Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 64:256 (Oct 1907)
Article: A New Plan For State Control Of The Liquor Business
Author: Justus Newton Brown

BSac 64:256 (Oct 1907) p. 693

A New Plan For State Control Of The Liquor Business

Rev. Justus Newton Brown

We are aware of the fact that liquor-drinking tends to produce poverty and corruption and crime and disease and death. At the present time the amount of liquor drunk per capita in the United States is said to be increasing, although for many years the friends of temperance have sought to remove the drink-evil through their various organizations, by the press and the pulpit and the Sunday school, and by the strong arm of the state. The effort put forth for this purpose by large numbers of earnest people has been beyond calculation. And yet intemperance remains, perhaps, the sorest of all evils that afflict the nation, and it is kept down to its present proportions only by the unceasing vigilance and the untiring effort of those who realize the extreme peril we are in.

In view of these facts it is an important question whether there is any better plan than has yet been tried for state control of the liquor business. It seems to me that there is one, and that it is to be found in a very simple and practical way. The experiments that have been made during the last fifty years have been sufficient to show the elements of strength and of weakness in the current methods of state control, including license and prohibition. By excluding these elements of weakness and combining these elements of strength, we should now be able to formulate a new and more effective temperance policy for the state.

BSac 64:256 (Oct 1907) p. 694

Let us, accordingly, review the principal experiments that have been made in state control of the liquor business. One of these, which has been faithfully tried on a large scale, is that of license. At first it was low license, and then, when the results proved unsatisfactory, high license was substituted. License laws contain provisions restricting sales to certain places and times and persons, usually prohibiting sales to intoxicated persons, drunkards, and minors, and during a part of the night, as well as on Sundays, election days, and holidays.

This policy was adopted with the approval of many sincere friends of temperance, in the hope that such restrictions upon the sale of liquor would greatly diminish the drink-habit, and that this result would be still further accomplished through a reduction in the number of saloons. Another thing sought by this policy was to put upon those engaged in the liquor business a share of the burdens which their business puts upon society. All this seemed plausible, and many good people congratulated themselves upon having found a remedy for most of the evils of the liquor traffic.

What are the results of this experiment? Some improvement in the order prevailing upo...