CHAPTER XV.

LICENSE LAWS.

THE first attempt of Government to deal with the traffic was as a matter of excise and of regulation. It was perceived that liquor afforded an easy object of taxation, and no one felt any scruple in subjecting it to such as would yield large revenue, while at the same time the most heedless saw that it was an exceptional traffic, liable to frightful results, and inviting the strictest surveillance.

The reader who desires to see an instructive sketch of the legislation of England on this subject from the earliest times, will find it in Dr. Lees' "Condensed Argument" (pp. 59 to 78). The resumé justifies his conclusion: "Britain has tried, other nations have tried,

restriction and regulation. The experiment has failed miserably failed." And he quotes from the London Times (of May 13, 1857). as the organ of public sentiment, this confession: "The licensing system has the double vice of not answering a public end, but a private one It has been tried, and has been found want ing." The old country is still experimenting.

If such is the result across the water, we might anticipate that such laws would avail still less in a country like ours, where the machinery for the enforcement of all laws is generally less complete and less energetically put in motion.

It is impracticable, of course, to attempt a history of License, or an outline of the various statutes in the several States of the Union. But as they all have a family likeness, and their results are not widely variant, I shall do the system no injustice by confining my attention to its working in a single State. And I select Massachusetts, because no State commenced the experiment of license earlier, has tried it under more variety of conditions, or has brought more ability and earnestness to the solution of the problem. And yet, throughout the course of legislation, there is the constant struggle after stringency, and the confession of prior inefficiency.

THE HISTORY OF LICENSE IN MASSACHUSETTS.

The first law I find in the Old Colony provides:

"That none be suffered to retail wine, strong water, or beer, either within doors or without, except

*

*It is quite evident that our forefathers early learned what were intoxicating liquors, if they did not find out how to manage them.

in inns or victualling houses allowed" (1636; Plymouth Colony Records, Vol. I., p. 13).

In 1646, the Massachusetts Colony declared:

"Forasmuch as drunkenness is a vice to be abhorred of all nations, especially of those who hold out and profess the Gospel of Christ Jesus, and seeing any strict law will not prevail unless the cause be taken away, it is therefore ordered by this Court,-Ist. That no merchant, cooper, or any other person whatever, shall, after the first day of the first month, sell any wine under one-quarter cask, neither by quart, gallon, or any other measure, but only such taverners as are licensed to sell by the gallon; and whosoever shall transgress this order shall pay ten pounds."

"Any taverners or other persons that shall inform against any transgressor shall have one-half of the fines for his encouragement."

Section 4 forbids drinking or tippling after

P.M.

Section 7 forbids

9

"Any person licensed to sell strong waters, or any private housekeeper, to permit any person to sit drinking or tippling strong waters, wine, or strong beer, in their houses" (Mass. Colony Records, Vol. II., p. 171).

The law of 1661 prefaces its enactment thus:

"Upon complaint of the great abuses that are daily committed by the retailers of strong waters this Court doth order, etc."

In 1665, cider takes its place among the inhibited liquors; as it appears to have done in Plymouth Colony in 1667 (Records, Vol. XI., p. 218).

In 1670, keepers of public-houses are warned not to allow "noted" drunkards on their premises. In 1680, it is provided that licenses shall first be approved by the Selectmen of the town before they are granted by the Court, and that they shall not be granted "till after the Grand Jury present their indictments."

The statute of 1692 prefaces certain stringent provisions as to public-houses with this pream

ble:

"And, forasmuch as the ancient, true, and principal use of inns, taverns, ale-houses, victualling-houses, and other houses for common entertainment is for receipt, relief, and lodging of travelers and strangers, and the refreshment of persons upon lawful business, or for the necessary supply of the wants of such poor persons as are not able by greater quantities to make their provision of victuals, and are not intended for entertainment and harboring of lewd or idle people to spend or consume their time or money there; therefore, to prevent the mischiefs and great disorders happening daily by the abuse of such houses, It is further enacted," etc. (Province Laws, Vol. I., p. 57).

The following year witnessed another advance, the law requiring

"That every master or head of a family shall be. accountable for the transgression of the law relating to retailing without license, whether it be by his wife, children, servants, or any other employed by him" (Id., p. 119).

Two years later we find another statute forbidding retailers to sell other drinks than those which they are licensed to sell, or to suffer drinking on their premises when not so licensed, with provisions for inspection by officers, and penalties for the receipt of bribes, and threats of forfeiture of license for violation of terms, prefaced with the complaining preamble:

"Whereas, divers persons that obtain license for the retailing of wine and strong liquors out of doors only, and not to be spent or drunk in their houses, do notwithstanding take upon them to give entertainment to persons to sit drinking and tippling there, and others who have no license at all are yet so hardy as to run upon the law, in adventuring to sell without tending to the great increase of drunkenness and other debaucheries" (Id., p. 190).

The statute of 1695, after reciting that “divers ill-disposed and indigent persons, the pains and penalties in the laws already made not regarding, are so hardy as to presume to sell and retail strong beer, ale, cider, sherry wine, rum, or other strong liquors or mixed drinks, and to keep common tippling-houses, thereby harbor