of the foregoing liquors. No person shall be permitted by a liquor dealer to purchase drink, without producing his license therefor; no wife shall be able to procure a license, without her husband’s consent, and vice versa. The press and the clergy are not included in the operation of the law!
We are inclined to think that some such act as the above, would do more for the suppression of drunkenness and vice, if honestly carried out, than a dozen Prohibitory Laws. For this purpose the bill provides stringent penalties for transferring licenses, or sale of liquor to unlicensed persons; and any abuse of the privilege, such as repeated drunkenness, disorderly conduct, &c. involves the forfeiture of the license.
There are many men, it is well known, who cannot partake of liquor with moderation—who know of no medium between total abstinence and beastly excess. The effect of Mr. Hanford’s bill, if passed, will be to prevent these people from being exposed to a temptation they cannot withstand, while those who know how to use, without abusing, stimulating beverages, will not be trammeled by unconstitutional restrictions.
The licenses are to be renewable yearly, and we are informed that Speaker Littlejohn, who heartily endorses Mr. Hanford’s view, anticipates in the event of the passage of the bill that sufficient funds would be raised from the sale of licenses, in the course of two years, to defray the expenses of the completion of the canals.
The bill was originally drawn by an eminent member of the legal profession residing in the Western District, who intended it as a joke; but though the novelty of the idea may occasion a momentary laugh, very many sensible people, on reflection, are of opinion that it suggests the best means of cutting the Gordian knot in which the laws regulating the liquor traffic have become involved.