Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1907-07-16

OF THIS STATE.
Attic recent convention of the Worlds
Woman's Christian Temperance Union
which convened in Boston, there we're In
attendance many representative women
from many nations of the world. Several
Of them came to Maine and have been
quietly studying conditions and making
comparisons between prohibition Maine
and license communities as they know
them. The opinion of these distinguish
ed and experienced women exactly cor.
responds with the opinion of the great
scientist, DIR. Matti Helenius of Finland,
who spent several weeks in Maine last
summer and has gone home declaring
to his people that>he is convinced that
prohibition is the only right and efficient
law to apply to the liquor traffic. One
of the w. q. 7. U. visitors, Mrs. Harri.
son Lee of Australia, who has been speak
ing in different sections of Maine has
felt moved to write an open letter to the
law makers as follows:
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE LAW MAKERS
OF THE STATE OF MAINE.
Dear Sirs:-I have been in your state
for time, earnestly studying your Pro-
hibitory Law and its effects, and now
must write to thank every man who is
standing by the "Home protection flag.
In my worldwide work have to study
high license, low license, municipal man.
agement, state control, the Gothenburg
plan and prohibition. There is nothing
better than the best; and of all the
methods of dealing with the liquor traffic
the one you have so Loyalty stood by in
Maine for half century is by far the
best.
Failure big and black is written over
every attempt to manage the liquor bust
ness in other parts of the world. The
London Times declares, 1--WE are baffled,
bewildered, COMPOUNDED in all our efforts
to regulate the drink"
In my own bright land am afraid we
have been "permitting'' the drink to
make drunkards, and then, as a people
we have had to spend thousands OF dol
lars in trying to undo the mischief. Our
revenues are depleted in the vain attempt
to rectify the wrong we have done
through license. Just one example will
prove what mean. A man petitioned
for wayside license in a bright, pretty
agricultural district and succeeded in OBJ
tanning it. He paid 10 pounds $50
for it, 80 our revenue gained that
amount. Six weeks after he opened bis
liquor bar under Government sanction,
the people of the place had to petition
for policeman to be sent there and
the government agreed, so every year the
H., In, hso SS0 and
year the policeman comes up and gets
that $50 and 80 pounds on top of it and
the tax payers have to study a very
simple little lesson in profit and loss.
l think we have acted on the plan Of
the two men who were Boosting about
their respective parts of your great con-
tinent, and one said to the other, "We
are going ahead up North, we've just in |
vented new kind of sausage machine,
you drive the pigs in one end and they |
come out sausage the other" "That
amt nothin'," said the other with
scornful sniff, i've have far better
machine than that down South; you just
drive the pigs in at one end and they
come out sausages tho other, and then If
you have too many sausages you just re-
verse the machine and they come back
pigs again."
In Australia VIC have some wonderful
and the most wonderful is |
called "The licensing law of our Chris |
tian land" We send the bright boys and
the strong men in one end, and some of
them come out drunkards the other. |
Then we reverse the machine, and when |
we have too many drunkards we put
them in to Jail to try to turn them back
to noble citizens again, and we are all
that neither your Yankee sau-.
sage machine nor our Australian licens- |
ing laws can work the reverse way.
Our jails, reformatories, asylums,
hospitals and other public institutions
are monuments of sin, sorrow and suffer-
ing, and are mainly required because of
the pitiless drink demon in our land. |
We have watched with intense interest
the growing prosperity and popularity of
Maine for so years, and encouraged by
your evident success, we are bravely try
ing to crush liquordom out of existence
in Australia and New Zealand. Your
state has had the proudest privilege OF
any part of the world. 1t has been the
battle ground of the most glorious re-
form the civilized nations have ever en-
gagged in; and as an Australian want to
thank you in the name of tempted,
humanity, in the name of the
worlds greatest reformers, in the name
of our own heroic fighters, in the name
of Him "who is not willing that any
should PERISH" for all you have done,
and beg you to stand true to your mag
nificent principles and continue to flash
the light around the world.
BESSIE HARRISON LEE,
Melbourne, Australia.
Worlds White Ribbon Missionary.