The Portland daily press., 1880-04-01
The Prohibitory Law.

1t is very much the fashion just now for
Journals published outside of Maine to speak
OF the prohibitory laws of this State ON the
subject OF the liquor traffic as failure and
to intimate that they have lost the sympathy
and support of the people. Nothing could
| be farther from the truth. The principle of
| prohibition was never more strongly sup
ported by our people than it is to-day. 1t is
agreed to by general consent as part of the
policy of our State government No politi-
cal organization ventures to openly oppose
| il and 1t is safe to say that it receives the
hearty sanction of more than two-thirds of
the native born population of Maine. 1t has
been tested for twenty-three consecutive
years and great majority of our citizens
whether total abstinence men in practice or
not-believe that it has been conducive to
the material and moral welfare of the State.
In few of our cities, perhaps. the result of
the legislation is debatabe, but no well-in-
formed person will question it's beneficent
effect in the rural districts which constitute
the great body of the State. Care should be
taken not to confound the disgust which
some people feel at some of the perform
ances of self-constituted Temperance" apos-
ties with disapproval of the principle of pro-
hibition This is evidently the mistake made
by some Of the journals which have fippant-
ly pronounced prohibition failure
We append careful, just and accurate
summary from the Lewiston journal of
what has been gained by prohibition in
Maine and we invite to it the attention of
all who have any doubt on the subject:
The recent amendments of the Maine law
prohibiting dram shops, so as to increase the
efficiency of its enforcement, are calling forth
shower OF assaults on prohibition. So inter-
ested in our prohibition policy has become the
whole country, that not only many of the Bos-
ton papers but even the New York Times and
Tribune, have joined in the cry that ''prohi-
bition is failure in Maine" In response to
inquiries by letters from all parts of the coun-
try, as to the truth of these allegations we put
on record the following significant facts:-
l. The fact that our prohibitory system has
ception of two years (1S56 and 1850 when Ii
cense was tried in its place,-and has steadily
increased in popularity until no party dares to
go before the people on the issue of its repeal,
is conclusive evidence that the great body of
the people of Maine, who have had the best
opportunity to Judge of its practical workings,
believe that it is the most efficient policy ever
devised as a supplement of moral agencies in
dealing with the evils arising from the use
and sale of intoxicating liquors. No one ex-
poets that it can take the place of moral agen-
cies, but that it is simply an adjunct of them
just as laws prohibiting houses of ill-fame and
gambling resorts, are adjunctS to moral meaAs
in promoting virtue No one claims that it
can entirely extirpate the dram shop evil, any
more than the laws prohibiting and Furnishing
theft murdAr thnSa pruonc
these laws aid in removing temptations and in
creating a healthier public sentiment, and
make it easier to do right and harder to do
wrong.
g. Our prohibitory laws have unquestion-
ably aided materially in creating better pub
lie sentiment in the matter of the use of in
toxicating liquors, than exists in any State
which has license law. Whatever is pro-
hibited by law, either directly or indirectly, is
thereby deprived of a certain appearance of
respecfability which attaches to everything
that is under legal protection. Mr.. Raper, the
distinguished EngliShman, who spent some
time in Maine and other parts of this country
few years ago, stated in public speech that
civilized world, a State of like population so
free as ours from the evils of intemperance, or
one possessed of so healthy public sentiment
in the matter of the use Of liquor as a bever-
age.
g. Prohibition has stopped effectually the
in Maine. In 1880, when our population was
less than two-thirds of what it is to-day, there
were thirteen distilleries in this State which
manufactured over two gallons of rum to each
inhabitant, nearly all of which was consumed
in the State. To-day there is not single dis
tillery or brewery in Maine.
4. Prohibition has well-nigh stopped the
traffic in, intoxicating liquors in the rural dis
tricts in Maine Forty-tive years ago all the
country taverns had open bars, and all the
StorpS sold iptOYicatjnC 1iuuOrc froa
ly as molasseS or calico. For example, the
town of Durham, with less than 1 500 inhab-
tants, had in 1882 seven licensed grog-shops.
To-day there is not drop Of liquor sold in town.
were sold 2,300 gallons of spirits annually.
Now none is sold to be used as a beverage.
Minot (then including Auburn), with a popu-
lation OF 2,903 in 1888, had thirteen grog-shops.
Now these towns, with a population of 10000,
have not single place where liquor is known
to be sold as beverage.
5. Fifty years ago, even in our rural dis
tr1ctS, nearly every male drank liquor Lq-
uors were kept in most of the houses to treat
callers: Nobody thought of having company,
or raising without supply of ardent spirits.
AT musters and other public gatherings drunk
enness and drunken affrays were common.
Now, three-fourths of the males in the rural
districts are total abstinents, and the practice
OF keeping liquors in houses to treat callers has
practically ceased. 1t would be considered an
objectionable offense to furnish spirits at a
public meeting. AT large public gatherings
cases OF intoxication are surprisingly few, and
drunken alterations rare This improvement
is strikingly shown by statistics. In 1883 Sec
retary POnd of the Maine Temperance Asso-
citation, reported that in the town of Alfred
there were 50 men and women accustomed
to get beastly drunk; in Kennebunk, 95 noto-
rous drunkards; in Topsham population 1,564)
40 drunkards; in New Gloucester, 40; Farm
ington, 80; Wayne, 30. Recent reports from
these towns show that the present number of
notorious drunkards in these and other towns
is not one-eighth, and many towns say not
one-tenth OF what it was forty years age. The
reports also show marked improvement in
the condition OF the people.
9. In the cities and larger villages, repre-
senting less than O1e-fourth of the population
OF Maine, the improvement is less marked than
in the rural districts, although undeniably
this less marked improvement: the greater
facilities that vice has to hide itself in crowded
populations; the concentration there of large
foreign population which has come into this
State within thirty years; and the resort to the
city of the drinking men, still left in the rural
regions, for supplies of liquor. If the cities
had simply held their own under these circum-
stances, it would be a great gain. But they
have done more than this. As a rule, there
are no open dramshops even here Occasional
ly, through the failure to elect both city offici-
ais and county sheriffs friendly to prohibition,
the law is neglected, and Open dram-shops ap-
pear That has been the case during the past
year in two or three cities whose condition is
being quoted to the exclusion of the large part
Of the State where the law is well enforced
But generally speaking, even in the cities, in
toxicating liquors are sold only surreptitiously,
and are to be found only by those who know
the signs and passwords of the liquor fraterni-
ty-and then, mainly in places kept by foreign
ers. There are few open dramshops to tempt.
In the cities of Lewiston and Auburn, with a
population of nearly $4,000, there is not sin
gle open dram-shop, and no hotel has even
secret bar. In the larger cities there are many
cases of drunkenness. but a majority of them