Daily Kennebec journal., 1904-03-12
Jncie Josh's fifth Letter en- Resubnnis.
sion


Augusta, Me-, Mar. II, 1904.
My dear Nephew:
In my last two letters on Rcsubmis-
sion, l nave shown that public Senti-
nent in this State has grown rapidly
n favor of eliminating the saloon
,ltogether but that, from 1854 when
he constitutional amendment was
adopted by q ma jOrity of AZ 900 votes up
o about four years ago. this sentiment
vas u latent One,-that is. it WAS in eX-
Stence but inactive. AS soon, however,
is it became plainly evident that
'heriffs ana other peace officers, for
'arious reasons, persisted in Il nom
enforcement OF this law with teeth"
hen the latent sentiment became ac-
i've and an agitation of the whole Ques
ion aroused the friends and the
enemies of temperance, resulting in the
,ctitioning OF the Legislature OF Il year
.gO by 36,S13 people against resu5mis-
sion and 2,6U3 persons i'll favor OF
esubn:ission. Naturally comes the
question, what has been the trend of
,ublic opinion since the Legislature
ldjourned? And We're the question
ecided in favor OF resubmiSson. what
would be the temper OF the citizens of
Maine after having passed through a
anpaign of thorough education upon
vital a subject.
Although our State has experienced
more than enough of the curse of the
liquor business, yet if saloons had eX-
.sted i'll country towns as we'll as in
cities, if instead OF being prohibited in
stitutions they had been leSaliZed ones
with all the deteriorating influences
that always companion the legaiized
liquor business in it's best FORMS many
OF Names people would be more pro-
aounced against putting the saloon on
Il legitimate business level than they
are now. And it must be admitted that
4 thorough campaign into which
thousands Of dollars would be poured
i'll an effort to change the uncertain
status of the saloon, even under un-
enforced prohibition, to an established
business under license on one hand,
and Il determined defense of our
present law on the other by champions
OF temperance. would make the danger
line more defined than it has ever been
since 1856.
Such a campaign would bring out
many facts unknown to the citizens of
Maine one of which would be this even
though we had practical license in our
cities and towns in 1902 and every
dealer paid the United States revenue
tax, yet per capita, this tax was only
5ia cents while in the license
state Of Illinois it was $1,000 per capita,
in New York s2.99. Pennsylvania $232,
according to ahe commissioners report
n h.a
yon see. that with all of our iniquity
we show up much better than license
states do as to the tax paid Uncle
sam" In fact, while Maine dealers
contributed to the revenue fund 5h
cents ger capita, the total tax paid by
al states was $3.50 for every man.
woman and child living in the United
States. According to the numbers of
&. S. licenses taken out by Maine
dealers there was one saloon or place
where liquors We're kept to every 6e1
inhabitants while taking the same
evidence throughout the whole country
there was one saloon to every 143 in
habitants.
Enforcement of the law has. greatly,
decreased the number of saloons in
Maine during the past and compared
with other states 4 much better show
iig must be made in the next report.
The other day two milk-men met on
one of the streets of Augusta and both
EXPRESSED the opinion that license
would make business better. These
milklnen need a little education along
this line. 1t should NOT he understood
for Il minute that they think saloons
would buy their milk for saloons do not
deal in milk. But what did these
honest farmers and milkmen really
mean:
Let us see in my next letter.
Yours truly,
UNCLE JOSH.