Smyrna times., 1886-10-13
Prohibition in Maine-Its Actual
Condition.
BY NEAL DOW.

failure because IL mas not enJlfely sup |
pressed the liquor traffic throughout
the State. Let us see what it has ac-
complished, that we may be able to |
Judge to what extent it has been a
success, and how far it has failed to ac-
cOmplsh its perfect work.
At the time of the enactment Of Pro-
hibition in Maine there was practically |
free rum throughout the State, the Ii |
cense fee being only 81, and even that |
the rumsellers declined to pay, because |
the law was not enforced against them |
for selling liquor without license. In
Portland an attempt was made TO en-
force the law upon those who violated
it, but there were no practical results
from this endeavor. Liquors, in fact,
were sold freely, wholesale and retail,
throughout the State.
Immediately after the enactment of
the Maine Law in 1851 the open sale of
liquor ceased entirely. Men engaged
in the liquor traffic who had any char
acter to lose, abandoned the trade, and
it was continued only on the sly and on
a small scale by the lowest part of the
population, chiefly foreigners. There
is no distillery nor brewery in the State
the manufacture of liquors and wine
and beer being forbidden under pains
and penalties sufficiently stringent to
compel obedience to the law.
The liquor traffic is now, and has
been from the beginning, practically
suppressed in all the smaller towns,
villages, and rural districts of the
State, beiug far more than three-fOuTths
of our territory, containing more than
three-fourths of our population, where
an entire generation has grown up
never having seen a grOg-shOp or
known anything of its influence upon
the people.
The result of this great change has
been very marked upon the moral and
material interests of the State. 1t is
seen everywhere in better houses, bet
ter churches and other public
buildings, in better schOOl-hOuses,
farms, and far better culti-
walton, in greatly improved modes
of education, in far better ways
ofliving, and in far greater intelligence
among the people. Before the adop-
tion of Prohibition our people con-
sumed their full share of Intoxicating
liquors, and more. There were prob
ably no people in the country who con-
sumed so much in proportion to their
numbers as those of Maine did. The
entire value of all their property of
every kind was consumed in drink in
every period Of less than twenty years
as the entire value of the property of
the nation now is in every period of
less than thirty-five years. The result
of this in Maine was seen in the evil
dent signs of dilapidation, unthrift, de-
cay, and poverty everywhere through
out the State, and Maine was undoubt-
edly the poorest and most unthrifty
State in the Union.
Now, as the result of Prohibition, all
this is changed and Maine has become
one of the most prosperous States in
, the Union. Its share of the national
drink bill now, in proportion to pOpu-
lation, would be about thirteen million
dollars; half a million will cover the
: cost of all the liquors smuggled into
) the State and sold in violation of the
law, but we call the amount one mil.
lion. We save at least twelve million
dollars directly, which, without Prohi.
bition, would be spent, lost and wasted
in alcoholics if the liquor traffic were
permitted here as it is in license States
In most of the larger towns anC
! cities of the State, if not in all of them
II liquors are sold in violation of law ON
small scale and with more or less Sc
crecy and caution, and this state o
things will continue as long as there i!
a profit in doing it, as there is now
} 1t is for this fact that many people
say: Prohibition is a failure il
Maine" and this fact hinders the pro
gress af Prohibition among the Englisl
speaking peoples, where the question
of protection from the liquor traffic ha
now assumed large proportions. TIL
friends of temperance in Maine are nov
endeavoring, as they have been 70
more than twenty years, to prOcur
such additional legislation as will rem
der the liquor traffic improbable an,
uncomfortable to those who engage i
it. The additions to the law whic
they desire are very simple, and whe
adopted will be very effective, so muc
so that the liquor sellers will surren
der and shut up shop without resist
ance. They frankly say they will d
so.
One of the most important of tn
amendments to the law which we haV
in view is to take away from tn
", courts all discretion in liquor cases, be
IN cause our experience shows that this
m always employed in such way 9
'oi practically to nullify the law. This
est done in courts where the judges al
Temperance men and PrOhibitiOnist
with no sympathy whatever with IL
liquor traffic nor with any other eV
=. thing. The pressure made upon thel
ng by attorneys to "let up" on their cl
ar ents, and pressure from other quartz
~ lHe by persons and for reasons that cal
. not mention here, is too much for the
q powers of resistance, and they consel
' to continued continuances to sue
extent that the liquOr-sellers are by Il
courts protected in and not punishe
for their violations of law. This abu
a of the discretion of courts in Maine
liquor cases is as scandalOus and d
y moralizing as the worst practices of Il
courts of the city of New York.
When the original Maine Law W
drafted we had little experience in
4 warfare against the liquor traffic. V
knew nothing of the devices, the trio
~ and the prejudices to which the liquC
- seller would resort to evade law and
continue their very profitable trad
consequently the penalties of the Ia
were insufficient. We understand 1
that now perfectly, and are quite pl
= pared with such projet de lOi as wi
- when adopted by the Legislature, as
vest will be by and by by some legislatui
entirely sweep away from Maine eve
vestige of the liquor traffic.
"a This business is by far more prot
wi able than any other in the world.
Ia. has had the growth of centuries und
If the protection of law, and has attain
- gigantic proportions. 1t is not to
supposed that it can be suppress
without long and persistent strugg
oo In many of our States it is power
W and capable of a strong defense;
Maine it is helpless and depends
continual existence upon forces o.
> side itself. 1t occupies here a pOsiti
III as infamous as gambling-hOus a
hrofhala do In NaU Vorlr puh