Three-mile laws refer to the laws passed during the temperance movement in many southern and mid-western states during the 19th and early 20th centuries. These laws were normally passed at the local or county level, but some laws were passed by state governments. The laws required all liquor stores, bars, and other liquor establishments to be built at least three miles away from a church or a school. Some remote counties still enact the three-miles laws today.
Famous quotes containing the words three-mile and/or laws:
“Their sighin’, cantin’, grace-proud faces,
Their three-mile prayers, and half-mile graces.”
—Robert Burns (1759–1796)
“Natural knowledge, seeking to satisfy natural wants, has found the ideas which can alone still spiritual cravings. I say that natural knowledge, in desiring to ascertain the laws of comfort, has been driven to discover those of conduct, and to lay the foundations of a new morality.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)