The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-01-16
ave advocated it as a substitute for Pre-

rave advocated it as substitute for pro
iibition with its hidden and repulsivy
rumshops on account of its ALLEGED
superiority in this respect. This
claim has always ceemed to US ali
absurd one, as absurd as to say that a
large, brilliantly lighted, attractively
arranged dry goods store, on broad and
much frequented street, would not at
tract as many customers as one in
dark and narrow alleyway lighted by oil
lamps, in which the goods were piled
heller SHELTER upon the floor; or that
dirty, dingy eating house, with greasy
tables and soiled crockery ware would
appeal less strongly to the appetite than
light and spacious one, with all it's APP
pointments neat and clean; yet it is
claim that has been made and supported,
or sought to be supported, by statistics.
| We do not know that the Argus has ever
made such claim, but if it has, it has
abandoned it now, for one that is GER
tainly far more creditable to it's men
tai perceptions. Assuming the Argus
premise-namely, that legislation is
| powerless as restraint upon the
drink habit--to be sonnd we are
strongly inclined to coincide with
| it in it's conclusion. IF the evil itself
cannot be abated we think it is much
wiser to seek to mitigate its effects than
to do nothing. But we donot believe the
| I. I,o+
| lation followed by honest and thorough
enforcement can do something to dimin-
ish drinking and drunkenness. We be-
lieve that it has already done much in
that direction in this State, notwith-
standing that enforcement has often
times been weak and faulty, The driv-
ing of the rumshops from prominent
thoroughfares into out of the way
and generally unattractive places,
which nobody will deny that pro-
hibition has accomplished, and the
changing of them from attractive
resorts into dismal and dirty
places which very few people would
linger in longer than was necessary to
swallow drink, have, it seems to us a
very strong tendency, to diminish the
temptation . drink and consequently
the amount of drinking. Of course this
does not apply, or only in small meas
ure, to people who have become victims
of the drink habit; it applies to those
who have not formed the habit, but
that's really the only class we can expect
to do much for either by legal or moral
persuasion. If prohibition did not di-
minish the number of rumshops even by
one, it would by no means follow that it
had no tendency to diminish drinking
and drunkenness. The change in the
character of the saloons which it brings
about in itself tends very strongly to
prevent the formation of drinking habits
and hence must diminish drinking and
drunkenness. There is not a man in this
community that would contend for a
moment that dozen dark and dirty
gambling saloons in the slums of the
city would prove SO demoralizing to the
rising generation as one brilliantly lighted
| elegantly fitted up saloon on Congress
street, yet there are plenty of men who
will undertake to argue just the opposite
when liquor saloons are substituted for
gambling saloons. Why this inconsis-
tency we cannot say unless the public
mind has been muddled by the
constant and long continued talk upon
the subject as is sometimes the
case with jurors after listening to pro-
tracted and conflicting arguments of
counsel.