License or Prohibition by Ellen G. White

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 1, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 34.

License or Prohibition

By Ellen G. White

By MRS. E. G. WHITE

IN these days when vice and crime of every form are rapidly increasing, there is a tendency to become so familiar with existing conditions that we lose sight of their cause and of their significance. More intoxicating liquors are used to-day than have ever been used heretofore. In the horrible details of revolting drunkenness and terrible crime, the newspapers give but a partial report of the story of the resultant lawlessness.

License Laws

The licensing of the liquor traffic is advocated by many as tending to restrict the drink evil. But the licensing of the traffic places it under the protection of law. The government sanctions its existence, and thus fosters the evil which it professes to restrict. Under the protection of license laws, breweries, distilleries, and wineries are planted all over the land, and the liquor seller plies his work beside our very doors.

Often he is forbidden to sell intoxicants to one who is drunk, or who is known to be a confirmed drunkard; but the work of making drunkards of the youth goes steadily forward. Upon the creating of the liquor appetite in the youth the very life of the traffic depends. The youth are led on, step by step, until the liquor habit is established, and the thirst is created that at any cost demands satisfaction. Less harmful would it be to grant liquor to the confirmed drunkard, whose ruin, in most cases, is already determined, than to permit the flower of our youth to be lured to destruction through this terrible habit.

By the licensing of the liquor traffic, temptation is kept constantly before those who are trying to reform. Institutions have been established where the victims of intemperance may be helped to overcome their appetite. This is a noble work; but so long as the sale of liquor is sanctioned by law, the intemperate receive but little benefit from inebriate asylums. They can not remain there always. They must again take their place in society. The appetite for intoxicating drink, though subdued, is not wholly destroyed; and when temptation assails them, as it does on every hand, they too often fall an easy prey.

Who Is Responsible?

The man who has a vicious beast, and who, knowing its disposition, allows it liberty, is by the laws of the land held accountable for the evil the beast may do. In the laws given to Israel, the Lord directed that when a beast known to be vicious caused the death of a human being, the life of the owner should pay the price of his carelessness or malignity. On the same principle, the government that licenses the liquor seller should be held responsible for the result of his traffic. And if it is a crime worthy of death to give liberty to a vicious beast, how much greater is the crime of sanctioning the work of the liquor seller!

The Liquor Traffic in San Francisco

For a time after the great earthquake along the coast of California, the authorities in San Francisco and in some of the smaller cities and towns ordered the closing of all liquor saloons. So marked were the effects of this strictly enforced ordinance, that the attention of thinking men throughout America, and notably on the Pacific coast, was directed to the advantages that would result from a permanent closing of all saloons.

During many weeks following the earthquake, very little drunkenness was seen in San Francisco. No intoxicating drinks were sold. The disorganized and unsettled state of affairs gave the city officials reason to expect an abnormal increase of disorder and crime, and they were greatly surprised to find the opposite true. Those from whom was expected much trouble, gave but little. This remarkable freedom from violence and crime was largely traceable to the disuse of intoxicants.

The editors of some of the leading dailies took the position that it would be for the permanent betterment of society and for the upbuilding of the best interests of the city, were the saloons forever to remain closed. But wise counsel was swept aside, and within a few short weeks permission was given the liquor dealers to reopen their places of business, upon the payment into the city treasury of a license tax considerably higher than had formerly been paid.

In the Outlook of November 3, 1906, the situation is thus described:

"During the two months and a half after April 18, San Francisco was probably the most orderly large city in the United States. Violence and crimes were practically unknown. During that time the saloons and liquor stores of the city were closed tight. About the middle of July the saloons were permitted to open again. This action of the city government was accompanied by the expectation on the part of many citizens of an outbreak of violence and disorder. Clergymen, and it is said even the police, advised men and women to carry firearms for their own protection. For the past three months San Francisco has been living under a reign of terror. In eighty days eighty-three murders, robberies, and assaults were registered on the police records. A despatch to Ridgway's, the new weekly periodical, reports the sale in San Francisco during one week in October of over six thousand revolvers. The police have been and are powerless to preserve order and protect the city—in the opinion of the best citizens of San Francisco because the heads of the force are corrupt and are doing the will of a corrupt government."

The honor of God, the stability of the nation, the well-being of the community, of the home, and of the individual, demand that every possible effort be made in arousing the people to the evil of intemperance. Soon we shall see the result of this terrible evil as we do not see it now. Who will put forth a determined effort to stay the work of destruction? As yet the contest has hardly begun. Let an army be found to stop the sale of the drugged liquors that are making men mad. Let the danger from the liquor traffic be made plain, and a public sentiment be created that shall demand its prohibition. Let the drink-maddened men be given an opportunity to escape from their thralldom. Let the voices of the nation demand of its lawmakers that a stop be put to this infamous traffic.