The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-15
NUMEROUS BOYS
 DRUNK IN BANGOR Ministers and Politicians Wink
 At Violations GET PROFIT INDIRECTLY Sheriff PennelI Says Those Who Shouted Loudest for Prohibition
 Do Least In Assisting to
 Enforce Laws.
GET PROFIT INDIRECTLY
To the Editor of The Age-Herald,

To the Editor of The Age-Herald; We have finished our work in Maine and have heretofore given you some of l the essential facts discovered by us, but we have been too busy Investigating to give you such reports as we would like to have done.
 As to the EFFECTIVENESS OF PRO- HIBITION IN MAINE we have fur nished you with the following evidence: We have furnished you with the report of the sheriffs office in Portland that the seizures of liquors in that city this year have been 6OO We have given you the heresay statements of many reputable people to the effect that there are from 900 to 1000 places in Portland and Bangor where liquor may be bought; and while that is heresay we unhesitatngly say we believe it is true. We have not con tented ourselves by simply writing you that We bought liquor in those two Maine cities, but we haze mailed you photo- graphs of ourselves taken in every in- stance at the bars in those cities over which we bought and sampled the whisky. We visited many places at which we ob- eeiiiCo Aiquoi WulCu we ulu nOI pIO- tograph but we did not photograph single place where we did not buy and sample whisky.
 As to the EFFECT OF PROHIBITION ON THE MORALS of the people of these two cities, we have furnished you the fol- lowing evidence: We have mailed you the official records of the police departments of thosa two cities yho v,ino tha incraaea Of arrests for drunkenness is alarming; that of Portland increasing 12 per month this year over last or an increase of 1464 per annum; while the increase in Bangor from 1905 to 1907 has been t061. The police officers of those two cities told us that the drunkenness among small boys is awful, the chief of police of Bangor stat ing that his department had arrested 40 boys between II and 16 years In a very short time. We have seen with our own eyes many drunken men on the streets of those two cities who would have been arrested and locked up had they appeared on the streets of Birmingham. This coroborates the statements made to us by the police authorities of those two cities that they did not arrest a man for drunkenness unless the parties were down and out and past the stage of loco motion
 aS great aS IS Lne eHecI or Sucn dWlui drunkenness on the morals of those two communities, it is not the only evil and harm which prohibition has done those people, because the disrespect for the laws of the state Is simply shameful and Is bound to do much harm. There are many people in those cities who could not say of their own knowledge that the pro- hibition laws are being violated, but we do not see how any truthful and con ..f those two cities can say they do not be- leve liquors may be bought in many places. If there be such a resident there, then we believe such a person, If he should visit Birmingham and walk from First to Sixth avenue on Nineteenth street, could say he did not believe there was a single church in Birmingham. If the name of that church was erased. then it would be much easier for a person to say that rum shops existed in those Maine cities than that the First Methodist was a church, because he would have the old whisky soaks to indicate the class of stun it was they were so near. Why, the liquor fumes would indicate also that the stuff was on the inside of the building. ' The trouble with the inhabitants in those two cities is that they have winked at the violation of the liquor laws there so long that it has become second nature with most of them. There are many who profit directly by such violation of law, and a much larger number who so profit indirectly. Then there is the weak-kneeC politician who cant afford to come out openly and denounce the conditions which actually exist there. Then we have the ministers who for years have accepted pew rent from members who knew of such violations of the law and who were profit ing by the same. Sheriff Pennell of Port land told us that the loudest vocal ad- vocates of prohibition in name did the least to aid him in enforcing the law. The effectiveness of prohibition in those two cities would be Imaginable were it not such a serious matter, and not so degrading on the morals of the whole of their people, especially the boys. Yours truly,
 T. c. MDONALD.
 c. l.. DABBS
 En Route Kansas, October Il, 1907.