The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-27
WRITES
 OF MAINE FAILURE Sheriff in Portland Author of
 Magazine Article LAW IS NOT OBSERVED Maine Cities Show Heavier Percentage of Drunkenness Than Any Others
 of the Same Size In the
 Whole Nation.
LAW IS NOT OBSERVED

"fhe Failure of Prohibition in Maine" IS the subject of an article written by
 William M. Pennell of Portland. Me, for several years sheriff of Cumberland county and therefore having special op- portunities to study the conditions cre- ated by prohibition. The article was published in the July, 1907, number of the Pine Tree Magazine
 Among other things MT. Pennell says
 That in all the larger cities and towns of the state there has been open and continued violation of the law cannot be disputed. That the law has been changed and intensified to meet various and ingenious evasions, and to bring the guilty to certain punishment is evidenced by some 50 amendments since it's first adoption, and that the most drastic pro- visions have been it's latest, shows how little has been accomplished in the past
 "There has never been time during the past 25 years when the law has been enforced throughout the state.
 t''The law provides that the possession of the tax receipt from the United States internal revenue office is prima facie evidence that the holder thereof is d violator of the prohibitory law. and yet for years there have been from 12OO to 150O persons in Maine who have held such tax receipts.
 For years many of the strongest sup porters of prohibition in the halls of the legislature by their speeches, have been men whose personal habits give the lie to every word they utter when discussing the law from a moral standpoint. So well known is this fact that it is a matter of coarse jest among the associates of these members. And this fact, together with the years of open violation of the law has caused us to become a by-word and a reproach all over the land for our hypocrisy.
 "To hypocrisy must be added intem- perance as a result of the prohibitory law. The census returns made to the department of commerce and labor for the year 1903 shows that in all the cities of the United States outside the state of Maine. having a population from 5000 to 25,OO0, inclusive, there were arrests for intoxication 22E per each 1000 inhabitants while in Maine in the same class of cities there were 20 arrests for each 1000 inhabitants for intoxicaton. Thus it is seen that in tn small cities of the whole country there was 10 per cent less ar rests for drunkenness than in our cities of Auburn, Augusta, Blddeford, Bath, Bangor, Lewiston, Rockland and Water vile.
 ''In 1905 and 1906, under the most rigid enforcement this city or any city in the state of Maine ever saw, there were S33 cases brought into our municipal court, which goes to show that the traffic goes on just the same. It simply changes it's place of business from a saloon to home or the street.
 During the four years to January l, 1907, in which I have held the office, liquors have been seized on S5 streets and alleys and at 445 different places and during the same period S32 different per sons have been ] ought into court for violation of this law Not only do these
 figures show that the prohibitory law does not diminish the traffic, but it shows the utter impossibility of reducing the traffic by such methods.
 Advocates of prohibition fail to ap- preciate several pertinent facts and among these facts are the following: That under enforcement the quality of the liquors sold illegallyis of the poorest, and consequently most harmful That the strong liquors to a large degree super sede the lighter, less harmful beers and wines That over-indulgence is not con-
 fined to the saloon, and one of the most l fruitful sources of over-indugence in the use of intoxcants is direct result of I the prohibitory laJ The formation of ] drinking clubs, which has increased and | f1ourished under every spasmodic period 1 of enforcement, is a source of great dan ger to this state. That closing the sa- loon simply scatters the traffic through l out the tenement districts in a city like l Portland, and where the children of the poor come in closest contact with it. That children who could not enter a licensed saloon become the active factors in the illegal traffic carried on in the homes That such a condition of youthful law