The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1906-10-30
Prohibition
In Maine

L III iiH.I 7
The State Of Maine affords . living
example in retutation. Of that much.
quoted sophistry Prohibition does
mot prohibit Let him who speaks
thus consider wen the following facts
before stultifying himself again.
| AS a result Of the prohibitory law
there are no saloons in Maine in the
sense that we know these character
destroyers in Marion county. There
are SIC cities and towns in Maine with
but 465 Federal licenses to sell-not
an average of one to a place; further.
more these ACE U. s. Tax Receipts rep;
resent the liquor selling drug stores,
the State agencies, and the joint keep
ers who have been driven from the
State or are serving time in Jail.
For every joint under Prohibition in
Maine there are 1G joints under II.
cense in New York and $4,000 State
licensed saloons besides that are
worse than any back alley, third
story, pocket pedling joint under pro.
hibition in Maine.
Portland, Maine, is a city Of 10000
souls. and you can walk the entire
length Of its main street for two and
one half miles, down one side and
back on the other, and you will not
see the sign saloon or anything that
stands for the saloon over any door.
How different it was under license!
Portland had within its borders seven
distilleries and two breweries.
Since the State licensed enemies Of
all that is good were routed the EVIL
dences Of poverty are disappearing
throughout the State. Maine is the
only State in the Union that has more
savings bank depositors than voters;
with 100000 more depositors and $22.-
900 900. more money deposited by
them than the great manufacturing
license State of Ohio with six times
as many people.
The question is often ignorantly
asked: "Where shall we get revenue
for governmental purposes If the sa'
loon Is abolIshed?" Gladstone, the
great English statesman, once an
swered similar inquiry thus: with
sober people, not wasting their
earnings. shall know where to OBJ
tain a revenue" Maine now gets not
a dollar from the infamous traffic, yet
as a business corporation it is pros
porous.
In New York 1t is proposed to abol-
! ish the State tax by grating on the
saloon Maine4taxes her corporations,
so that the people are called upon
for less than two million dollars for all
State purposes, and the State tax Is
only two and one-half mills on the
dollar.
Most important of all is the ehect
of Prohibitions upon the child life OF
the State Maine has the largest per-
ceptage of the total population in the
public schools Of any one of the North
Atlantic states, including New York.
With twenty million dollars revenue
from the saloon in the Empire State,
Gov Higgins, reported that there was
an alarming amount of illiteracy
among the adult population, it being
twenty times greater than 1t is IN
Germany, Norway and Sweden. Mean,
while Maine without one dollar Of
revenue from the saloon, has more
school teachers to every ten thousand
of her people and more teachers ip1
proportion to her school population
than any other Of the forty-hve States!
Best result of all, child labor has al
most entirely been abolished; woman
labor where man labor ought to be Il
very small also.
Under license, the mother and chill
drep are forced into the shoe and
clothing and cotton factory, because
the father divides his pay envelope
with tho drlnkard factory.
Under Prohibition, the father is II
the factory, the mother is in the home
and the children are in the public
school.
:. This is what Prohibitions has dont
for Maine, in spite of licensed States
all around it, smuggling in their whis
key. and the half harted enforcement,
due to political treachery by the dom
inant party at home.
What is the conclusion Of the whole
matter? There is one remedy. Pro
hlbition enforced for every hour O
every day of every year, for ever
CITY for every State, for all time.
II Prohibition is good for Maine i
,s GOOD for West Virginia and for Ma
rion county. The issue is defined y
unmistakable trims, and an oppor
tunity is afforded the voter to ballo
, for or against it on November 9th. |,
, (Adapte dfrom speech by C. y