LOCAL OPTION TEMPERANCE BILL.
On the motion of Mr. FURNAS, the order of business was suspended, and the House took up the consideration of Mr. Butts' Local Option Temperance bill [H. R. 327] entitled "a bill for an act to regulate the sale of intoxicating liquors, to provide against the evils resulting from any sale thereof, to furnish remedies for damages suffered by any person in consequence of such sale, prescribing penalties, to repeal all laws contravening the provisions of this act, and declaring an emergency. The question being on the adoption of certain amendments just reported by Mr. Butts from the Committee on Temperance; namely: In section one, strike out the word "district" and insert the word "town" in lieu: In sec. three strike out and making the initial sentences of the section to read as follows: "SECTION three, Before the granting of a Permit by the Board of Commissioners the applicant shall cause to be executed and properly acknowledged before an officer authorized to take acknowledgement of Deeds, a bond payable to the State of Indiana in the sum of three thousand dollars, with good freehold security thereon of not less than two persons, to be approved by the Board of Commissioners, and conditioned for the payment of any and all fines, penalties and forfeitures incurred by reason of the violation of any of the provisions of this act, and conditioned further, that the principal and sureties therein named shall be jointly and severally liable, and shall pay to any person or persons any and all damages which shall in any manner be suffered by or inflicted upon any such person or persons, either in person or property or means of support, by reason of any sale or sales of intoxicating liquors to any person by the person receiving such permit, or by any of his agents or employers. Separate suits may be brought on said bond by the person or persons injured, but the aggregate amount recovered thereon shall not exceed the sum of three thousand dollars; and in case the amount of said bond shall be exhausted by recoveries thereon, a new bond with the same penalty and with like sureties shall be filed within ten days; and in default thereof said permit shall be revoked." In SECTION four, strike out the word "district," and insert the word "town" in lieu, etc., etc: and sundry amendments in section twelve, as: "Provided execution in each judgement shall be first levied on the property of the principal, and then on the property of the other defendant;" and, "all judgements shall be enforced without any relief from valuation or appraisement laws;" and, "In addition to the right of action provided in section eight," every husband, wife, parent, child, guardian, employer or other person who shall be injured in person or property, etc., shall have a right of action in his or her name, personally or jointly, against any person, who shall, by selling." etc., and "where such person have no parents, etc, the officer for the poor shall have the right of prosecution;" and "all, judgements shall be for the benefit of the poor of the county;" and striking out the words: "and be imprisoned in the county jail."
The amendments were severally concurred in.
Mr. FURNAS. I move that the bill as amended, be considered as engrossed and put upon its passage.
The motion was agreed to, and the bill, as amended was read through by the clerk.
Mr. SCHMUCK - See his remarks on pages 127 and 128.
Mr. BUTTS. Mr. Speaker: The subject of intemperance is one of very great importance, and is certainly the towering and gigantic evil of our land. It opens before us a wide-spread field of thought - a field that is watered by the crimson streams of humane gore and decked by the graves of fallen victims. It is constantly spreading devastation, misery and wretchedness throughout the length and breadth of our country, and its poisonous streams by its deep current are cutting their way through the vitals of our race. It is carrying upon its bosom the destructive elements of sin in all of its various forms and phases. It is another form of slavery, that is binding by its oppressive yoke and chrushing by its strong arms thousands of our noble and free-hearted citizens. If you open the dark pages of history, upon which is recorded the various evils of intemperance and the effects of its many crimes, the whole earth would be darkened and the broad canopy of heaven shrouded in mourning. Almost every day that we live we are called upon, in some form, to take immediate and continued action in endeavoring to suppress this great and destructive evil. It has created among us a history of corruption, of shame, and of crime. It is daily taking the bloom of health from the face and in its stead placing the reddish hue of the intoxicating bowl. It is constantly destroying the peace and happiness of families, and in its stead placing desolation, misery and ruin. It maddens the brain of the husband and father; and makes him a tyrant and a murderer. It darkens the pathway of a kind page: 428[View Page 428] and affectionate mother, and makes her an object of sorrow and despair. It dethrones reason and transforms this body, so fearfully and wonderfully made the workmanship of God's own hand - into a loathsome and reckless mass of humanity. It is filling our streets with violence, crowding our courts with criminal cases, filling our jails and penitentiaries with criminals, our poor houses with paupers, our insane asylums with inebriates. It is stripping men of their wealth and clothing them with poverty and shame, turning the endearing and gladsome pleasures of home into a place of desolation, of weeping eyes and throbbing hearts. It has been asserted that it produces at least one-half of all the insanity, three-fourths of the pauperism, and four-fifths of all the crime in our land, and at a cost of about three million dollars per day. Indiana, our own State, pays annually for drams sixty-one million two hundred and eighty thousand dollars. This sum would he sufficient alone to build about 18 universities in each county in the State. The one hundred thousand imprisonments, the one hundred thousand suicides that occur annually, the two hundred thousand children that are made worse than orphans, the two million that are deprived of the privileges of an education, the three million tipplers, the six hundred thousand confirmed drunkards, and the sixty thousand of our citizens who die annually, are all examples, teaching us the great importance and absolute necessity of a more stringent legislation on this subject. Are we not ready, as the law-making power of this State, to take hold of this growing and overwhelming evil. Suppose, Mr. Speaker, that some one was to establish a slaughter house, a soap factory, or starch factory in the city of Indianapolis. How long would it be before the City Council or Mayor would go to such person and say to him, that "My friend, you must remove your place of business out of the city?" Your business is destroying the health and comfort of the people, and the law will not allow you to engage in a business where it will effect the health and comfort of the citizens. The same rule will hold good with any business or act that effects the health of the people. It is declared as a nuisance and is subject to the provisions of the law. Why is it that the whiskey traffic is an exception to the general law? It reaches directly or indirectly to the fireside of almost every family, carrying with it the most bitter cup. It affects the health, disturbs the peace, destroys the happiness and comfort of the people in nearly every city, town or neighborhood in the entire land. In fact it lifts its towering and gigantic form of misery and wretchedness and ruin above all the evils in the known world.
