The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1884-05-06
The State Liquor Commissioner.

The State Liquor Commissioners.
The State and town liquor agencies are
part of the machinery of the prohibitory
law. Recognizing the fact that alcohol is
indispensable for medicinal and mechanical
purposes the prohibitory statute makes provi-
sion for this necessity by authorizing the gov
ernOr to appoint commissioner to furnish
municipal officers of the various towns with
pure, unaduiterated intoxicating liquors, to
he kept and sold for medicinal, mechanical
and manufacturing purposes. The statute
does not in terms forbid his selling to other
persons than municipal officers, but such is
Its obvious intention, as to sell liquors to
anybody would make the commissioner a
common seller, and by section 35 of the
same act it is declared that emo person shall
be common seller of intoxicating liquors."
The commissioner is allowed to sell the liq-
uors which he purchases at a profit of not
exceeding seven per cent.
The present liquor commissioner is Will
liam q. Clayton, and his headquarters are at
Bangor. The city agent appointed by the
last city government of Bangor for the sale
OF liquor is William King. Mr.. Kings office
expired last night, and he makes his retire.
ment the occasion of a lively demonstration
against the State commissioner and some of
the officers of a former city government of
Bangor.
Two separate accusations are made against
the State commissioner. La the first place
he is charged with selling liquor to other per-
sons than the municipal officers of towns.
In support of this allegation Mr.. King ex-
hibts copies of four receipted bills for liquor
bought at the State agency by persons who are
not municipal officers, and adds that he has
list of thirty persons, none of them officers
of towns, and some of them saloon keepers,
who have bought liquor of the State COM
missioner. He also alleges that he COM
planned before the judge of the municipal
court of Bangor against the State commits
soner for selling liquor contrary to law last
August and that the judge took no notice of
1t. In the second place Mr.. King charges
that the State commissioner is either an in
competent buyer of liquors, or else that he
has taken commissions on his sales greatly
In excess of the seven per cent allowed him
by the law. Guckenheimer Rye whiskey,
whichcan be bought for $1.75 per gallon, the
State commissioner has been charging $500
gallon for md his seven per cent COM
mission; and for Kellar's Bourbon, which
can be bought for $500, he has been charg-
ing $500 per gallon plus his lawful COM
mil IN hropdioe Mr. Zinc
overcharge has been even more gross. Mr..
King also alleges that the measures were too
small, though be is inclined to attribute this
to principles of philanthropy toward the
purchaser"
Mr.. King charges that some of the officers
Of former Bangor city government rescued
city liquor agent from the danger of an
indictment for being common seller of in
toxicating liquors by ante-dating his GER
tifcate of appointment one year. His
remarks on the working of the Bangor
agency are suggestive. "The larger part Of
the sales of liquors has," he says "been to
inhabitants of the surrounding towns, thus
accounting for the fact that prohibition pro-
hibits in small towns, as put forth by advo-
Gates of the law"
He recommends that the agency stand
closed for, he says, "conduct it how you
will, it is an additional rum shop and moth
ing more or less than municipal competition
with private enterprise"
We have no personal knowledge concern
Ing Mr.. King. All we know is that he is
city liquor agent of Bangor, and that he has
publicly over his own signature made the
above charges. Those of them which relate
to the State commissioner are certainly too
serious TO be dismissed without an inVestiga-
ton. Mr.. Kings motives may not be praise
worthy, probably are not, but his statements
II true, are just as damaging las If his sole