Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/65

 10 s. vm. JULY 20, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

51

" It is said, gentlemen, that we are asked to vote for a principle which is called Local Option." W. E. Gladstone, 26 Nov., 1879, in ' Political Speeches in Scotland,' i. 75.

It should be added that in his ' History of Drink ' from which the ' N.E.D.' got its earliest quotation (1878), and perhaps the first book printed in England to contain the term J. Samuelson always uses " per- missive " when speaking of England, and rica. His information about America was derived from the 1877 edition of ' Liquor Laws of the United States.' Though I cannot find a copy of this work in the Boston libraries, yet I can prove that the edition of 1873 gave an account of " the Local Option Law of Pennsylvania."
 * ' local option " when speaking of Ame-

B.

" In New York State, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and other States, agitation is going on, and pro- gress is being made to secure 'local option in respect to the liquor traffic." Nineteenth Report, 17 Oct., 1871, p. 44.

" This is the case not only in Maine Law States, but also in other States where, as at Vineland, in New Jersey, the Permissive, or 'local option,' principle is applied to the liquor traffic." ' No Case against the United Kingdom Alliance and the Permissive Bill,' 1872, p. 58.

" In New York, known as the ' Empire State ' of the Union, a ' Local Option Prohibition ' Bill was adopted by large majorities in the House of Repre- sentatives and the Senate, but was vetoed by Governor Dix." Twenty- First Report, 14 Oct., 1873, p. 51.

" In concluding their report, the Canada Govern- ment Commissioners say they have ascertained that five' States of the Union have prohibitory laws, and two or three States have local option (per- missive prohibitory) laws." Twenty- Third Report, 12 Oct., 1875, p. 64.

"In Canada the principle and policv of local option, or permissive prohibition by a direct vote of the people, are being tested in a wide area under the Britisn flag, by our loyal Canadian fellow- subjects." Twenty- Fifth Report, 23 Oct., 1877, p. 38.

"Such facts are significant as to the progress of temperance reform in local option States." Twenty-Sixth Report, 22 Oct., 1878, p. 55.

The extracts under (A) and (B) show that from the time of its use by Gladstone in or -about October, 1868, to its use by Sir W. Lawson in 1879, the term was rarely used by English writers except in reference to legislation in the United States or in the British colonies ; and that even when so used, the term was sometimes explained to English readers, indicating that they were unfamiliar with it. In short, the term, whoever invented it, did not come into popular vogue in England until its adoption by Sir Wilfrid Lawson in 1879.

Let us now turn to the United States.

On 1 and 2 Sept., 1869, ,a convention was held at Chicago at which the National Prohibition Party was formed.

C.

" Gerrit Smith then came forward and said :

It has been proposed by many that we adopt the English scheme of local options, as it is called the government allowing one town to traffic in the accursed poison and disallowing another town to do so." Chicago Tribune, 2 Sept., 1869, p. 4/2.

" Mr. Stewart, of Ohio, moved to strike out the local option. Under the laws of Ohio they sent rumseuers to jail with thieves and burglars. Under their local options they had power to close up rum- shops in any town where they could get votes to do it Local option was right

" The motion to strike out all reference to local option was lost." Chicago Tribune, 3 Sept., 1869, p. 2/9.

" In the address adopted by the Chicago Con- vention reference is made to what it calls 'local option,' and a ' protest ' entered against the 'scheme.'" National Temperance Advocate, Nov., 1869, iv. 153.

"A very large class of the community, however, while adopting and believing in the doctrine of Prohibition, would accept what is commonly known as ' Local Prohibition ' as the first step towards the

absolute and entire suppression of the traffic It

is 'prohibition,' not 'option.'" Sixth Annual Re- port of the National Temperance Society, 11 May, 1871, p. 19.

" 'Local Option.' Hon. Neal Dow, in an article published in The Watchword under the above head- ing, says : ' In Maine, and in all the other New Eng- land States, local option preceded the enactment of the Maine law, pure and simple.' " National Tem- perance Advocate, April, 1873, viii. 61.

" extract from a speech I delivered before the

Judiciary Committee of New Jersey in 1873 : ' I

am in candour compelled to say that I did not introduce the local option principle into Vineland from any motives of philanthropy.'" C. K. Landis in Fraser's Magazine, Jan., 1875, xci. 126. Mr. Landis was the founder of Vineland, and the law giving that place local option was dated 7 April, 1864.

" Hence, the true question is whether the right to a brewer's license, under former laws, was repealed by the Local Option Act of 1872." Oct., 1875, ' Pennsylvania State Reports,' Ixxviii. 493.

" These cases bring up for determination the question of the constitutionality of the act of the assembly, approved January 26, 1874.... v commonly know as the 'local option law.'" Sept., 1877, ' Kentucky Reports,' p. 487.

"Local Option. This well-known American phrase is used to describe laws essentially pro- hibitory of the liquor traffic in their nature,T>ut confined in their authority to such local subdivisions of the general sovereignty as may by some form of popular vote adopt them." R. C. Pitman, ' Alcohol and the State,' 1877, p. 205.

"Local Option. Laws which have been passed in some of the United States, giving to each county or municipality the power to regulate or prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquors, have been styled, in the parlance of temperance legislation, local option laws." B. V. Abbott, 1879, ' Dictionary of