Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1883-08-07
NUMBER 81.


license States, as in the wholly prohibi-
tory States. Itappears also that as soon as
local prohibition is applied to municipal.
tiles or counties here and there. the
number of drinking places begins to de-
! cline.
In the South, there are no wholly pro-
hibitory States, although West Virginia,
Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, Ala
bama, Arkansas. Texas, and Tennessee
have applied local prohibition to such an
extent that it has extinguished the open
dram shops in many counties, well nigh
closed them in others, and, in connection
with the practice Of home distillation Of
whiskey, which extensively prevails, has
reduced the number of dealers to one for
every $50 inhabitants. But in the four
Southern States of louisiana, Mississippi,
Delaware, and Missouri, in which license
practically wholly prevailed in 1882. (al-
though the latter has recently enacted
law which may be made prohibitory BY 10
calities, the number Of liquor dealers av-
eraged one to 800 inhabitants.
A comparison of prohibitory counties
with license counties in the same State
shows the beneficial results of prohibition
still more clearly. A gentleman writing
from Massachusetts, says that the num-
Der Of dram shops in those counties where
the towns have adopted the policy of pro-
hibiting dram-shops, is not one-half the
number in counties mainly license. The
Savannah Necs saws that many counties
in Georgia which were notorious for
drinking places and drunkenness under
license, have under prohibition become
the most orderly and free from grog-shops
of any counties in the State. The South
east Teras, published at Jasper, Texas,
says that the adoption of prohibition in
that county has greatly improved the
people. Judge Mcconnell Of Tennessee,
in letter to the National american,
says that in his circuit q eight counties
under prohibition, there is not single
saloon. and the law has so improved So
ciety that it has been completely revolu-
tionized.
REDUCTION OF SALES.
6. These facts show that prohibition
diminishes the sales in still greater de-
zee even than it reduces the number of
places in which liquor may in some man
ner be obtained.
Nothing is clearer than that any traffic
which is under the ban of the law, and
which finds itself able to exist only by
lodging the police and doing business in
hidden places, must effect less sales than
when It is conducted under the protection
Of the law, and in open places where it
can keep large stocks and expose its
wares to attract the public. The better
the facilities for obtaining liquor, the
more will be consumed, and vice versa.
Indeed, large proportion of the dealers
in liquors in wholly prohibitory States
who pay the L. S. tax and appear in the
reports, do business with a stock Of only
q few concealed bottles or gallons, and
under such difficulties that five of them
cannot sell as much as one open licensed
establishment. The fact that in Maine,
New Hampshire, Vermont, and Kansas,
the receipts of the United States from the
taxes on the manufacture and sale Of in
toxicants, were only seven cents per in
habitant in 1882, while the receipts from
these sources in wholly license States were
Sl.sO per inhabitant, is. to say the least,
very suggestive. -
PROHIBITION IN MAINE.
I. The books of the Internal Revenue
Office for Maine show that for the pres
ent year sla persons have paid the US.
tax as dealers in liquors. As the tax is
only s25, the penalties for non-paymens
very severe. and the U. 8. detective SER
vice very vigilant, it is believed that this
covers every person who intends to sell
liquors however secretly. 1t covers Also
nearly two hundred of the druggists Of
the State, large proportion of whom
claim that they never sell liquor as bev-
erage, be I'd, l4.-- ,--.- d
But counting all as dealers, and we
have one liquor dealer to about every 500
inhabitants. and all secret dealers out
side Of seventeen places, who are doing a
very small business under great difficulties
while fifty years ago there was in
Maine one licensed dramshop to every
225 inhabitants. The average number
of dealers in Northern wholly license
States is one to every 2l0 inhabitants, or
nearly four times as many as in Maine;
and in not a single wholly license State
in the North is the number less than one
to $50 inhabitants. In New York and
New Jersey.there is one dram shop to ev-