Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/815

Rh Other ways of accumulating evidence, in addition to the disclosures of defendants, could be made use of, such, for instance, as recording the location of all arrests for drunkenness; and it might even be well to provide that, in the lack of other evidence, the costs of any arrest and the succeeding prosecution may be set to the nearest licensed place of sale.

It may be claimed that the tribunal to make the apportionment will have a very difficult and invidious task to perform. Difficult it will be, but no more so than the task imposed upon juries in most of the cases contested before them, and invidious so far as the persons liable to pay are concerned. But there are two things clearly ascertained at the start, to wit, the persons liable to be assessed, and the amount for which they are liable. It must be remembered, also, that the tribunal will have the assistance of all the defendants themselves, who will be the very best witnesses in the matter, for every one of them will be anxious to tell all he knows about the others, in order that his own assessment may be as light as possible. There can be no common defense. The army of liquor-sellers will be divided against itself, and no longer united against the public. Combinations for and against legislation and the employment of counsel to obstruct the administration of the law will become useless.

One of the stock arguments in favor of license is that the lincenseeslicensees [sic] in the interests of their own business will be vigilant to prevent sales by unlicensed persons. Experience has shown, I think, that this expectation has not been confirmed by the facts. The licensed seller is given permission to carry on a profitable business, in which all others are forbidden to engage under severe penalties, and this business is so profitable and the penalties are so effectual that it is never worth while for him to go to the trouble and expense of attempting to suppress the unlicensed dealer. He is entirely content with what the public will do for him in this direction. Under the plan proposed the suppression of the unlicensed seller becomes vitally important to the licensed, for the latter will be obliged to undergo the expenses occasioned by the former, in the same manner that the public now sustains the expenses occasioned by them both.

To recapitulate, in short:

Prohibitory laws have never wholly prohibited in fact, and are objectionable to many persons favorable to the cause of temperance on grounds involving the fundamental principles of legislation.

Under license laws we have a privileged class protected by the public in the exclusive conduct of a business which leads to burdens and expenses, which the public assumes, in effect saying to the licensees, "Go, and for your profit do us all the injury you please or find convenient, and we will not only pay the bills, but we will take care that no one interferes with you."

Under the plan proposed, the burdens and expenses arising from