McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1885-04-30
PROHIBITION IN MAINE.
After Years of Legal Prescription, the Sale Of
Stimulants Has Nos DEL Out-A Bitter
Fight I'm Progress

/
since the prohibitory liquor law was
first put on the book years ago.
Gen. Neal Dow and his co-laborers in
the field of temperance reform take
the ground that prohibition has proved
great success. The old white haired
father of the Maine law, who is now
| 81 years of age. and who, despite his
| years, is as active and Jealous in his
war on the grog-shops rs ever, will
tell you that prohibition has crushed
out every distilery and brewery in
Maine, and such is the truth. He will
tell you that under the operations of
the law liquOr-selling has been nearly
suppressed in the rural towns, which
embrace nearly three-quarters of the
state, and he will point with pride to
the evidences of thrift and prosperity
as compared with the condition of
things in the old rum times, when that
beverage flowed as freely as water,
and, as the result, poverty and degra-
| datlOn were to be seen on every hand.
There are many grains of truth in this,
and vet. at the same time, liquor sell
! ING has not been abolished In the cCuu-
try towns. The traffic has only been
| circumscribed and driven into narrow
| er limits. ANY respectable looking
person, even though he be II stranger,
can find no difficulty in buying all the
liquor he wants Of the village apothe-
cary, should he fail to get it at the
country inn. The druggists, in fact,
carry on the liquor business in Maine.
| Registered druggists keep liquor on
hand for the compromising and manu-
featuring of medicine, but are not al
lowed by law to sell liquors of any
kind unless compounded and manu-
featured in good faith.
| The great weapon of the law is the
search and seizure clause, which re-
| quires proof of two elements first, of
the keeping, and second, of an intent
to sell liquor in violation of the law
! With the ordinary rumseller the mere
fact of finding liquor in his shop is
usually enough to convict, because it
is not kept there for any legitimate
purpose. With druggists, however,
| there must be proof of sale. As Il re-
suit they have constitutional right to
sell liquor, and, as it is now heading,
they are fast obtaining monopoly of
the rum trade in Maine, on account of
| the inherent defect in the constitution
which no law can get around. But it
IS in the cities and large towns where
| liquor is principally sold, and where
the evils of the traffic are more plainly
| seen. There is no doubt but what pro-
hibition has accomplished Il great deal
of good IN the way of suppressing
the rum traffic, and it is equally true
| that the men, women. and children of
to-day are more abstemious than were
| their fathers and grandfathers. Still
! the rum traffic fiOurishes; officers are
unfaithful in enforcing the laws, and
when they are executed the chances
are that from some defect or loOphole
In the law the rum-seller escapes. The
situation to-day does not show that
Maine is the prohibitOry state that she
is represented to be. 1t was only Il
few days ago that Gen. Dow was
! forced to admit that sit is not over
stating the matter to say that in
Maine to-day the liquor traffic is in
fiicting upon the people far more mis-
chief, Indebtedness, and ruin than
they suffer from all the robberies and
burglaries, frauds of whatever kind,
from incendiarisms, conllagrations,
and murder
For the past six months the city of
Bangor has practically enjoyed free
rum. There are over one hundred
places there where liquor is sold and
no attempt has been made to enforce
the law. The law is a nullity. In
Lewistown, Bath, Augusta, and other
cities no difficulty is experienced if
one wants to wet his whistle. In the
| city Of Portland, under Gen. Dow S
own eyes, the liquor traffic llourishes,
| and yet at the same time in no other
city has the law, for the past ten years,
been more faithfully enforced. To
illustrate how hard it is to break up
the business in Portland, the prohibit
toni is for five years pursued Il rum
seller in that city. They made him
pay fines more than forty times, and
then got him in jail. But this did not
break up his business. for his brother
took charge of it. Then the prohibit
tionists went for him, and when, after
a protracted siege, he was forced to
retire, his brOther-in-law took his
place, and carries on the business TO-
day.
Since the first week IN January the
prohibitionists have renewed the war
on Portland grogshOps, and the cam
paign is to extend throughout the
state, under the auspices of the Law
and Order league. Rev. Mr.. Munson,
the agent of the league, is now enforc-
ing the law with more vigor than was
ever known before. Already he has
sworn out more than six hundred war
rants, at an expense of over 900 to
the taxpayers of Cumberland county,
and in return, the amount of fines paid
into the city treasury will not exceed
5000. Last year there were nearly one
thousand prosecutions of liquor deal
ers in the state, and, while there were
numerous convictions, the number of
grogshOps was not diminished. Dur
ing the last fourteen years some
twenty three thousand persons have
been arrested in this city for drunken
ness, and yet one would be puzzled to
find one rumseller the less. Gen. Dow
himself says there are as many rum
i I