The Press., 1884-02-14
HOW IF wAs DONE 1N ponr1.ANp.


 was to become of this property? Who was coming to occupy and pay rent for it after the liquor sellers were driven out The dollar is ofttimes stronger than prin- ciple. Those opposed on principle to the sale of liquor, opposed prohibition when the rent of their property was put in the balance. They admitted that the traffic was wrong, but prohibition was not the way to check it. Any way was the way to check 1t that would admit of its being sold in their rooms, and none other.
 Every city has its wealthiest wealthy family, it's Vanderbilts. The Browns are the Vanderbilts of Portland They were originally sugar refiners, aud amassed an enormous amount of money. Partly as an investment but more from pride in their city they built one of the largest and finest hotels in the United States, and furnished 1t in style corresponding. There are but few hotels in the cities, great or small, larger or finer than the Falmouth. With out consulting any one 1t was opened with a bar in full blast. Surely the authorities would not interfere with so fine hotel, which was the pride of the city
 But it was interfered with all the same. The bar was raided, the liquor was seized, and the proprietors were fnel just the same as though tn y had been the hum- blest Irish woman on back street with whiskey in her stocking. Then the Browns, highly indignant, appealed to the people. The people responded that law was law, and 1t must be enforced.
 One step remained to be taken. The proprietors closed the hotel with view of punishing the city for not winking at the violation of law. At this the people laughed. Portland had gotten on very well without the Falmouth for many years, and it could go indefinitely, even though darkness reigned in its gorgeous halls. The sun rose and set as usual, the earth revolved with great regularity, and there was no earthquake or other catclysm to mark the event. Finding that nobody cared whether the hotel was open or shut. it was opened and has stayed open ever since.
 There is bar in the house, but it is so hard to get at, and such gloomy place when you get at it, that nobody but guests of the house and a few confirmed drunk ards ever find 1t. So far as its eff. ct upon the community at large is concerned, it has no bar,
 EFFECT OF PROHIBITION UPON BUSINESS.
 l made some reference to the effect of prohibition upon the business of the city, wish to. enlarge trife upon this point, for the pocket argument is always pow erful one.
 The owners of real estate found that the closing of the traffic in the city did not mean desolation and grass-grown streets, after all. The miles of rum mills in the city were shut up, but immediately the they vacated was occupied by other and more reputable kinds of trade. $2, ,0O0, 900 had been soaked into the systems of the people Ill rum, which was just that much taken from the dealers in dry goods, groceries, etc. The laborer who received, we will say, 50 per day for labor, and spent $1 of it in rum, had only 30 cents with which to buy other goods, and conse- quently 1t required much smaller num- Der of shops dealing in other goods. That Is to say, the number of stores devoted to the sale of the necessaries and luxuries of life were curtailed by just the number of rum-mllls, as whatever rum absorbed could go into nothing else. And in addition rum lessened the power of earning money for other things The drinker of rum never works a full week, and never earns or receives 8 full weeks wages, and as what he does earn is absorbed in rum, dealers in other goods suffer.
 When rum was not procurable the mon- ey earned by its former devotees went into ether goods, and dealers in other goods multiplied as if by magic The butcher, the baker, the tailor and shoemaker came into fashion, for hungry women commenced to eat, and bare-footed women commenced to be shod. The purveyors of these goods rushed in to take the places formerly occu- pied by rum shops. They paid just as much rent and it was paid just as promptly.
 Business men should understand this point. Every dollar spent in intoxicants Is just that amount robbed from them. The family of the drunkard is compelled to get on with the next to nothing. They are never well fed, well shod or we'll clothed. The money which the merchant should handle finds its way to the rum- mill and stops there. Portland has more dealing in reputable goods than any city of its population known of. It has more book stores, it has more of art, more of everything that is elevated in its nature, because the earnings of its pop ulation flow into the right channels. They are applied to the necessaries and luxuries of life instead of rum.
 With population of 30,000 it supports four daily papers, and really good ones. The business of the city is of nature that requires advertising. The rum-mills pay the press nothing. They have their own methods of advertising. Their patrons do not take daily newspapers, as cheap as they are, for they can't pay them. Daily papers are not found in the poor dwellings of the victims of the rum habit When mau's wife is bare-footed there Is no chance for daily paper in his house, and as for books and such things they are totally un- known among them.
 It is quite different now. Prohibition has killed the rum-mills, but it has built up every other kind of business. It was bad for the bar-keeper, but 1t proved the salvation of the butcher. The real estate dealers who opposed it at first are its most staunch supporters now. The men who were in the business did not lie down and die. Such as would work found there was something in the world to do beside rinsing beer glasses, and they were com pelled to go and do it. Those who would not work left the state to Maine's eternal gain, and better men came in to take their places Instead of ruin to Portland, pro- hibition has been the making of it. No city ever prospered by business that de- graded its population.
 IN CONCLUSION.
 I can clese this nasty survey of the field no better than ito quote from an article written in 1880 by ex-Gov. Dingley, who has made rum as careful a study as any