prohibited within a limited distance of any church, school house, theater, opera house, public building, 'park or other public place; whether all licensees should not be required to give ample bonds and every applicant for a license furnish evidence of citizenship and good character. As the licensing body or authorities, it has been well said that judicial purity and reputation for purity are far more important than discrete licensing.

It is of the utmost importance that courts and judges should be kept as far removed from politics as possible. This matter of licensing therefore, should be intrusted to some other department, or to boards especially raised up for that purpose, and which boards should have stability and independence.

There should be several grades of license fees, depending on the size and population of the towns or cities; and the traffic should be made to raise large revenues both to the state and the towns or municipalities. Every licensee should be restricted from selling to minors or intoxicated persons, or on Sundays, election days or any legal holidays, nor should he be allowed to furnish musical entertainment of any kind, or billiards or cards, or any game whatever; and the place should be wide open to inspection from a street or highway and the hours should be strictly limited, and the shorter the better, provided public sentiment supports these restrictions.

If druggists' licenses are to be granted at all, they should be entrusted only to registered pharmacists who should be authorized to sell only in small quantities, and only on a written prescription of a physician, not interested in the store. These suggestions, gathered from many sources, may be of some value in formulating a proper statute to be submitted to the people for their adoption or rejection.

The Referendum.

FROM VT. HISTORICAL READER BY HON. EDWARD CONANT.

This is a mode of legislation in which the people have a direct vote. It was used in Switzerland before the first English colonies were planted in America. In principle, it has been employed in the United States since their separation from Great Britain.

In 1776, in Massachusetts, a state constitution, framed by a convention, was submitted to a direct vote of the people, and was adopted by them. In recent times, new constitutions have usually been made in the same way.

In amending state constitutions, the amendments are generally proposed by a legislature or by a convention, and then are voted on by the people.

General laws are sometimes submitted indirectly to a vote of the people. The legislature of Vermont in 1852 enacted a prohibitory liquor law, and provided that the law should take effect in March. 1853, if the freemen of the state voted "Yes" at a meeting to be held in February, 1853; but that if the people voted "No," then the law should take effect in December, 1853. The people voted "Yes," and the law went into effect at the date first named.

Laws of local application are often submitted to a vote of the people affected by them. In 1882, people in the towns of Derby and Salem desired to have the two towns united in one. The legislature enacted a law providing for a union of the two towns in one if a majority of the voters in each town should vote for the union. A majority in each town so voted, and the two towns became the one town of Derby.

The act, by which the town of St. Albans was divided into St. Albans city and St. Albans town, was submitted to a vote of each part of the town to be divided,

In all these cases, the principle of the referendum was applied.

In South Dakota, a law enacted by the legislature must be submitted, with some exceptions, to a vote of the people, if such submission is demanded by one-twentieth of the voters of the state within three months from the passage of the law. This is an imitation of the Swiss referendum.

INITIATIVE.

Also, in South Dakota, if one-twentieth of the voters of the state demand the passage of a law, the legislature is required to submit the proposed law to a vote of the people. If a majority of the people vote for the law, it goes into effect at once. initiative.

This is an imitation of the Swiss

Summary of the Liquor Laws in

the Several States.

There are in all seventeen States which have at some time passed laws prohibiting the sale of liquors, except for mechanical, medicinal and sacramental purposes. Ten of these States have abandoned prohibition for high license and local option.

MAINE.

On the 2d of June, 1851, the prohibitory law went into force. In 1855 it was repealed, and licenses granted during 1855 and 1856. In 1857 the prohibitory law was re-enacted and has remained in full force ever since. In 1854 an amendment to the constitution was adopted making prohibition a part of the fundamental law of the State. The popular vote was 70,183 against 22,811. In 1893 the law was amended authorizing the Governor and Council to appoint a commissioner to furnish municipal officers of towns in the State with pure liquors to be kept and sold for medicinal, mechanical and manufacturing purposes. Any violation of the law is followed by a heavy penalty.

NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Adopted prohibition in 1855. The sale of beer has been forbidden since 1878. An attempt to make prohibition a part of the constitution was defeated in 1889. There is one peculiarity in the prohibition law of this State. It does not prohibit the manufacture of intoxicating liquors, hence there are breweries and distilleries. Heavy penalties are attached for the violation of the law, as well as for any failure to enforce the law on the part of selectmen.

VERMONT.

Prohibition was adopted in 1852. The manufacture of all spirituous or fermented liquors is strictly prohibited, except wine for the Lord's supper, cider and wine in the State from grapes or fruits grown in the State, without any admixture of alcohol or spirituous and fermented liquors, for the maker's own use. The sale of liquors is also prohibited. For any violation of the law there are fines and imprisonment.

