The Republican journal., 1897-03-04
In the Interest of Good Citizenship

The second public meeting in the interest
OF good citizenship was held in Belfast Opera
House Sunday evening, and was largely at
tended. All the clergymen in the city were
present except Rev. G. 6. Winslow, who
was in Waterville in exchange with Rev. W {.
F. Berry, the speaker of the evening. The
meeting opened with the selection, "Praise
We the Father, by Gounod, by specia
chorus choir of twenty-five voices Rev. G
H. Wells read portion of the sd chapter
of Isaiah, and Rev. j. NJ. Leighton offered
prayer. Mrs. E. P. Frost gave as a solo
Light and Darkness by Cowan, after
which Rev. j. F. Tilton introduced the
speaker of the evening. Rev. w. F. Berry of
Waterville.
The speaker opened by stating that he
should not appeal to prejudice or passion,
but to reason; that he should state facts as
they are. not as they might be- The drink
question over-shadows every other question.
Even in the matter of expense, drink costs
more per year than the whole expenses of
the national government. The total ex-
penses of the government are about $500 :
100000 per year, while S1,OSo 900 900 are paid
annually for strong drink. The hard times
are made still harder by the drink habit.
He also gave statistics showing the amount
of money paid directly for drink as COM
pared with that paid for various public pur-
poses. The liquor interests are thoroughly
organized everywhere and they must be
met by just as thorough organization. Peo-
pie ask, why don't you do something for
Armenian The drink traffic in our own
country is working far greater ruin than is
the sword of the Turk III Armenia. We
have a strong law in regard to the liquor
traffic, backed by the State constitution. The
three departments of the State government
must be brought to work in harmony for this
cause. The Legislature makes the laws; the
judicial department interprets them, and
the Executive department enfOrces them.
No one of these can accomplish anything
without the cooperation of the others The
breaking of one law with impunity tends to
bring all law into disrepute. Eleven hun
dred persons in taking out a U S. license,
have sworn to violate the State laws, and on
the basis that for each proprietor there is an
average of two assistants, we have an army
of $500 persons in open violation of the State
laws. If these are to be allowed to violate
one law, every other citizen has the same
right to violate the other laws. 1t is the
business of the Civic League not to enforce
the laws, but to bring to bear on the officers
a force that shall obige them to do their full
duty. This can be done by showing them
that their tenure of office depends their
doing their duty in regard to the liquor law
Mr. Berry asked, "What is the difference be
| tween the liquor seller who is in the busi
| ness merely for what money there is in it
and the respectable citizen who permits the
rratfc for fear of the loss of patronage o.
| If the officers should enforce this law, the
| rumsellers would make every effort to de-
feat them, hence it is the duty of all law
[ adding citizens to stand by such officials as
are faithful to their trusts. There should be
more of the spirit which animated our peo-
| pie in 1861
| The meeting closed with "Amerca' by
the audience, and the benedicton by Rev
Geo. S. Mills. ,