Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-07-05


the policy of license, voting 1t down, en-
Enthusiastically, by overwhelming majorities.
"There i. now noorganized or respectable
opposition or objection among us to prohi-
bition, and it is universally regarded as the
settled policy of the State. This condition
of public opinion among Us in relation to
s this question is the result of the practical
Workfngo of the Maine law. Conferring such
great benefits upon the people in all their
Interests, ssat the same time no harm
Whatever has come from it to any public
or private interest. For no consideration,
would our people 60 back to the old policy
sefhe original Maine lawn Twas passed in
1851 by a vote of IS to 10 in the Senate and
SO to 40 in the House, while the vote in
1879, on a project to license druggists to
sell LIQUORS, after an experience of more
than fwenty-eight years Of the operations
of the law, was more than six to one in op-
position to relaxing any of its restrictions
-reaffirming the entire policy and practice
of prohibition. In 1877 an act additional
was passed
without Dissenting Vote
in either house, of far greater stringency
than any which had precedsd it. think
It will be conceded that this would have
been impossible without an overwhelming
public opinion in the State against the
,fieuor traffic; and such an opinion can only
be founded in the conviction that the OPP
Grafton of the law has been good and not
bad.
'tMr. Ingraham, of this city, in report to
the Legislature, said: Liquor drinking is
not done openly to so great an extent but
the consumption is still large. In an article
in the Daily Press of this city, over my
name, | stigmatized that assertion as "a
shameful falsehood," and said the whole
report was false in all its facts and alleged
facts, in the sense in which Mr.. Ingraham
intended them to be understood. Before
the law, We had open rum shops, whole
sale and retail, all over the State;
now not an open one in all our territory.
Every country grocery and country tavern
were rumshops; now in all our small
towns, villages and rural districts there are
none,
secretly and on small scale in our larger
towns and cities, in the hands OF the low
est and vilest part of our population, but
it will be expelled by and by under penal
ties that will reach such people.
1--WE formerly had many distilleries, some
of them large ones-seyen large ones in
this city running night and day; now there
is not one in the State, even a brewery.
We had formerly a great quantity OF West
Indiana rum imported by the cargo-large
cargoes-now not puncheon; while liq-
uors br ought into the State are smuggled
in small quantities and in small packages,
generally not larger than ten-gallon
Kegs concealed in -four barrels, packed in
sawdust; but many of these are seized on
sight by the officers and coniscated by due
process of law. 1t is not too much to say,
as formerly remarked, that half million
OF dollars Twill cover the cost of all Ii
uuors smuggled in the State and sold in
violation of the law; but Ex-Governor Ding
ley, in speech, made in this city, said 1t
was not more than a million of
dollars at the outside. But for
about SIS, ,000, 900 in proportion to our pop
ulation-and we used to consume our full
share and more. Our vast West India trade
was little else than sending lumber OF many
kinds to the islands, and taking home rum
for our own consumption, and molasses to
be converted into
New England Rum
in our distilleries also for home use.
'In these old rum days the people.were
poor and unthrifty. Now everything in
the State in that respect is reversed,
as the result of the vast
saving, direct and indirect, coming from
the law which has driven the rum trade
out. Portland in 1866 lost SIC, 100000 in
great confiagration, but its valuation is now
greater than ever. having gained $3.50, 900
last year under prohibition, while Boston,
with free rum, Qicense), lost S70,0OO,OOO.
and New York and Brooklyn, with rum
enough, have not gained, think"
In my next letter l shall give you the
ideas and statements of prominent oppo-
nents of the Maine prohibition law.
j IL. B.