The Newtown bee., 1905-02-03
LOCAL. AFFAIRS. REFORMER ONCE MORE TAKES
 UP THE CUDGEL
IN BEHALF OF THE CAUSE OF PROaIBI-
 TON.

MT Editor: Having drawn blood so promptly on first venture at picking up the gage of battle in behalf of the greatest good to the greatest number, l was quite satisfied to keep still and let the Domino try to define his posi- tion with an explanation, which didn t explain. Now, however, if the legal lights feel called upon to defend the position which 70. c. M." evidently thought MT Wright was trying to hold namely, the defence of the legalized saloon, perhaps I may be excused for venturing few words more, though it be deemed daring for poor layman to differ with legal luminary as well as "dignitary." If I had had less experience with the profession might have been surprised at the ease with which lawyer can find premises upon which to base an argument even when facts are missing.
 0. G. M. asserts that there is not a town in prohibition state where any body who wants to buy liquor cannot buy it. l can probably name to him a hundred towns in the state of Maine where even man conversant with the 'lingo" used to bring about the viola tion of law could not get it. Men have grown to maturity there without ever coming into contact with an open saloon. They have no craving for liquor, and while there are doubtless men in almost every community vii cious enough to connive at any viola tion of law, they are less in evidence in prohibition Maine than in license Connecticut, and however willing, there isn't money enough in the illicit business to tempt them. You may re- call the verdict of the voters in Maine 20 years ago, when after over 30 years of even imperfectly enforced statutory prohibition, they decided, by an over- whelming majority, to make prohibit tion of the liquor traffic part of their constitution, and poor deluded, dis graced New Hampshire is regretting her change of policies.
 Don't conStrue me as claiming that prohibition is enforced all over the state of Maine. 1 only wish to assist 0. G. M. in his exhaustive(?) researches for facts" relative to prohibition and it might interest him and others to read the news from Bangor:
 BANGOR GETS ENFORCEMENT.
 Bangor, Me-, January 1O.-This city, always heretofore declared by liquor champions an irrefutable proof of the failure of state Prohibition, has this week spoiled all their eloquence and upset their assertions by such a strict enforcement of law by Chief of Police Bowen that thc few remaining liquor outlaws are packing their grips for other fields of plunder. It has proven beyond question, that it is possible to enforce the law here. It has reSul ted in decrease in drunkenness which is truly remarkable.
 And what Gov Ball said in his in- augural address: 'If the people of Maine ever abandon or materially change the prohibitory law it will be done only after they have seen it en- forced honestly and uniformly in the same reasonable and persistent manner that other laws are enforced and after they have become convinced that such enforcement has actually failed to accomplish the desired end. Enforce ment may cause the law to be changed, but non-enforcement never"
 c. c. M. says: "The fact is as simple and as natural and as wholesome as the water, namely, that prohibition does not prohibit. Possibly that statement may not be new to your readers It seems familiar to me. Then he says: "SinCe it is the fact that general prohibitive statute does not prevent liquor selling, is a license law, where the State recOvers from the liquor sellers portion of the damage they cause the State, not better than a prohibitive law under which the sale continues and the laws are laughed at?" Now here is the vital question or questions, for more than one is n- volved. First, whether you really want to stop the career of the legalized saloon and it's admitted train of evils or whether you want it to continue and blight generations to come. If you want it to live and wax strong and powerful, then the license best suits you, for it is approximation of power, and what evil it causes is by the con- sent of the people. There is only one other choice-prOhibiti which, if it does not destroy, makes the traffic an outlaw.
 Admitting the truth of the argu- ment c. G. M. makes about the an archistic tendencies of ignored or un- enforced law, suppose we consider our present license law. Can you find any law upon the statute books of our state more openly, aggressively and defiantly