The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-01-20
yoLNEY CUSHING ENDORSES THE
DRUGGIST BILL.

Mr.. Volney b. Gushing was the candi-
date of the Third Party Prohibitionists
for Governor last year. We suppose that
it is generally admitted that he is thor
onghly sound on the subject of prohibit
ton, and we suppose also also that he is
not open to the suspicion of wanting to
defeat prohibition by indirection. The
Prohibition Herald of this city has just
sought the opinion of Nj. Cushing on
the druggist bill, and he has given it in
letter to that paper which is published
in this week issue, freely and frankly
as follows:
Editor of the Herald:
have not written t. a senator in Au-
gusta (as the newspapers declare) ap-
proving the druggists bill and suggest
ing amendments, etc.
[ am not, however, opposed to the bill,
for have always held that SO long as
the state permits the sale of liquors for
medicinal purposes they should he han
died by those whose business it is TO sell
medicines, namely, the apothecaries.
am opposed to any measure that means
more rum or an attack on the prohlbito-
ry system, but the proposed druggists
bill does not seem to be OF that charac-
ter It appears to be drawn in good
faith, and its restrictions are severe.
Our agency system is not conspicu-
Gus success. and druggist law would
doubtless be abused, but the latter
method of dispensing liquors seems to me
the proper one, ard | cannot see
any very good reasons for OPP
posing the proposed bill. Consid-
cradle opposition to our prohibitory
law has been engendered by the fact
that, while dubious fellows got all they
wanted at low rumshops, respectable
citizens found it difficult to get liquor
for medical use ia what they considered
cases of necessity. Now, | have very
little confidence in alcoholic medication;
my sympathies are with those physicians
who prescribe little or no Intoxicating
liquor, butunder our law it is the plain
duty of the state to make the legal sale
of liquor easy and its illegal sale difficult.
would like to see the lawful sale Of
intoxicants in the hands of reputable
druggists, and an era of enforcement be-
gun against saloons and all druggists
that violate the law.
VoLNEY B. CUSHING.
We commend this letter to the atte n
ton of certain gentlemen and newspa-
pers who have been screaming at the
tops Of their voices that the passage OF
the druggist bill would sound the death
knell of prohibition.
We commend it also to the attention
of the Portland Herald, which appears
not to have read it, inasmuch as on the
editorial page of the same issue which
contains the letter it declares that Mr..
Cushing has not expressed approval Of
the bill We commend it also to Mr..
Wilder Washington Perry, ex-editor of
the Portland Herald, who has letter in
the same issue, in which he character
ICES the bill as ''the smoothest piece of
license trickery ever brought before the
people of Maine.''
Mr.. Gushing states the exact fact when
he says the druggist bill is a severe
measure. 1t is severe measure, and
we have been good deal surprised that
the druggists have given it their endorse
ment. Under the present law the W orst
that can befal them is fine and perhaps
Imprisonment. But under the proposed
law they are liable to suffer not only
fine and Imprisonment but also the loss
of their certificate without which they
cannot carry on the drug business in
this state. Their readiness to subject
themselves to this penalty seems to us
conclusive proof that they do not want
to sell liquor for illegal purposes, for if
that was what they wanted to do they
would certainly prefer to take their
chances under the present law. What
the bill clearly shows that they want and
all they want is the right to dispense
liquor for medicinal purposes without
being classed as common rumsellers and
sent to jail as common criminals. And
that right the ought to have.
GEN, GRANTS DIES MOlN Es SPEECH