Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1882-04-25
Maine expended on her public schools

81, LOG, ,2O3, and New Jersey, with its
about one half more population, s., 1892, :
250. The newspapers and periodicals of
Maine increased in circulation in twen-
| ty years 1874 per cent. It does credit to
Maine. But the circulation in New
Jersey during the same period increased
| over 365 per cent. One bulletin on that
subject has been issued for 1880. It
shows that the circulation of the daily
press in Maine Is 1923 per capita while
New Jersey. although flooded by the
great New York dailies, circulates of her
own 1872 copies per capita. In 1850
Maine was ahead In her religious facili-
ties. She had 945 churches, and New
Jersey had only 813. Maine tried the
beneficent power of prohibition. In
1880 she had increased the number of
her churches II per cent. while New
Jersey, under license, had an increase
of So per cent; the church property was
in value 20.1 per cent. and that of New
Jersey 1913 per cent; while the church
sittings in Maine had increased only II
per cent, against an increase of 65 per
cent. in New Jersey. And yet we are
told coolly that mo State In this Union
has prospered so much as Maine has
during the last twenty years." and that
prohibition has contributed ito the ma.
terial wealth. happiness, and prosperity
of the. State" The material wealth
and the prosperity do not show; per-
haps the happiness is there. ITO be
drunk is to be happy" says the old
saw. The percentage of arrests for
drunkenness in the principal cities of
that State. so much over that of the cit
les of New Jersey, infers q large
amount of that kind of happiness; and
as Neal Dow and the rest tell us that
there is little open drinking of liquor,
and secret drinking has not taken its
place, the only solution is to be found
in the assumption that the water here
is carbon hydrate instead of an oxy-
hydrate, and whiskey.
TEnroTALIsM GONE MAD.
That an unrelenting war should be
made on drunkenness is not only prop
er, but needful. But 1t must not be q
Chinese war-the advancement of hid
eously painted shields and the beating
Of gongs. Legislative enactments, un-
supported by public sentiment; empty
assertions that are without truth to sus-
tain them; abuse of all who doubt the
power or propriety of the reigning
method, and quasi alliance with whis-
key against beer-these seem to form
the weapons of Neal Dow and his co.
laborers. They have been trying for
years, and what is the result +? By their
own showing more drinkers and more
drunkards than ever, except in this
State, where they insist that all is Sc
rene. Here ex-Gov. Dingley and his
ink artists paint us rosy pictures of the
Arcadian simplicity of the people be-
cause of prohibition and the too utterly
perfect sobriety that exists. The truth
throws dark shadow on their efforts
past. 1t reveals the fact that the people
Of Maine. deprived Of the lighter drinks
that temper the habit elsewhere, have
fallen back on Illicit whiskey that the
trade in intoxicants is thrown mainly
without restraint or supervision into
the lowest and most irresponsible
hands; that the percentage of drunk
enness is greater than in the license
States that the amount of pauperism
is heavier and rapidly increasing; that
are advancing at a frightful rate; that
license States that there are more sui
cides, insanity, idiocy, blindness, and
bodily defects, arising from a vitiated
stock, in the former than in the
latter States (See the United States
census on this point, and that the dis
regard of the law among the people is
engendering contempt for all law and
advancing general decentralization. That
these men mean well have no doubt.
Macaulay said of the old Puritans that
they forbade bear batting, not because
of any sympathy with the bear, but be-
cause they hated to see the spectators
enjoying themselves. I take no such
cynical view of these mems efforts.
Doubtless there was an honest intent
in the author of the Maine law to pre-
vent, or at least mitigate, the evils flow
ing from the pernicious and detestable
crime of drunkenness. But a wise
man, when experience has shown that
his scheme only aggravates the evils it
was meant to cure, substitutes some
thing more practicable. Here Neal
Dow perseveres in the teeth of signal
and disastrous failure.