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A Weak Law

A Weak Law image
Parent Issue
Day
24
Month
February
Year
1888
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The local option law is a weak law. As we have stated before, it is weaker than dishwater. It aims to be stringent. It declares it unlawful to sell or give away any vinous liquors of any kind or any quantity. A clergyman underthis clause could be taken before a court of justice for breaking the law. He would be placed in the dilemma of breaking the rules o"his church or the law of the land. Attempts would be made to enforce this section in order to bring the law into disrepute. It would have been a very easy matter to except wine "for sacramental purpose" from the operation of the act. It was purposely not excejited. The doctor, making a visit in the country light find a patiënt in need of stimulants, immeditely. Ifhe gave it, he would be liable to fine and imprisonment. He is not a druggist and he is in no manner excepted from the provisions of the act. The act is given verbatim on another page. Let everyone read for themselves. Why is the law a weak one? Let us point out a few of its omissions. I. It does not point out a way for its enforcement. It does not expressly make it anybody's business to see to its enforcement and human nature will cause officers to endeavor to shirk the duty of its enforcement upon other officers. 2. It does not contain any penalty for bnnging liquoi into the county or transporting it. In other words it allows outsiders to send al) the liquor into the county they wish to, and only prohibits its manufacture here. 3. It contains provisions against selling or giving away liquor, but none against loaning or borrowing it. 4. It does not make the finding of large quantities of liquor in possession of a person, other than a druggist, prima facie evidence of any thing and prescribes no penalties for ts possession. It allows druggists to sell and allows them to be the judge of what is medicinal, mechanical, chemical, &c. Anybody can embark in this business who can hire a drug clerk, and consequently there vvill be some mighty poor judges for what purpose liquor is sold. 6. ít contains no provisions against club rooms where liquors are kept, or corporations giving liquor to stockholders, and corporations surely aje not Hable to imprisonment. It provides that the general liquor laws of the state shall be suspended May first, but that prohibition shall not go into effect until the first Monday in May or May 7th. For seven days then there would be no restrictions whatever on liquor selling. The saloons could be open at all-hours. Every child in the county could be dosed with liquor until it couldn't stand and the law would afford no remedy. These are but a few of the many 'oop holes to be found in the law. Do prohibitionists desire the passage of such a law as this which must inevitably fail, even if it be declared constitutional, which is very doubtul. Frohibition would inevitably be udged a failure if this law be accepted by them as a prohibition law.

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News