Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1907-02-06
THE sTURGIs LAW.
Report of the Enforcement Commits
mountaineering Document.


l
report that will attract universal attention
and interest in the State. 1t comes from
an official body which has been in the
centre Of the stage from the moment OF
IT'S appointment. 1t is due to the commits
sion to say that it is made up of men who
IN the social, business and political world
command widespread respect. Their
names attached to a business document
lmpel confidence. And this report is q
business document. 1t will doubtless be
attacked by partisan newspapers, from q
partisan standpoint and for partisan rea-
sons. Such Interpretation is to be depre.
Gated in advance.
The commissioners show in their report
that they are sensitive to public criticism.
1t is evident that much of the criticism
that has been INDUCED has been unfair
because, as the commissioners show, some
OF the critics have never even read the law
under which they have been acting, and
are totally ignorant Of its terms and pur-
poses. The commissioners might have
gone further and have shown that many
other critics have been actuated by
motives that will not bear examination,
by the side Of whom ignorant critics are
entitled to respect.
Perhaps the most interesting portion
OF the report, to the average reader, will
be that section treating OF the cost entailed
upon the State by the commission. This
is the factor in the work which these gen.
tleman have had to do concerning which
most has been said and concerning which
1t is to be said that the entire cost is a
mere bagatelle in comparison to what
open saloons in the same communities
would have imposed upon the public
Loose assertions about net expense Of
10000 or more have been current. The
commissioners show that this is the
gross, not the net expense, and that the
grand total figures up to about 70 per cent
Of that sum, that the cost has been s2S, 900
instead OF $4,000. This a much larger
sum than the people are pleased to have
expended in this way, but it should be re-
membered that all this cost would have
been unnecessary if men sworn to do and
paid for doing certain duties prescribed
by the statutes of the State had shown
any disposition to obey the laws govern
ing their official action.
The most prominent tone in all the re-
port is that of conservatism. The COM
missioners did not take an extreme view
of their duties, nor assume any radical
attitude toward the sheriffs OF the coun-
ties. They recognized many of the diff
culties which beset the path Of an exec
utive officer in the discharge of his duties,
and did not ask the sheriffs either to at
tain the impossible or to approach it..
They did not ask them to accomplish re-
suits so much as to use every reasonable
endeavor to do so.
This attitude will not be satisfactory to
all the people, for it will be interpreted as
too liberal, but it leaves for the sheriffs
whose duties the commissioners were
called upon to assume, even less ground
for selfdefense. 1t certainly is not un-
reasonable to ask men sworn to the per-
Torrance of public duties to make an
honest effort to obey the law.
The just criticism which lies against
the principle Of the enforcement act
known as the Sturgis law is that it pro-
vides for one set OF men to perform a work
to do which other men are paid. This OBJ
lection, in practice, becomes insignificant
when we learn that the men were super
seeded only when they would not at least
try to do the work required of them by
law.
The State of Maine has a right to see to
it that at least an honest endeavor is made
to execute and enforce its laws. Failing
to secure this endeavor it must sit power
less in the grasp OF nullifers, or assert it
self and insist that its authority be re-
spected. In this generation OF the world
no enlightened community will yield up
its authority to multiplying officials, par
ticuiarly when there is so much ground
for suspicion that notification is secured
by graft.
In a dispassionate style the commission
ers treat OF their experiences in the coun-
ties in which they were called to operate,
and in the same semi-judicial manner they
deal with the objections urged against
them in some of the counties where they
did not operate. In the case Of Penobscot
="
they go into much detail, their conclu-
sions reflect seriously but not upon the
sheriff. To all intents and purposes they
say that the greatest possible activity
there by officers having 70 judicial, only
executive power, would have been fruit
less.
The commissioners also draw an inter-
esting conclusion from their experience
when they say that the existing statute
permitting fine or imprisonment for illegal
selling must be changed before enforce
ment can everywhere be made effective.
The essential lawlessness of the liquor
traffic is faithfully illustrated in the.report
under consideration. The saloon has re-
spect for no law, whether it be prohibitive
or regulative. 1t evades and violates law,
whatever its nature. Let no man imagine
that it would bend its neck meekly to any
other yoke. Its history everywhere proves
the contrary. 1t seeks its one object, mer-
cenary gain without giving public service,