Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-01-17
For the Kennebec journal.
THE LIQUOR Law. WHAT AMEND
MENTS ARE REQUIRED


This law, as it stands in the Statutes of 1870,
is exceedingly crude and imperfect. After
all the wisdom bestowed upon prohibition
during the twenty-five years of legislation
upon the subject in this State, it must yet be
confessed that its grand result-the liquor
law of ls70-belongs to the class-s'hasty
legislation"
1t has become so common to charge the in
efficiency of the law to the inefficiency of
officers aud to the hostility of the people to
its enforcement, that one chief cause of its
failure to be enforced has been overlooked.
That chief cause, in the opinion of the writer,
is in the law itself.
The law contains several inconsistencies.
Among them is one which is at war with its
whole theory and aim, destroying its vital
force and annihilating its logic altogether. 1t
purports to be prohibitory law, one intend
ed to prevent the sale of intoxicating liquors,
and, hence, to prevent so far as it may, the
drinking habits of the people, and yet it con-
tains the following provision: "Section %.
The provisions of this chapter shall not ex-
tend to the manufacture and sale Of unadul-
terated cider in any case, nor to wine made
from fruit grown in this State"
Is wine an intoxicating liquor? If so, why
offer an inducements premium-for lis
manufacture and sale in Maine What reason,
or excuse, compatible with common sense,
can possibly be offered to reconcile this pro-
vision with the logic of prohibition. 1t de-
stroys the reason for the law and removes the
only tenable ground upon which the prohibit
ZIONIST can stand for an instant, namely the
wrong of selling intoxicating liquors. If this
native wine provision is right, then is prohi
bition wrong, and the law not only weak, but
nonsensical. Into what confusion do we
throw the whole matter when we undertake
to prescribe by law that certain intoxicating
liquors shall not be sold, and that other kinds
equally intoxicating may be manufactured
and sold without let or hindrance! Let us go
into any victualing or drinking house in this
State, and we shall get some new ideas as to
the resources of Maine in the drinking line.
According to the statistics of the grog shops,
Maine is one of the largest wine producing
States on the continent. Currants, elderber-
ries, rhubarb, grapes, to say nothing of the
many other fruits and plants that have, under
this law for protecting "natve Wines" been
made to do duty for native drunkenness, have
been stimulated into enormous production.
1t is not the worst of this class of liquors that
they make people drunk, but under an inno-
cent label and the recommendation of the
Maine Law they lure the young into the vice
of intemperance. The records Of every police
court in the State will furnish proof of this
statement. Then why should so glazing an
inconsistency longer weaken the law and de-
feat its purpose! s...a s.
With the liquor law of 1870, is embodied
the law relating to innholders and victualers.
1t is very properly SO included. These are
the persons who most frequently violate the
prohibitory law. Indeed could these be en-
tirely restrained the work would be substan-
TALLY done. The law, then, should not be
weak nor equisocal in reference to them.
They should stand out by express and clear
provisions as the parties mainly responsible
for the intemperance existing among us Now