The Portland daily press., 1869-01-08
'rnas $500 per Gnnuna, dn odrance.


To the Editor Of the Press;
Allow me, as briefly as possible, to submit
few of the considerations which incline many
of the friends of temperance to favor State
police and to petition the Legislature for tho
enactment of law authorizing such q force
LIST. 1t will give practical and conclusive
test to the principle of prohibition. The value
of any principle is determined not by the
mere fact of its incorporation into statute,
but by the practical effects of the law 1chen e9-
ecuted. 1t is no argument in favor of prohibi-
ton that it has found place in our statute
book for twenty years, unless during that time
the laws embodying it have been enforced and
have wrought desirable results. 1t may indeed
be a question whether the mere fact of the
non-execution of given law does not furnish
strong argument against the principle em-
bodied in the law. At any rate we do not
wish to run this risk, If prohibition be right,
as we believe, we wish the fact proued and the
work for which 1t is designed ACCOMPLISHED.
We desire test of the value of the pro ibi-
tory principle when applied to the sale of alco-
holic stimulants; and we favor a State police
as the shortest, surest, most efficient and most
decisive means of securing it.
I'd. All the experience of the past has shown
that for securing uniform, impartial and con,
tnuous execution of prohibtory laws, reliance
upon local authorities is worse than useless
In one town or city strong temperance senti-
ment prevails and the law is executed,- in the
adjoining town opposite opinions are upper
most, the law is "dead letter" and rum is
Stree as water" So, too, in given locality
the local officers this year are temperance
men, and the grog-shops are closed-next year
the liquor interest has the power, the law is
not enforced, and more evil is wrought than
years of rum-famine can cure. Or worse than
either of these, the local authorities tolera-
bly, ready to pounce upon a poJr Irishman
who sells his fellow ''drop OF the crathur,"
but they require at least two other citizens,
not officers, to sign a complaint before they
will strike at the wealth and influence which
are sometimes arrayed to sustain the traffic
Now, for all these NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. of the
law State police is in its very nature prob
able cure. Wisely and efficiently directed, we
believe it will prove a sovereign remedy. 1t
will reach with uniform vigor to every part of
the State, and that which is law for part of
the towns will become the law for every town
and every city within our borders 1t viii
possess the same energy tomorrow as to-day,
in July as in January, and next year as this
1t will be persistent and continuous, sleepless
as the sphinx, and certain as fate. Better than
all these, it will be above partiality. Backed
by the dignity and power of the State, its Off
GERS will know no distinctions among men
save that of innocence and guilt.
Sd. The results achieyed under the imper-
feet law of last year were such as to excite the
most favorable anticipations. The early repeal
of that law prevented the attainment of the
ends for which it was designed and which it is
morally certain its continuance would have
secured. Let the memory of every reader tes-
tify what a dimininution of the sale and use
of ardent spirits followed the establishment of
the force in July, 1867. Some may be disposed
to claim that this closing up of grog shops and
| liquor dens followed from the increased penal
ties for violation of the liquor laws. If so, 1
have only to ask, had these penalties been di-
minished in December OF the same year when
| it had become morally certain that the Con-
stabulary law would be repealed, and open
and shameless violation of the law again be-
came common? Were the penalties lessened
all through January and February of 1868,
when the advance waves of the present fear
ful tide came sweeping in upon US? Not at
all, but the constables were legislated out Of
existence and the law was not enforced. We
saw. then, let us reap to the full extent the re-
| suits of a measure which accomplished so
much and which promised to do so much
mo1e M. L. 5.