The Republican journal., 1901-02-21

Past International Lecturer of the Order of
Good Templars.
The following article against ere
submission" was recently published in
the daily and weekly editions of the
Lewiston journal:
A NOTABLE VIEW OF RESUBMISSION.
SOME SKETCHES OF THE WAY THINGS
WENT IN THE OLD DAYS OF LICENSE
IN MAINE.
AS this old fight for the resubmission
OF our temperance laws to the people
has begun again in our Legislature
would like to lay before the readers of
The Journal and the citizens of Maine
in general the condition of this COM
monwealth under license and free rum
and the condition as it is to-day under
prohibition, and at the same time will
say with Burke in that great speech in
Parliament on american taXation:'
| Nothing but truth could give me this
| firmness; plain truth and clean evidence
cannot be beaten down by nobility"
| These bills which have been introduced
into our Legislature by Representative
Kelley of Lewiston invoke the repeal of
| the prohibitory clause in our constitu-
| ton, to be followed of course by the re-
peal of the statuatory enactments pro-
viding for its enforcement and the sub
stitution therefor of what shall be
termed local option or a Well-regulat-
ed license law. Now these members of
| the Legislature who are opposed to pro-
hibition and in favor of licensing a
traffic that Gladstone declared had in
/ tiicted upon the human race greater
calamities than war, pestilence and
famine have nothing whatever to say
as to the history of the State of Maine
under the same kind of a law they de-
sire to again saddle upon us. Why all
this silence on their part as to the con-
dition of our State under license? Cen
! tlemen, why not be fair and face the
music and tell our people that prior to
| 1916 we had tried in Maine every con-
ceivable scheme of regulating the traffic
! in rum. Over and over again did our
legislature try to restrict this awful
| traffic and save our people from the
| foulest enemy of the home, of the
| church and the State; and what was the
result?
The facts which I am to state are
matters of well attested history, and
! challenge contradiction. Our State was
overrun with breweries and distilleries
and rum shops, and drinking excuses
| Via ldCUCllL0N elll Vic SdGIClllS3S VI Jul
people While in Portland the town
and at four o'clock every afternoon as
signal for all citizens to stop work
and take a drink. Think of it-people
stopping work and all kinds of business
and drinking rum. Is it any wonder, l ask,
that Maine became under license and
f, free rum the poorest and most drunken
| commonwealth ON earth? Any wonder
that greater proportion of our farms
had to be sold for rum debts; that our
jailS were OvercroWded, and that chill
dren were obliged to beg from house to
house for ''cold victuals.' This was
universal in the days of license; but to-
day under prohibition this sign of pow
erty has entirely ceased. Those were
the days when our people were consum-
ing in strong drink the entire property
Of our State in every period of twenty
years, and often as [ have read of our
sorrowful condition under license, how
our people were so brutalized and i'm
poverished by liquor, the tears have
filled my eyes and | have wondered how
our Christian and moral people could
i'll those days, seeing the misery, suffer
ing, starvation and ruin wrought by rum,
could then say that these were balanced
by the paltry dollars paid into the public
treasury for licenses. Those were the
days when we had thirteen distilleries
manufacturing something like one mil
inhabitant) together with 100000 gal
Ions imported, not including cider and
other fermented liquors; and our popu-
lation was nearly two-thirds of what it
is oday. We then had one rum shop
to nearly every 100 of our population,
and their sales amounted to $4,000, 900
annually, or 500 for every man, woman
and child in the State Thus it will be
seen that our people were violating
every law of political economy, rum
was not only running them financially, |
but undermining their virtue and de-
stroying their lives; and this enormous
amount of money worse than wasted !!
annually added nothing whatever to the
consumers possessions as to food, cloth
ing, furniture and other property; and l |
think that any one who reflects a |
moment on the subject must be thor
oughly convinced that no people of any
State, however favored, could possibly |
continue to prosper who wasted so large |
a proportion of the value of labor for
strong drink. What shame it was
that Christian State like Maine should
P"J eshLopiiJ p1o,ooO,VOo w PlOuoSC
nothing but poverty; nothing but crime,
degradation and drunkenness, with all
its follies, with all it's revels, beastliness
and taxation License this liquor traffic
in the grand old State Of Maine once
more and bring back this awful condi-
ton of drunkenness and poverty upon
our people again? Never, by the help
of almighty God, never. 1t is an enemy
against civilization, it is an enemy
against liberty, justice, humanity, NOR
ality and religion and never in any
way should be allowed; for if it is sin |
for people to get drunk, then certainly !
it is sin for State to license drunk |
ard-making.
A few evenings ago 1 met a member
of our Legislature on the train whom 1 |
have known for many years, and as he
shook me by the hand he said with a
smile, "well, friend Gowen, we are 60
ing to overthrow this prohibitory law
in Maine and substitute in its place a
good high license law" 'Well," said 1,
Il shall be very sorry indeed if that day
should ever come in the Pine Tree
States" and then we fell to talking on
this question, and finally | said: ''You
have boys have you not?" ooh, yes,"
said he. "Well," said 1, ''you don't
want them to be led astray and become