The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1904-02-11
Union T.nperance Meetlng

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Though he svshll was co.. and
30 M t-taetn ta9.s.d sbfec ha4dred
peopIe attended the u-~l tcmpsraLce
aee.i4 z, uuder Tic pc. o. The W
Z. I. l., a. the a-thsdI-t Episcopal
church. sunday evening". srd heard
Nolney y. Gushing II Bangor give
one of he mos f5feeiu sad polished
atdresse- hat ~ ever gives here
upon th- tiec,. KX DaaI4 q 4.tott
acted az Chairman. R-g. j. A. Ball
reading from the scripture aid prayer
was offered BY Or. ". II. Spencer The
singing by union choir, u1der the d
rection Of l.. {. Taylor, and by quar-.
tette composed Of Z. {. Taylor, Floyd
Nye and John Navin with NJ. William
"ilkle az soloist, was very much enjoyed.
The orator spoke Of the object. Of
government as aiming 10 secure lie,
liberty and the pursuit. Of happiness and
argued that the state had the right to
interfere and to prohibit any business that
prevented the attainment Of these ends
Such business vas the saloon business,
being both unnecessary and harmful, and
believing this TO be go, the people Of
Maine bad enacted statute forever pro-
hibiting the manufacture and sale Of
liquors within the borders Of the state.
Mr.. Gushing spoke Of the CLASSES Of
people who object to the prohibtory law
and snalyz d and controyerted their
grounds for objection Though there
were come who were honest 10 their op-
position to prohibition the larger portion
OF whatever antagonism there Vas tc
the present law came from those directly
concerned in the liquor traffic. lie men
toned some kinds OF business that were
in measure necessary though liable 10
abuse, and called attention 20 the fact
that they had been restricted by wse
legislation. He then spoke of lines Of
business that were wholly unnecessary,
such as prize fighting, gambling etc. and
showed that no one questioned the
wisdom or right of the state to protect
i itself against the menace OF these things.
He argued that we had an equal right
and much more reason for protecting
ourselves against the drink traffic than
against any one or all OF the businesses
cited.
| He made the claim that the prinepl4
OF prohibition was right ard that the
advocates of local option recognized il
as correct for they propose prohibition
/ for town and cities that choose TO adopt
it, under local option law, thus differ.
/ ing from state prohibition only in the
area to be affected. He showed conelu-
sively that the disadvantages OF local
option were far in excess of any adyaL-
| tsge that might be hoped for from it and
called attention TO the fact that 10 T.
cense town was always liable to
suffer all the evils Of the saloon
business, carried on 10 an adjoining
license town, without even the
small compensating advantage of the
revenue derived from the granting Of
the licenses. He claimed that the adj
vantages promised by the advocates OF
high license are never realiz ID, except,
indeed, that they yield large revenue
from the licensessgrauted, and admitting
this point, he claimed that the saloons
thus licensed did from ten to twenty
dollars of damage for every dollar that
they yielded In revenue.
He spoke of the persistent efforts OF
the resubmission elements and said that
it sometimes seemed to him that the
friends of temperance were apathetic to
the point of being hypnotz ID by the
friends OF the saloon. He made the
point that temperance people should also
make use Of mental suggestion and make
this union meeting center for the
spread Of waves of prohibition sentiment.
He said that the friends of the cause
should be filled with confidence as To its
progress and ultimate triumph and that
they should express their belief and
mske known.their conf fence on all oc-
cassious.
Mr.. Gushing is very entertaining
speaker and enliveped his discourse with
many apt Illustrations and witty stories
During the forty.tive minutes that he
spoke he was listened to with the close -
attention.