Men have been committing murder and theft for these thousand of years and still we continue to legislate against these evils. Here is an evil that lies at the very foundation of nearly all the crime in our land; is it not right and shall we not continue to legislate against this wrong until we shall have placed it beneath our feet ? The poor unfortunate one who falls into the channel of becoming intoxicated commits at least a three fold murder. 1. He kills time. The golden moments that have been given him that he may be a blessing not only to himself but to all around him and that he may prepare in this life to enjoy a better and happier one, he spends in a state of insensibility under the influence of a poisonous liquid. 2d. He kills himself. He destroys that manly frame whose builder and maker is God. The face that once gave evidence of a light and glad heart is now carrying the mark of sorrow, pain and wretchedness, and the manly frame sinks down, down, beneath the effects of the deadly demon. 3d. He kills his own precious soul. He extends the slow, but sure, work of destruction to the very depths of his immortality. The spirit which is to live on when time ceases to move, and when the sun refuses to shine, and was given to glorify its Maker is made to sink so low as to curse even the day of its birth. Instead of enjoying home, friends and friendly associations his mind is actively engaged in the many devices of sin - learning the most successful route to perdition and ruin, although his name might have been written in the Lamb's book of life. No drunkard, saith the Scriptures, shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. Jeremy Taylor has well and truthfully said that temperance is reason's girdle and passion's bridle - the strength of the soul and the foundation of virtue.
Mr. Speaker, there are to-day in the State of Indiana two thousand one hundred and sixty five, engaged in the sale of intoxicating liquors, who are licensed by law to deal out this poisonous and destructive liquid to their fellow men, while there are hundreds of others indirectly engaged in the same work of destruction, carrying before them the most powerful wave of sorrow and pain. These men will stand behind their counter and deal out this poisonous draught until they have extracted the very last cent from the poor man's purse, and sent the poor, unfortunate victim into the streets staggering, without money and without reason. How many children are there to-day scattered all over our land who ask the poor, unfortunate father in vain for bread ? How many to day who have not page: 429[View Page 429]clothes to protect them from the cold and thrilling blast of winter, simply because the father had spent his hard-earned money for the intoxicating draught ? How many wives to-day whose pillows are but too often bathed in tears from the effect of the whisky traffic, and whose prayers have ascended, no doubt to the Most High for relief? Thousands of petitions have been sent to this honorable body praying for a strong temperance law to relieve them from this tyrant wrong, waiting patiently to hear our action. The people are not only suffering by the effects of this traffic upon society, but they are burdened heavily with taxes growing out of cases caused by this evil. Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House, we ought to do something on this great question of wrong, and do it without delay. We ought to take hold of this monster evil, and by the strong arm of the law stop as far as possible its destruction among our people. Other States, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ohio, Illinoise, and others, have felt the weight and power of this growing evil, and have passed laws to prohibit its ever widening path of destruction. Indiana can not afford to fall behind. The bill we have recommended is, with a few exceptions, no new work of legislation. It has proved satisfactory in other States, and I see no good reason why it will not in ours. The local option law has recently been adopted in Philadelphia. From a correspondent we have the following: "Our State seems to have solved, in a practical and satisfactory manner, the long pending and thoroughly perplexing temperance problem. Local option, or giving the people of wards and townships the exclusive right to prohibit the vending of intoxicating liquors within their respective localities, seems to have hit the happy means needed to strengthen the temperance cause. On a very brief trial it has worked so well here that it has already been favorably indorsed and adopted by the combined temperance organizations of the State of New York." I hope Mr. Speaker, that every member of this House will feel it his duty to vote for this bill. I believe that by so doing you will cause many a dark and dreary home to be a home of sunshine, love and happiness. You will by this act of your life carry tidings of joy, of comfort and peace to the fireside of many brokenhearted and sorrowing families. You will give bread to the hungry and clothes to the naked; and this Legislature will be held long in rememberance by the kind good wishes of a grateful people. Mr. Speaker, I earnestly hope the bill will pass. The people are demanding it. The welfare and prosperty of our State demand it. The happiness and comfort of our people demand it. The fact that so many precious souls are being lost in eternity is a sufficient reason that we should give it our earnest support.
Mr. FURNAS. I hope the House will proceed to the vote without a demand for the previous question.
Mr. BLOCHER submitted a motion for adjournment which was rejected without a division.
Mr. SHIRLEY demanded a call of the House to bring in the absentees.
The call proceeded, and was dispensed with when a satisfactory quorum had been determined - eighty nine members responding.
On motion of Mr. BAKER, the bill was again considered as engrossed and put upon its passage
The Clerk reported - yeas 53, nays 36, on the final passage of the bill, as follows: - See page 128.
So the bill passed the House of Representatives, and then, when Mr. Butts' motion to reconsider this vote was laid on the table by his own motion, the House took a recess till two o'clock P. M.
