“High License” a Delusion and a Snare.
An old farmer in the Evangelist says that the higher the license, the greater the amount of liquor that must be sold to make the business profitable, and extraordinary fascinations must be displayed to draw custom. The more money invested in the trade, the more respectable will it appear in a community, and therefore the more dangerous. The higher the license for the manufacture and sale of liquor, the greater the number of illicit distilleries and dram-shops. But, says one, the licensed vender will aid in enforcing the law, so that he may have a monopoly of the business. That is a mistaken notion. We thought so twenty-five years ago in Genesee County; but the liquor-sellers said, “The more rills, the bigger stream; the little shops are feeders to the big ones;” and they hindered and opposed the enforcement of the law in every way possible. Once admit license, and we surrender the whole question. Nay, good friends, high license is the devil’s last card, and will only work delay and ruin to the temperance cause.