The Portland daily press., 1879-12-04
Club Rooms" and Drink" in Port
land.

To the Editor Of The Press:
SIR: In the Boston Letter, printed in your
issue of the 9th ult., I am appealed to by name
to answer certain questions concerning the eff
cheney or inefficiency of the Maine Law. There
may be other persons, than the writer of that
letter, needing, but perhaps not wanting, accu-
rate information on that MATTER, and gladly
avail myself Of the opportunity to furnish it as
briefly as 1 can through the columns of the
PRESS, if you will kindly give me the room.
The Boston Letter says:
81 see one of our surburban papers the editor of
which has been in Maine says that your prollibory
law is of account. lie says the cities, pariicu-
lary Portland, are oyerrun with club-rooms. AMI
that drink can easily be Obtained in them. have
heard this from others. Now, should Ike for
Neal Row to tell whether this is true, and if it
IS why some efforts are not made to suppress in
temperance in this drection II it is all true, and
nothing is done to suppress the Of liquors, then
what good are yonr prohl9tory la%s; WI Mf
a report by the editor of the suburban paper
alluded to as to the operation of the Maine
Law in Portland, would be influenced very
much by the sort of company he kept while
here The anti temperance people Of this city,
the visitors OF gambling houses and the habit
ues OF other establishments kept in bye places,
will declare Will, one voice that the Law is a
failure; that it has done no good; that more
liquor is sold here than ever before; that the
business of the city is ruined because traders
and other business people will not come here
where they cannot obtain drink that Port
land is the wckedest place of its size in the
world, because the people, being shut off from
indulgence in "drink,'' fly eagerly to all sorts
OF other vices. ] have often heard this said of
II, orr Is 4I,o L., III bor baorJ IL
all from the same persons at different times.
Temperance men, on the other hand, will
declare unanimously that the law has accom-
plished great good; that it has shut off the open
sale of liquor everywhere except in Bangor,
where the moral and religious tone is very low
this being the cause of, open rum-selling
there, or the effect of it; that the quantity of
liquor sold in Maine now, is not one tenth as
much as before the law; that there is not in
operation, a distillery or brewery, or wine fac
tory in the State; that in all our small villages
and rural districts the liquor traffic is un-
known, and that the effect of the law for good
in Maine has been wonderful. Everywhere in
the State, before the Law, the liquor traffic
was free and open as in Massachusetts, and
our people consumed their full share of
drink" according to their numbers.
Mr., Blaine, during our recent political car
vass, at great and enthusiastic public meet
ing in our City Hall said that during the last
twenty years Maine, under Republican rule,
had been more prosperous than any other
State in the Union. This was right and
proper thing for him to say. But anyone in
the audience might have added: "Yes, that's
true but the fact is to be attributed to the
Maine Law, by which at least twenty-four mil
lion dollars are saved annually to the State,
directly and indirectly, which, but for it,
would be spent and wasted in drink"
''No man who knew what Maine was before
the Law, and knows what it has been since
and is now, can fail to see the wonderful i'm
provement in the condition of the people and
in the thrift and prosperity of the State" These
words are quoted from declaration as to the
general influence of the Law, signed b! a late
Governor of the State and by every member
of the Executive Council. | think it is within
the truth to say that, before the Law, the peo-
pie of Maine consumed in strong drink the en-
tire v2luation of the State-itS property OF ev-
cry kind-in every period OF twenty years; the
people of the Union are now doing the same
thing in every period of a little over twenty
years. reckoning annual compound interest at
six per cent. But now. half a million dollars,
l am confident, will cover the cost OF liquors
smugged into the State and sold in violation
of law. Gov. Dingley, in a speech at our City
Hail. speaking of this point, said he was will
ing to concede that the drink bill of Maine
might be near one million dollars~
Since the adoption of the original Maine Law
in -1S51 there hara- -hoo..-sauaraI- Ants -Addi-
tonal all in the direction of greater stringen-
cy; and in 1S77-7S one was passed more strin-
gent than any which had preceded it, without
dissenting vote in either House. This would
have been impossible unless the operation of
the law of prohibition had been favorable.
Maine is one Of the most reliable Republican
States, with few grog-shops, which are rifle pits
to kill off Republican voters. Massachusetts,
with her Maine Law had 10000 Republican
majority, but with license that has entirely
vanished, and the party now is thankful for a
plurality.
But your Boston Letter speaks particularly
of club-rooms, with which it says Portland is
overrun, and it considers them as nurseries of
intemperance. There are, in the city, perhaps,
fifteen or twenty of these establishments, but
they would deny with indignation that their
influence is bad. The Cumberland Club,
which was the first one established, has for its
members some of our most respectable citizens
and none are admitted who are otherwise.
Its Constitution and Bylaws are carefully
drawn 50 not to conflict with the law. The
members have their little cup-boards, each
with his little key, and it is nobody's business
what the little locker contains; and doubt IL
the writer of your Boston Letter would conSid-
er it proper thing for the 'seizing officers to
do, to pry into the private affairs of this emil
nently respectable club.
All the other clubs in the city are formed
upon the model of this most respectable one,
which is not drinking clnb at all, as [ am
assured by some of the members. The other
clubs, it is true, not able to steer so clear of
the law as this one does, but what they lack in
skill and discretion i'll that direction, they
more than make up in hard swearing when the
sheriffs have them up before the courts. The
buildings where the club rooms are established
are owned by some OF our most respectable citi-
Zens. who are perfectly well aware of their
character, and If this were bad it is fairly to be
assumed that the landlords would not tolerate
them.
The writer Of your Boston letter and all
others who feel an interest in the suppression
of grog shops may rest assured that the warfare
against them in this State will be carried on
vigorously and without relaxation until our
State shall be entirely swept clean of the
liquor traffic, which is in deadly hostility to
every legitimate interest of the people; a
slaughter of the people; which Lord Chester
field said i'll the House of Lords in 1I27, was
carried on by "artists in human slaughter
which the English judge, Hill, said in a charge
to the grand jury, 'blocked the way of every
undertaking for the good of the peope;''
which Mr. Senator Lot NJ Morrill, on the floor
of the United States Senate said, sis the gigan-
tic crime of crimes.'
From John Wesey's day to our time no man
has denied or doubted the truth of these terri
bic denunciations of the liquor traffic, which is
licensed and protected in Massachusetts, but is
put under the ban of the law i'll Maine, as the
source of more mischief and misery to the
State and people than all other causes of evil
combined. NEAL Dow.