The Portland daily press., 1882-05-24
The Sheriff Act.

10 the Editor of the Press.
Tuesdays PRESS contains long article
signed G. W. G. disappearing the sheriff act
There are many people in the State who SYM
pathize with that view of the matter, chief
among whom are the rumsellers in our large
towns, upon whom the act is supposed to bear
with severity Until this article of G. w G.,
had never heard of anyone objecting to the
act, except the persons I have named and
their mlathizers.
The law makes il imperative that municipal
authorities shall enforce obedience to the
Maine Law, and their oath of office binds them
to it. But in many cases these officers paid lit
tie no attention to the law or to their ofieial
oaths Consequently, in some of our larger
towns, the liquor law was imperfectly enforced
If at ALL To remedy this state of things, it
was provided by the sheriff act that sheriffs
and their deputies shall be faithful and yigi-
liant in enforcing the law against the liquor
traffic and kindred enactments.
If the sher1ffs are honest men and true to
their duty and oath of office, great good would
result from the sheriff act, but where these of
fcials are dishonest men, or in sympathy with
the grog shops, the sheriff act may be a mis-
chief and not benefit.
G. w. G. is quite mistaken in his view that
a violation Of the Maine Law is minor offense
against the public; on the contrary there is no
offense known to our times that inficts SO
much mischief upon the State and so much
misery upon the people as the liquor traffic,
and it is wise and proper thing for the Legis-
lature to provide, by whatever means for the
protection of the community from it, The IL
quor traffic in this State is now mostly confined
to the large towns, and is carried on upon a
very small scale, compared with its former vol
ume; but even under these conditions, 1 ven-
ture the remark that our people suffer more
from it than from all other crimes combined.
Not long ago the London Times said: "We
have suffered more in our time from intemper-
ance than from war, pestilence and famine
combined, those three great scourges of man
kind" In a little time after Mr.. Gladstone
honored those words and adopted them as his
own, repeating them before an immense audi
ence. Intempersnce is impossible without the
liquor traffic.
The liquor traffic ga minor offense'' John
Wesley said: "The liquor sellers are prisoners
general. They drive His Majesty's subjects to
He'll like sheep; neither does their eye pity
nor spare. Their gain is the blood of the peo-
pie; blood is upon the foundations of their
houses, upon the walls of them, upon the roof
of them, upon the furniture of them" Lord
Chesterfield in the House of Lords, in 1927,
called liquor-deaers artists in human slaugh-
ter" Old DR.. Lyman Beecher called them
"murderers. Mr.. Senator Morrill, in the Unit
ed States Senate SAID, line liquor trathc is the
gigantic crime of crimes" From Wesley's
time to our day, no man has attempted to deny
the truth of any part of this indictment against
the liquor traffic, which lives only by scattering
broadcast through the community, poverty
pauperism, crime, premature death, and an in
finite misery, making wretched beyond all
power of expression, thousands of homes
which, but for it, would be peaceable, prosper
ous and happy.
The late Charles Buxton, of the British par
lament, said: "The strife between the church,
the school and the library on the one side, and
the public house (grog shop on the other, is
one phase of the warfare between heaven and
hell In consequence of the public house we
have more than five hundred thousand homes
in this country, (England) where home happi-
ness is unknown"
There is no question now occupying the public
attention, in all English speaking countries, SO
much as this: "The deiverance of the people
from the infinite evils of the liquor traffic"
II is too late now for any man to speak of that
traffic as "a minor offense." NEAL Dow.