Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-05-24

the Hcense system, nor has the license system
anyrhsrs produced any good results
We have no hesitation in saying that
this is the widest statement We have
ever heard from Temperance reformer
and that is saying good deal.
Notwithstanding Mr.. Dow continues
to maintain in general Tdy that prohibit.
ton in his own State is success, unless
he has been grossly misrepresented in
various statements madein his own State
about the liquor traffic, We could upon
these statements alone, prove to the sat
islaction OF an unprecedented mind, that
prohibition in Maine is but farce and
an sggrivaiion rather than a correction
OF the evils OF the liquor traffic. Those
who heard the debates in the Legisla-
ture OF West Virginia last winter, will
remember that the statistics OF results
under prohibitory laws in Maine, furn-
ished the chief and strongest arguments
against adopting prohibitory legislation
in this State.
Ii has been but a short time since
Mr.. Dow was represented to be pro-
claiming from the public platform in
Maine, that the prohibitory statute s
there had been broken down and tram.
pied under foot and the liquor traffic
was flOurlshing right under the eyes o.
the officers OF the law. He was repre-.
sented as declaring that there were 100
drinking places in the city OF Portland,
or one drinking place for every 254 souls
Of the population; that in Bangor, the
Capital OF the State, the law was so
nearly dead letter and the liquor traffic
running to such lengths that the
churches felt called upon to take steps
10 arrest il. This is certainly very
strange kind Of endorsement for practi-
cal prohibition.
But a rerbatim report OF one OF Mr..
Dow's statements concerning the man.
ner in which the prohibitory laws OF lis
State were defied and circumvented,
would seem to be sufficient in itself to
show that prohibition is not only fail
IRE there, but an aggrayation OF the
evils Of intemperance. Mr.. Dow said
and this quotation he has admitted to be
genuine:
whisky in Maine is carried in small
bottles in the pockets OF the LIQUOR SELL
ers and dealt out on the sly; 1t is put
into tea-pots, placed upon the kitchen
shelf: il is built into the walls of houses,
in tin cans, with small rubber pipe by
which to draw it of; it is concealed
in bottles in the bed; it is concealed
in bot es under the floor, put
there through trap that can be only
reached by removing the bed; il is con-
cealed in small flat bottles in the ash pit
under the ovens Of cooking stoves; it is
hidden in wells attached to strings fas-
tened some inches below the surface OF
the water; it is buried in manure heaps;
II is concealed under the floor OF the
pig-sty; it is hidden away upon the ii At
roof OF the house, access to it being had
only by ladder through a scuttle; it is
hidden in attics, under the floor, and in
cellars buried in the earth"
1t seems to an ordinary mind, tn; I
such admissions from the foremost
champion OF the Maine prohibitory
liquor law, ought to be conclusive as to
the fulil;ty OF prohibitory legislation in
the suppression OF the liquor traffic.
But as Mr.. Dow seems to be hard TO
convince OF any advantage in license
over the prohibitory system, We
will call his attention 10
some official statistics from the State %!
Observation-Disclosures both the license
and the prohibitory laws have received
the iairest trial and the most exhaustive
discussion OF any State in the Union,
and where the official statistics show
with most conclusive AMI convincing
force the increase OF drunkenness under
prohibition and the decrease under the
license system.
In the report OF the bureau of sta
tistics OF labor for 1880, the statistics of
crime in Massachusetts, for twenty years,
from 1860 to 1879 inclusive, are given.
Il is there shown that rum crime" in.
creased to an alarming extent while the
prohibitory law was in force, and that,
since the enactment OF the license law,
the number OF these crimes has steadily
decreased. Under the head OF Offences
against chastity, vagsbondsge, / ep-
ing disorderly houses, etc-i.r
number OF persons sentenced la
the whole State in 1878 two years be.
fore the prohibtory law was repesled)
was 27,270-or to IS Inhabitants. In
the wear 1879, the number of sentences
for the same crimes was only lS,l70-l
to IS inhabitants
The record in the city OF Boston shows
the same thing. Under the prohibitory
law the average number of arrests
for drunkenness each year for
the five years, 1867 to 1878 inclusive,
WAS 1897, and the average number of
drunken persons assisted TO their homes
by the police was 1868. During the
five years following the adoption OF the
license system, 1875 to 1879 inclusive,
the average number of arrests f)r
drunkenness each year was 1885, and
the average number Of drunken per-
sons assisted to their homes was $40. In
1873 the population Of Boston was esti-
mated at 800 900, and the number of ar.
rests for drunkenness was 1850. In
1879, with apopulation OF $4,000, the
number Of arrests for drunkenness was
II cR- Or a lacra..a of q sto