The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1885-07-09
Prohibition in Canada,

Prohibition in Canada.
The Scott act movement in Canada is causing
good deal of excitement. The Scott act, it
should be explained, is temperance legislation,
and is said to correspond with the prohibitory
laws in Maine. This we believe to be not al
together correct. The Scott act, as we under
stand it, resembles the ''local option" laws in
the South and elsewhere; that is to say, coun-
ties or municipalities may decide whether they
will have prohibition or not, and in some parts
of Canada a decision has been given in the af-
tirmative. The Week of Toronto, is one of the
ablest opponents of the Scott act. and upon
grounds which no doubt appear to it to be good
and sufficient. That it is in the Iay of the liq-
uOr interest, as some of its adversaries have
charged we do not believe; and We do believe
that, according to It's lights 1t is working in be-
half of temperance and morality. The situa-
tion is somew hat different in Canada from what
it is in Maine There the manufacture and sale
of liquors has long been on the same footing
with other branches of business, and The Week
argues that il is not Just to destroy the business
of the liquor sellers and dealers without COM
pensating them in some degree for the losses
they would sustain under prohibition. In
Maine there are no breweres or distilleries and
the sale of liquors has for years been an Illegal
and unwarranted traffic. The Prohbitionists
in Canada. like our own, are not disposed to
compromise however, and so the battle RACES
In recent issue The Week saws:
In the States Prohibition i, unquesGionaby
losing ground. There is therefore no reason
for Responding. and it would be a great mistake
as well a. a great public misfortune if the re-
spectacle beads of the liquor interest Were to
throw up the game in despair, and hand the
business over, rs they would. to the unregulat-
ed and disreputable tribe which is the curse of
prohibited districts in the United States.
Our Canadian contemporary is certainly IN
error in the above assertion, as it is in some
others relating to this State. Prohibition Is
gaining rather than losing ground, and that in
unexpected quarters. as in the South and West
but notably in the former section. That drunk
enness and crime are Increasing in Maine is not
true. and although liquor is sold more or less
openly III the cities, surely it is something gain
cd that it is kept out of the towns and the rural
districts and that there is not IA distillery or
brewery within the limits of the State.
a correspondent of The Week, taking for
his text Il rink item. evolved from the imagina-
which he regards expressing 1.-The easy tone of
American morality on Il subject vital to religion
and society,"" proceeds TO say;
have asked at least twice if any evidence
can be furnished to show that dicorce, and that
other scandal of New England morality, futi-
eide. have been at all reduced in Maine, or are
conspicucusy less than in -prohbitioni-t
States. Unless they are, it is impudent to talk
of the iniquity of drinking, and urge upon us
the example of Maine. If these vice. have
been diminished in Maine, it would pay the
prohibtiOnists to demonstrate and proclaim the
fact; for these are the parents and offspring of
thoroughly corrupt state of society.
1t would be in order for us to quote some
ponderous joke of English origin, and then ask
twice if any evidence can be furnished TO show
that cats have ten tails or that runselling and
rum drinking are conducive to morality and
prosperity. Evidently this correspondent re-
CARDS drinking something to be commended;
and he was probably in his cups when he wrote
the above. His letter is important in one sense,
however. II shows that the rummies in Cana
N
The Prog. Age concludes an article in de-
fence of the spoils system rs follows:
The miscalled spois system. the placing of
the friends of the victorious party at posts of
influence in the government is as old as civiZ-
ed government. Ii has its foundation In the
nature of men, and no party can maintain it.
self and carry out its policy that gives that
principle away.
To which the RockIand Free Press pertinent
" replies:
The foregoing views of the Age may be some
what qualified by the fact that The editor of
that paper is a candidate for Collector of Gus
toms at Belfast, and desires the removal of the
present incumbent without delay.
a Brunswick. Ga. despatch says: ''Ship-
owners have formed an organization for their
own protection. They nave regularly elected Il
corps of officers. including attorneys in Balti-
more, New \ ok and other points. and after "A
good deal of effort, they have ali come TO an
agreement not 10 accept amy charters for their
vessels on the southern Atlantic ports during
The month of July" The ruling rates of
freight, and excessive port charges certainly
offer little mducemrnl for vessels to 20 to
southern ports.
We have received HE twrnty-serond annual
report of thr Maine Press Association from the
Secretary, MI Joseph Wood. 1t comes from
the press Of the Nj. Desert Publishing Com
pany and usual i, Il motel OF Typography
The report is fuller than usual as a number of
pages are devoted 10 biographical sketches,
4 L.. II
os1 These with the reports of the county
historians are valuable features of the annual
reports.
\ aahington despatch TO the Boston Herald
says: The President thinks The work of the
Utah commission might be much more vigorous
Iy done. He regards poly gamv AS an unmiXed
evil which ought TO be stamped out, and he
does not think the commission does It's part in
the attempt to effect that end" Here is anoth-
er point of disagreement between the President
and the woud-be Collector. The Prog. Age is
well known as champion of Mormon,m.
The Fourth was not celebrated to any extent
i'll Maine this year. The Grand Army reunion
plus cash and energy The old custom of read
lag the Declaration of independence and de-
liverng an Grafton on Independence Day
seems TO have entirely fallen into disuse.
The Portland Press says of Col. H. A. Smiths
Grafton on the late Abner Coburn at Colby
Commencement:
Col. Smiths GRAFTON is a tribute to one Of the
| foremost citizens of Maine, by one who was
intimately acquainted W tn him for many years
and enjoyed his full confidence. 1t is an adj
mlrable piece of work.
General Longstreet in his article on THE
Seven Days Fighting about Richmond" in the
July Century, after discussing the confederate
leaders, says: "Without doubt the greatest
man of rebellion times, the one matchless
among forty millions, fer the peculiar difficult
ties of the period, was Abraham Lncoln.'