The Portland daily press., 1879-06-03
Neal Dow on Governor Garcelon
Maine and the Maine Law.

| iiO 10 ACpIeSeuJeu as naVlng SAID. OIOV. Garcc-
lon is man of good personal character;
think he is teetotelar; he has no sympathy
with the liquor traffic, that Gigantic crime of
| crimes" nor with the low, vile haunts where
liquor is sold in this State. / do not believe
therefore, that the Governor is correctly re-
ported by the Constitution, for anything more
false and foolish in relation to the Maine Law
and its results can hardly be imagined L
have before me now, many letters from differ
ent parts of the country, containing newspaper
accounts of the Governors pretended remarks
and urgently asking me for a true statement
OF the matter, which L now propose to give
once for all.
l cannot follow the Constitution in detail
through its article, as it would require one full
page of the PRESS in small type to do so but
will notice briefly, though sufficiently, all his
points. The accuracy of the reporter may be
fairly imagined by the first sentence which he
puts into the Governors mouth: ''The Maine
Law was framed and passed by Neal Dowl'
But the Governor goes on: 1. "I am not GER
tain that its operations have been beneficial
Now the law has been in operation for more
than twenty-six years. and the Governor can
not yet say, one way or the other, whether its
effect has been good or bad. 1 will venture
the remark, that if the Governor in this is
correctly reported, he is the only intelligent
man in the State Of good character, who does
not know that the effect of the law has been
wonderful for good, to the State and people,
2. at is impossible to enforce it, Gov.
Chamberlain, Gov. Perham, Gov. Dingley,
Gov. Connor, and Senators and Representa-
tives in Congress and many others in printed
documents declare that this law is as well en-
forcedas our other criminal laws are and that
is true. This enforcement has been at times
fitful and capricious in certain localities; but
generally it has been and is well enforced 1t
has absolutely abolished distilleries breweries
and wine factories; it has absolutely driven the
liquor traffic out of all our rural districts, small
Ter towns and villages and in the larger towns
has driven it into dark, dirty secret holes, kept
almost exclusively by the lowest class of for
eigners 1t has reduced the sale of liquor in
this State to at least one tenth of what it was
before, when we had open and free rumshops,
wholesale and retail all over the State, with
many distilleries and large lmportations of
West India rum. Every intelligent, unpreiu-
diced citizen of Maine knows this to be true.
3. 'There are a great many secret bar
rooms hidden away in the vagabond quarters
of the city, usually in cellars, back rooms, &c.
they are the most vicious holes that
can be imagined" "The police find them,
but to very little purpose. The police in
our cities are usually an unreliable class
of men, being politicians or the tools of polici-
clans. In many cases they are open to bribes,
in consideration of which they agree to leave
these bar-rooms alone, and even protect them
by their secret sympathy" 1 only remark on
this, that do not know of a single case that
can justify this statement, and L do not be-
lieve that Governor Garcelon does, and there
fore conclude that he is grossly misrepre-
sented. How our most respectable policemen,
sheriffs and sheriff's officers may like that,
1 cannot say. But know that the facts are
not correctly stated in this pretended report of
the Governors remarks, and that it contains
most unjust and unworthy aspersions upon a
most useful and reliable body ofmen.
81 think the proportion" (of drinking in
Maine,) sis about the same as in other States
In the country, liquor is carried by drum
mers in their earpet-bags by peddlers in their
packs and by commercial men in their sample
boxes. \ There are too. a
good many persons who distil their own liquors
They have little retorts that are excel
lent distilleries. A man can put one of these
IN his parior and distiI in short tine, liquor
enough to keep him drunk week. This is
done by great many" All this is pitiful; L
don't believe the Governor said it. There is
not one tenth so much liquor sold in the State
as formerly. Large regions of our territory
are entirely free from the SALE The habits of
our people are wonderfully changed for the
better L never heard of a case of
commercial traveller or q peddler carry
ing about liquors in sample box or pack:
do not believe there has been such a case.
1 never heard of little distillery in private
honse; l don't believe there is one in the State;
the Governor, no doubt, has heard the enemies
OF the Maine Law say that, but don't believe
he knows OF any such case, or has even heard
of one, on reliable authority. don't believe
that any citizen of Maine with a parlor makes
rum in it and gets drunk thereon for a week.
or for any other time and don't believe the
Governor ever knew of such case But if all
this were so, what then? 1t shows most con-
clusively that the law is so vigorously and sue
cessfully enforced as to exclude liquors from
the State to such an extent that people re-
sort to "little retorts in their parlors." Now
before the law, liquors were carried about all
over the State in hogsheads and barrels, and
in packages of every kind, by horse teams, by
OK teams-full loads of them; by railroads and
steamboats,. On every highway through the
State all this could be seen any day, every day;
but now the pretended report of the Governors
remarks says they are carried about in carpet
bags, in peddler's packs and in sample boxes
and yet according to the same most veracious
report, there is as much drinking in Maine
| under this state of things as in the old time.
and as much "as in other States'' where the
| liquor traffic is free! 1t is only necessary to
state the case as the report puts it to show how
| very false, foolish and absurd it is
SUBSTITUTES FOR wHIsKEY''
8. care there not substitutes that are sold
| for spirituous liquors?"
eyes sir. 1t is wonderful to what extent
| that has gone. There are men who peddle
those things all over the State A man will
come into your store and ask for a loan of a
| pitcher and some fresh water. He will then
| take little powder and sprinkle in tumbler
| of water, and ask you to drink it and tell him
| what it is. You reply that it tastes like gin.
! he then sprinkles another powder in another
| glass, and asks you what that is. You reply
| that it tastes like peach brandy. And so he
| goes through the whole list. The fact is the
| prohibition laws make it impossible to get the
real stuff, and so it is profitable to the quacks
to deal in those nostrums, and they demand
| big prices for them" Now if the Governor
really uttered this pitiful nonsense and bosh,
no doubt he had heard it; but 1 cannot con-
ceive of a man being such tremendous ninny
| as to believe it, There is not a word of it true
| I mean about the powders-the other mart
about the "impossibility" difficulty of "get
| ting the real stuff is quite true. But then
the Governor has before said-or is reported to
| have said-that the law is not enforced and
cannot be. Throughout the whole reported in
terview the Governor is represented as fire.
| quently uttering these manifest and absurd
| Contradictions
| 6. SIS the Maine Law then failure?"
Il cannot say that, and yet it has certainly
| not diminished its absolute successfuness'l
| (Here it is quite evident some one had taken
too much-'powder.' "After the thirty years
| of trial it is still considered an open expert
ment. AS for myself, of course, all my sympa-
| thies are with the cause of temperance, but
| am unable to say whether not l believe in
the Maine Liquor Law. mean in its efficen-
cy." Now it is not true that in Maine prohibi-