Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-03-04

old State for a large number OF years
had prohibition on he statute books,
lust the same as we have here, all at
once they changed over To local option
and high Iicrlse; and the best men /
could consult there, because l was hon
estiy endeavoring to get at the facts.
testified that The liquor traffic was be-
ing regulated much better under the
new order Of things.
But | tell you it strikes hard for US
TO see the sca!ding tears shed on &C
count of this law, AMI to know of the
aching hearts of mothers and dauSh-
lers, the women of Maine, and we have
something to be responsible for If we
vote for the prohibitory liquor law SIM
ply for political effect.
If we have saloons unde: high license
or local option you ask Wont we
have Just the same results?" No; be-
cause you will have such stringent re-
strictions placed upon it that If man
wants to get Il glass of beel he can go
and get it, without going into one of
those dives where infamy abOunds;
though when iis puts the stuff into his
stomach it will :rove a curse to him,
and he will 60 home to his family and
likely as not commit some outrage up
on them.
Now, Mr.. President, we are asking
this in behalf Of the true principal of
Temperance. We are today the laugh
ing stock of every state i'm this Union
upon this question of pI ohibitiOn. It
seems that the people have run wild
over it, and every Legislature, and
everybody that comes herr tries to do
the other fellow one better to see what
kind of law can be rut upon the
statute books, uatil you hcve so much
law nobody respects it. and COnse-
1uently YOU caHuot enforce it any bet
ter thln you DO.
Mr.. President. you cannot enforce a
law until public opinion is willing to
have it enforced. Does airy body under
take to tell me that We have lessened
the sale of intoxicating liquors in the
state Of Maine today under the pro-
hbitory liquor low? | know better 1t
is sold every"lr:e. | viii tell you what
is dore. In nany towns it is not sold
openly, but What do they DO? You find
I lac young men clubbing together to
send away for it, and they thereby be-
come debauchcd through the prohibi-
| Tory law. Well. L you must have it.
regulate it in the best possible way,
and that is by local option.
Why. the gentleman who stands upon
my left said the other day in the House
that there WAS nobody but 'rum-guz-
zltrs' in favor of high license and To-
cal option. That man will know mere
than he does now in 20 years. and
sooner than that if he goes from this
state and talks with People in other
places.
All the ministers of Maine are not in
favor Of this ridiculous law which you
have been trying SO long to enforce.
and wich you are further from enforc-
ing than YOU When Neal Dow first tried
10 enforce it.
Now, gentlemen. | do not expect in
this time of frenzied prohibition that
the people of Maine will dare to act
upon their convictions, but l stand
here today i'll behalf of our temperance
people. | do not stand here in behalf
of the rum sellers or the rum guZZlerS.
for the rum sellers do not belong to
the same political organization that l
do. How is it, my dear sir, that two
thirds of the rum sellers in the State
IF Maine vote the Republican ticket?
There is nobody that can deny it. But
the party to which l belong believes in
temperance; we believe in regulating
this matter in the best possible way.
Mr.. President, go to any state in this
union l spoke of Tennessee because
l was in that state three weeks last
year. but l found no drunkenness.
There is less in Tennessee. where they
have high license. according to it's pop
ulation. than there is in the State of
Maine today by the last census statis-
tics.
Do YOU think you know more about
it. and that there is more virtue down
here than there is in Tennessee? Let
me give you AN object lesson.
! came home from that state and l
struck a city in Maine,-the Prohibi-
ton State of Maine.-with her drastic
laws upon the statute books. I
stopped at ii hotel III that city, and it
was Sunday night. What did l find
there? l found there at ten or eleven
O'Clock ut night twenty-five young.
men residents of that city. intoxicated
round about that hotel-on ii Sunday
night and | said to myself. is il pos
sible that have come from a local op-
ton state down here into Maine?
But the time is coming when the light
will shine upon our beloved state. and
we shall protect the young man. the
flower of our citizenship. Let us. Mr.
President. try something else than the
prohibitory liquor law. and if that don't
do any better. why. then We will re-
peal it. Let us try local option. for l
believe that to he the best doctrine
that we can espouse. If we must have
the curse amongst us. let us regulate
it in TIE best possible manner for the
interests especially of the young men
of our State.
Why. you tell us we must not legal
iZe crime. The same party that put
the prohibitory law on the statute
book put that law for licensing towns
through a state liquor commissioners. |
have right here an affidavit of a state
ment from a deputy sheriff of Lin
coin county, and he says that they had
the worst liquor shop run by a liquor
agent that they had in the town of
Waldoboro. A year ago last April that