Milford chronicle., 1907-09-13
LICENSE COMMITTEE.

sional men, that is, the men who
can afford it will not deal with the
agents. They send for it direct as
| I do. The same way with the
negroes, who constitute one-third
of our population, they have their
own channels, by boat from Balti-
more, or by rail from Wilmington.
There are about 1900 inhabi-
tants in this town, and about one
third are cOlored. No, the town
has not grown very much. We
NAV have doubled in the last TWEEN
tv-hve years. Prohibition took eff
feet in May 1888. I am convinced
that high license, high enough to
confne us to one or two hotels, not
saloons, would be much better for
the county. 1t would insure de
cent hotel for the traveller. 1t
would bring us from six to to ten
thousand dollars in revenue. 1t
would save us several thousand
dollars a year now spent in the flu
tile attempt to convict the violators
of the law and it would spare us an
atmosphere of hypocrisy and per
jury"
Mr.. Clayton Cam, a prominent
merchant, a man Delaware born,
and un-afraid to express himself,
began by saying, that he thought
Prohibition does not prohibit.
Whiskey comes here daily from
Baltimore. The purchasing
agent" supplies all what is wanted.
Anybody can get it. "You can
see the effects of it every Saturday
night right out there, - pointing to
the street.
Thomas J. Heating, the good ma
tured states attorney, who is a
candidate for denomination as a
straight" Democrat, and will
probably be reelected, said: well,
the speakeasies are not suppressed.
| I have tried hard to squeeze the
| life out of them, but you can t do
it, so long as the people want whis-
key they will get it.
eve have a very liberal law here.
80 days in jail or $50 fine. If the
prisoner elects to be tried by a mag
istrate and not before a jury and
court he can do so and then he IS
sent to the county Jail and later to
the state workhouse. We have
two such prisoners in Jail here now.
Curiously, however, nOtwithstand-
ing our easy statute, we have had
perhaps less trouble with Whiskey
than any othercounty Onthe Shore.
7. w. w. Woodford, Esq, the
magistrate that has tried more liquor
cases than any one else in Queen
Anne's county, said of prohibition.
1T is a good in some ways, in
others it is not. There is no public
drinking, but there is plenty of
private, and it is almost impossible
to convict. Men who will tell the
truth about every other thing will
lie when it comes to cOnvicting the
man who sold them whiskey.
Mr.. Clement Porter, many times
deputy sheriff, and one of the best
informed men in the county, de
clared that Queen Anne's would go
"wet" if the opportunity of a vote
was given. There is no prohibit
ton here" he said you will find
whiskey in nearly every house. l
believe that the law has saved a
few old worthless drunkards who
could not send away for the stuff,
from dying with delirum tremens,
but it has made drunkards Of scores
of the best men all over the country,
because they get it in large quanti-
ties. You know what man will
do when he drinks in private?
Bows cant drink? Well, boys do
drink here. l know all about it.
1 am an officer of the law. l won
der how many Saturday nights !
have missed being called to clear
up the town from drunken mobs,
white, black, young and old. A
boy could never get a drink at our
hotels. Now the purchasing
agent will take the boys money as
quickly as yours or mine"
William l. Elliott, the leading
general merchant of Centreville
asked how prohibition worked,
said:
I am the wrong man to talk to.
I am for license. I would like to
see some business done here, some
industry established and some
money circulated. The banks
have plenty, you say, yet, but no
BODY else has any. The farmers
have none. The money in this