.CONNECTICUT.

In 1854 a prohibitory law was adopted, which was repealed in 1872, a license law with local option being substituted. In 1889 a prohibitory amendment to the constitution was defeated by a popular vote. The present license law, with local option, was enacted in 1889. License fee, $100 to $500.

RHODE ISLAND.

In 1852 a prohibitory law was passed, which was repealed in 1863 and a general license law was enacted. In 1874 a second prohibitory law was passed, which was exchanged the following year for a license law with local option. License fee from $200 to $1,000. In 1886 a prohibitory amendment to the constitution was adopted by a popular vote of 15,113 against 9,230. In June, 1889, the question was again submitted, resulting in 9,956 votes for and 28,315 against the amendment. Then a high license law, with local option, was adopted.

NEW JERSEY.

The liquor traffic of this State is not regulated by any general State law. Each city, town or other municipality in the State is authorized by law to regulate the traffic within its own jurisdiction, and to appropriate to its own use all the fees received from liquor licenses. There is thus no uniformity and no way of ascertaining facts except by an examination of the records of each municipality.

PENNSYLVANIA.

In this State the principle of local option has never been in favor. In 1864 a law embodying the principle was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. In 1871 this decision was reversed, and in 1872 an act was passed which gave to each county local option, and in the following year more than two-thirds of the counties voted for prohibition. In 1889 a prohibitory amendment to the State constitution was defeated by a vote of 294.617 for; against it, 474,644. A law passed in 1887 called the "Brooks Law" is now the law of the State. It has heavy penalties attached. License from $75 to $1,000.

DELAWARE.

In 1840 a law was passed requiring all keepers of inns or ale houses to obtain licenses of the Governor, on recommendation of the Court of Sessions. In 1841 the power of granting licenses was transferred to the city of Wilmington. A bill submitting the question of license or no license to the people in 1847 was declared unconstitutional by the Court. In 1855 a prohibitory law was passed, which was repealed in 1857, and a general license law adopted, with low license fees.

MARYLAND.

There is no general law regulating the liquor traffic; the practice is for the State to legislate separately for each locality. In 1890, when an act was passed relating to the city of Baltimore, there were as many as thirty separate acts affecting as many different localities. [See brief historical review.]

MASSACHUSETTS.

In 1852 a prohibitory law similar to that of Maine was passed. In 1855 it was amended, repealed in 1868 and restored in 1869. In 1865 a State constabulary law was enacted.

lager beer and porter were authorized.

In 1870 the sale of ale, beer,

In 1873 that amendment was

repealed. In 1874 both the prohibitory and the State constabulary law were repealed and a general license law was passed. In 1881 this was supplemented by a local option amendment. In 1882 a prohibitory law was defeated in the House of Representatives by the casting vote of the speaker. In 1889 a prohibitory law amendment to the constitution was defeated by a popular vote. This State is now under high license and local option, with heavy penalties attached for violations.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

The traffic here is under license. In 1888 an attempt was made in Congress to enact a prohibitory law for the District, but it failed, and in 1893 Congress passed the present license law, which calls for the appointment of three commissioners, who have exclusive jurisdiction in the matter. License fees from $250 to $500.

VIRGINIA,

The present law, which is license with local option, was passed in 1897. A State Board of Commissioners appoints three commissioners for each city, which constitutes a licensing board. The licenses are graded all the way from $30 up to $350. Quite heavy penalties are attached.

WEST VIRGINIA.

In this State the subject of license or no license is left to each town or municipality. State licenses may be issued only when authorized by the County Court of the county. Fee, $350.

NORTH CAROLINA.

The system here is license and local option, under a statute passed at the session of 1872-3. The license fee is a tax of 5 per cent. on the amount of all purchases, and every agent who offers liquor for sale shall pay the tax on the value of all liquors of every description sold by him.

SOUTH CAROLINA.

In the year 1891 a prohibitory law was passed by the House and defeated in the Senate, and in 1892 the question was submitted to the people and the majority for prohibition was some 10,000 out of a total vote of 70,000. When the Legislature met that year it passed as a compromise measure for various bills introduced the famous dispensary law, said to be similar to the Gothenburg system, though it was really framed after the law then in force in Athens, Georgia.

GEORGIA.

The present system is high license with local option. More than 100 out of the 130 counties of the State are prohibitory. During eight years prior to 1891, 160 local liquor acts had been passed. The license fees are various. In some small localities and for certain licenses $25.00 is the amount, while in other districts they are as high as $1,000, and in Atlanta the retail dealer may be made to pay $2,000. In 1892 the dispensary law was established in Athens.