Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-03-14

\ tention after it has proved to be q
| complete failure are not only humbugs,
but disagreeable nuisances and mem
ace to republican form of govern
ment. l deny the moral right of the
| Legislator to refuse the resubmissiOn
of this or any other law to the people
for their approval or disapproval. AS
q law abiding citizen l am willing TO
be governed by the majority Of the
legal voters of the State, but l am not
| willing to be forever kept in doubt as
| to whether it is the will of the ma
jority or not.
We have seen this House crowd
ed to overlooking with men and
women who think they have been
commissioned of God to regulate other
peoples affairs, striving to influence
the members of this House to prevent
this matter going to the people, tney
Iquote Scripture and tell us that Adam
and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit Of
the Garden of Eden and became wise
knowing good from evil, and for that
reason We're driven from their Para
disc and became the progenitors of all
the human race. Now admitting this
to be the fact, let us examine this
matter, God being all wise, all pow
Ierful, and having fore knowledge, must
Ihave known just what his own created
beings would do. He placed in the gar
den a tree of knowledge of good and
levil, intending they should eat of its
fruit and become wise. and to make
sure they would eat of it, He put a
prohibition tag on it and proclaimed
it prohibited and that did the business.
Tell any of Adams race they sha'n't
do a thing, and that is about the first
thing they will want to do.
| These modern self styled reformers
IhaVc discovered that God made mis-
take in creating man Il free moral
Iagent. and are trying to improve upon
His plan by placing sheriffs and Stur-
gis commissions around their forbid
den fruit, to prevent people from ex-
Iercising their God given rights as free
moral agents.
| God is the same yesterday, today
land forever, and human nature is the
same as it was in the beginning. and
prohibition fruit is just what the ordi-
nary man wants and what he will get,
land no law will prevent it. The old
Washington societies did all the good
that was ever done in this State to-
wards promoting temperance, and
when moral SuasiOn was dropped and
the law depended upon to do the work
the good work stopped. Now the same
spirit that Influenced Adam is influ-
encing his descendants to drink the
juice of the forbidden fruit and they
are bound to get it law Or no law, you
lmay be able to make it cost them a
little more, if that is an object desir-
able, but they are sure to get it, and
it is up to us to decide what is best,
under natural conditions, to do with
the matter.
| Nobody denies that drunkenness is
an evil and Il curse. And q man who
| drinks to excess injuries himself his
| family nd the community in which lie
| lives. Hut the man that has an I'M
| rnrnchablc thirst for liquor whether
| that thirst is inherited acquired is
an object of pity rather than one to be
dcspiScd and outlawcd Some of the
finest intcllccts in our country have
been cursed by this uncomfortable
thirst for drink. AS a general rule you
will find these men remarkable kindly
| and generous, and that in most cases
is what made them drunkards. there
have been drunkards if somebody else
had bought the rum. Now don't let
us imagine that we are so much above
the drunkard because our meanncss
or some other noblcr gift Of God has
prevented us from being drunkards.
| Why should we longer authorize and
arm with clubs broken down ministers
and their unthinking followers to try
to pound religion or temperance into
| their less fortunate but more worthy
| brethren?
1t cannot thus be accomplished the
| plan has been fairly tried and has fail
ed. Reformation must proceed from
| within it can never be forced into q
man by arbitrary course
This prohibitory law has almost de-
stroyed the law of love and kindness.
and weakened the respect for the law.
and law makers. while these gouhs are
| still on the war path chasing myth
and snuandering the peoples hard
earned money worse than uselcssy.
God save us from the curse of fana
ticism in all its forms.
| The doilgS of one set OF cranks nest
ed on a sand hill in the town of Dur
/ IAN, Hats ttcI. Drought ~ the flOtlCt pl
the Governor praying that if it is with
lin his province to to a5atC the nui.4-
lance.
l have no doubt Of its being a
nuisance. but they do not NEEDLE with
other peoples business as these PrOhi-
bitiOn nuiSanceS do. and they do not
come here to ask us to legalize and aid
them i'll their nuisance. There seems
to DC no limit to the arrogant audacity
and folly Of all flnatiCal crankS.
| have had the opportunity to visit
| the Soldiers Home at Togus. | saw
those old men sitting around with
bowed heads, their bent forms. gray
hairs and wrinkled faces seemingly
awaiting the end. Some crippled in
the War nf the Rebellion. l thought to
deprive them of the innocent pleasures
of the canteen, was the refinement of
ICruelty, and about the limit of unrea
ISoning fanaticiSm. 1t seems to me
| that it is time that these meddlesome
cranks should stand aside and let the
lpeople manage their own affairs, but
IsOme of then won't stand aside when
L. ri 81 hpin,-