Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-08-10

$4,000 of the towns money, as state
committee man is leading the "serrcd
columns" of Roberts in Somerset.
VHATIT C0STS AND now IT CLOGS
| To Tie Editor Of he henaebec Jougnal
The census of the United States shows that
eleven millions Of dollars expended for the
support of criminals and paupcls in prisons and
almshouses for the year 1870 Add to this great
sum- the loss OF labor and the other losses incident
thereto, and think it not cxtlavagant to say that
the productive and business energies of peo-
pie were crippled and taxed to the full extent OF
one hundred millions of dollars for that year, to
say nothing Of the prospective drain thereby Gre
! ated. That this enormous catalogue OF crime and
expense was entailed upon mostly by drinking
houses and tipping shops, licensed and unlicensed,
is a truth so generally admitted, that no evidence
of the fact is here deemed necessary Ofthe utter
desolatoI, sorrow, ruin and Heath that trailed all
along this broad track Of crime and ruin, who may
dare to speak? Words and phrases however skill
| fully marshalled are mpotent to tell the story.
Hearts so burdened by that all utterance of
| it il choked-that turn from the fair and beautiful
earth to the grave as a refuge from the terrible
suffering inflicted upon them by the rum shop,
| alone know the whole story. With these facts be
fore US, known to every thinking man and woman
| who reads we are told by man who aspres to be
the Gov. of q free christian commonwealth, that
to prohibit by law the sources from which all this
vast amount of crime, expense, sorrow and death
flows is unconstitutional revolutionary, and a
clog to business that the rum shop should be pro
tected by the State-licensed.
Our State has many and varied interests, re-
ligions moral, educational, agricultural and COM
mercia. But General Roberts in his speech of &C.
ceptance recognizes none Of these. But for the
drinking house and tipping shop he puts in a
special plea, exaltng them to place among the
business enterprises of the State, to be fostered
and protected by law-by license. The General
would license; SO would every volator Of law who
sends his victims home a curse and scourge to-
their families 1t is the argument of the shop and
den. 1t clogs business, says the General. Does
man who talks thus know what business is, what
it is for, and what it should do for people !!
Business enriches and ennobles a people. Rum
selling impoverishes and degrades the whole peo-
pie. Honorable business is q outstanding power .
Rumsellipg is the right bower of the devil. You
will destroy business" shouted in my ear victim
Of his own business, wild with delirium, who had
aided in the ruin of hundreds of families. LET US
strike for personal liberty" says the General. 81
will not sign your pledge, l will have personal
liberty, said young man to me, schoolmate,
who has since spent ten years, the vigor OF his
manhood, in State prison. 81 will have personal
liberty" said father to me, in anger, because a
man whom he deemed his friend had been fined
for violation of law. To-day three of his sons
fill drunkard's graves.
o! young man, indulgence and appetite will
not give you personal liberty, but death. Allmen
in our State have full personal liberty but the
victims Of appetite and passion. The free man is
the temperance man. And by temperate l mean
abstinent, when applied to the use Of alcoholic
liquors.
That the moderate use of alcohol is dangerous
no sane man will have the temarity to deny. Who
asks that drinking houses and tippling shops be
established by lawi Who wants rum sold at all
What interest Of our State requires it, Would it
promote the moral and religious interests of our
people Would it further the cause of educa-
tionf Would it empty our amshouse, feed and
clothe the poor? Would agriculture and commerce
be pr omoted thereby Would the peace, quiet,
and happiness of the one hundred and forty thou
sand families in our State be enhanceds
Does not every one Of these interests say to the
rum traffic "get thee hence, thou art an offence
unto mean enemyF' Forw whom does Gen. Rob-
erts speak when he denounces prohibition as
clog to business Certainly for none of the inter-
ests above named. For no fathers and mothers
who love their children and are looking anxious
ly to the future of the sacred charge God has en-
trusted to them. Not one of these wants any
rum sold by law or otherwise. Every impulse of
paternal and maternal love must protest against
it. For whom does he speak?
We affirm, for the drinking house and tipping
shop alone, and against every interest of the peo-
pie of Maine. In favor of traffic that is by night
and by day perpetual menace to the peace,
quiet and happiness of every one of the one hun
dred and forty thousand homes in our State, and
destructive of every teaching of the Gospel of
Christ. TEMPERANCE.