The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1905-11-16
BELFAST MAINE THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6 1905

only to indulge in the use of intoxicating
liquors but also to frequent places where
these are sold. The great express CON-
paueS demand careful statements regard
ing the use of liquor before employing a
man Insurance companies expect that a
man, otherwise healthy, who is addicted to
the use of beer "will have his life shortened
from 40 to go per cent, and act accordingly
Yet We hear it said that the suppression OF
the saloon will "injure business" Has the
business of the State suffered under the
new order? Railroad traffic is fair index
to business. In letter to the writer dated
Nov. I, 1905 Col. F. f. BOothby of the
Maine Central Railroad said: "The season
of 1905 was the most prosperous in the his
tory of the road. Whatever has taken place
does not seem to have detrimentally affect
ed travel" Under dates of Nov. Sth. DR..
j. F. Haley of Portland wrote that sum-
mer business at the hotels and summer
resorts about Portland and Casco Bay was
most excellent. People did not stay away
or 80 elsewhere because the 'SturgIS BIZ
nettled the sheriff of Cumberland county.
and put him in position where he either
had to enforce the law or see others do it.
DE- Haley also mentions the case OF
prominent man well known in the State
who refused lucrative position III New
\ ok city, and declared that he ''could not
be hired with money to bring up his boys
exposed to the temptations of New York.
when Portland was So practically free from
them, due to the enforcement of the pro-
hibltory law" AT least one family recent
ly came to Belfast for a similar reason, and
doubtless others are ready to follow. lhe
expulsion of the saloon VIII mean the great
est boon that business ever had.
NV no gets the CASH. enquiries the Port
land Express and proceeds to quote State
Senator Geo. W. Heselton as follows "In
my practice Of law | have examined the
statement of liabilities of great many
oankruptS, l would not undertake to say
how many, but the number is very large. |
have never yet found d saloon keeper who
was creditor. The losses from bankruptcy
fall upon the dealers in legitimate lines Of
dry goods, groceries, etc This is not be
cause the bankrupt has not been in the
habit OF patronlZlng the saloons. In very
large majority of cases it is the patronage
of the saloon that leads to bankruptcy, but
it is always cash trade at those places, The
man who does not pay his grocery bill. his
rent, his board, his regular bills for the
necessities of life, goes regularly to the
saloon and pays the cash which should go
into the regular channels of trade. And
yet,' continued the senator, there are
men who contend that closing the saloon
hurts business" One Saturday night a
Massachusetts firm placed in the hands of
its workmen 700 marked ten-dolar bills.
BY the following Tuesday 400 of these bills
were deposited in banks by saloon keepers.
1 ne worst enemy labor has is the saloon.
If rum is so necessary to prosperity why
do not the rumsellers advertise-in the Ban
gor Daily Commercial for instanee-just
what their goods are and will do? Dealers
in dry goods set forth at length and in de-
tail the merits of their wares, why not the
liquor dealer? Why does he not say that
his product will drive little children out of
home to seek shelter in noisome sheds and
stables; that it will clothe man with rags,
murder tender and innocent women and
steal the shoes from baby's feet? Why not ?
Because the rumseller knows that intelli-
gent people know that rum is an economic
curse and can never be anything else.