The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-07
PROHIBITION CAUSES CRIME AND GRAFT Maine Will Seek to Repeal
 the Law PUBLIC OPINION AROUSED Public Statistics Show Big Increase in Number of Arrests for Drunken ness and Disorder During
 Prohibition Period.
PUBLIC OPINION AROUSED

] interview from William T. Haines, candl- date for the republican nomination for
 governor of Maine. in which he says: T am for resubmission because l be- i lieve the people want a chance to vote
 again on the fifth (prohibtion) amend-
 ment. It is surprising the way the sentl-
 ment has grown for resubmission in q
 year. few years ago we heard noth-
 ing about it. Now four of the five re- l pubicans l meet favor it."
 What better evidence do you want that prohibition in Maine is unsatisfactory,
 than such expressions from one of the
 leading politicians here? l have been l in Maine now five days, and every Maine
 paper l have read since my arrival has I something to say about prohibition, yet 1 they have had the law more than q half century. It is agitation, agitation, agitation, and that will continue to be ] the song in this state until the obnoX- ious law which is the breeder of crime
 and drunkenness is wiped from the stat ute books, or rather eliminated from the constitution.
 In the afternoon edition of the Press
 
 l in this city last night by the Rev.
 Rollin o. Everhart, and not a single claim is made by him that prohibition in this state either prohibits or reduces crime or drunkenness On such essential prop ositions the reverend gentleman is as silent as the grave. His whole vail Is an appeal to the basest passions of his ] hearers. His main song is re-hash of the crime of slavery and the part Maine played in abolishing it.
 You will observe long quotation from Abraham Lincoln, in his debate with Douglas in 1858 on slavery, yet the rev. erend gentleman takes pains to say noth- ing about the part that great states man did to defeat the prohibition move ment in Illinois in the early Sos. Let's quote the gist of the reverend gentle mans remarks: He said:
 Tt is time to make the hills burn with the old heat and the valleys throb with indignation. Take nothing for granted. Take no candidate for granted. 'To the law and to the testimony Bring out the plummet and test those who would have 1 your votes. Speak, Sing! Thunder. Burn! Let the people know that between resub- mission and prohibition there is a great gulf
 It is the same spirit of fanaticism which bred the bgtory that brought on the civil war. Remember that Maine en- acted prohibition in 1851; Vermont and New Hampshire in 1853, and Massachu- setts and Indiana in 1855. The south re- fused then to be moved by such fanat- cisnn, and because her statesmen would not adopt it, the ministers of those states were proclaiming from every pulpit that it was because the southern people were impure. The same spirit of bigotry was manifested by the advocates of prohibit ton in Birmingham before my departure. 1 attended two sessions of the Jefferson County Sunday School convention, held in the First Methodist church, and heard the president of the convention, as well as the chairman of the prohibition party, make the allusion that the women of their side were purer than those on the other side. That is phariseeism of the deepest dye and it is bound to do injury where ever it is practiced. How l wish these gentlemen would make that statement in the presence of some of the women I have met in Maine who come in daily contact with the actual workings of his pet fanaticism, in the police courts. To use a slang expression, "They would give
 them the horse laugh
 The south has already suffered enough at the hands of prohibition fanaticism That it is an absolute failure as a pro- hibitive measure I can furnish abundant proof right here in Maine. That it is the prime cause for the terrible drunk enness in the cities of Maine which I have visited. one has but to investigate the records of the police courts and their officers. If 1t increases crime and drunk enness why should it be advoatede ,lhe l only reply is that those who vote for it do not know the facts as to it's actual working in states where it has been tried for decades. If Birmingham should adopt it, I venture she would repeal it in two | months. But it will have to remain the law of that city for several years. at least.
 But the worst evil you would have l to contend against would be the cor
  | trate, l again call your attention to the l fact that in Leavenworth, Kan, the | illegal" liquor sellers and gamblers paid into the city treasury sS4,0O0 per | annum for twenty years. Under the l Bangor law" of Bangor Me, those
 same unlawful interests paid large sums to the city government in the 1 form of a license" and they did 1t | for more than twenty years. and up 1 to the present year when the moral
 wave, so-called, struck this state as | titions prevailed in Portland and many | Kansas cities. As said above. that un- der the present aroused condition of public sentiment. both in Maine and in | Kansas, those cities have ceased to re- ceive their graft yet the quantity of liquor that is sold has increased, and the police records show that drunkenness has increased at an alarm | ing extent, as you will observe from the inclosed statement over the sigma ture of the chief of police of this city. the recent moral wave in these two prohibition states has produced too
 much law. The authority which for merly vested in the local officers has been usurped by the state officers. and as consequence there is no way of