Milford chronicle., 1907-08-09

sir, l consider the sale of liquor in com
munity is worse than q scourge.
''It is positive demoralizer. It is thu
blood sucker of business. If merchant
can thrive in a wet town, how much bet
ter he would succeed if the competition
of the seller we're removed. Why, thii
town, and the whole of Caroline, was
never so prosperous as it is today. Every
body is easy. The burden of public and
private debt is light. There are no failures
in business, no drunkards on our streets,
no loafers on our corners. The moral tone
of the town is high. The people of Caro-
line would never go back to the license
system. They no a good thing"
NJ. BATES STEPHENS SAYS LOCAL OPTION HAS
MADE THE EASTERN SHORE PROSPEROUS.
There is no man better known through
out Maryland than NJ. Bates Stephens,
State Superintendent of Schools. found
him in his snug apartments in Denton,
coat off, hard at work, getting ready for
the opening of schools in the fall.
l said: ''Mr. Stephens, wonld like
you to tell me something about the ad-
vantages of local option in Maryland"
Willingly" he said, willingly but,
my dear sir, local option speaks for itself,
and in more forcible language than I
could use. Caroline county is one of the
most prosperous sections of the country.
Take the town of Denton. Since the
county went dry there has been a marked
improvement in morality and business
thrift. Our Jail is practically without
prisoners, our almshouse never has more
than a dozen inmates, and they are not
the victims of drink, but of sad misfor.
tune. Oh, there is general prosperity
from one end of the county to the other.
Let me point to you a good object lesson
Calvert county under the old license sys-
tenn was PROSTATE. Nature never did very
much for Calvert county, anyhow, and,
together with that fact, and the sway
which rum had there, Calvert was looked
upon as a dead locality from a business
standpoint. st. Mary's county, which |
adioins Calvert, and where natural condi-
tions were far better, completely over
shadowed it. A few years ago Calvert |
went dry, and soon the moral tone of the
county began to improve, business began
to boom, until today Calvert has thrown
her wet sister, st. Mary's, completely in
the shade as far as prosperity and thrift
are concerned.
"Ah, yes, the wonderful improvement
in Caroline is directly traceable to the
operations of the local option law. You
will find only one opinion about it here.
am satisfied that if the question we're
to the votersiof this county it
would get the approval of at least ninety
Der cent. of our intelligent voters. hope
Delaware will follow our good example"
.EwIs SAYS sPEAKEAsIEs CUT NO FIGURE.
spent an hour with Henry r. Lewis,
prominent attorney and a Delawarean
~ birth. He spoke in the most glowing |
erms of what the local option law had {
lone for Caroline. Said he "It costs this
ounty practically nothing to look after '
riminals. We don't have any. Our court S
J seldom in session more than week, '
nd the work of the grand jury is merely
erfunctory. The expense of a term Of a
ourt here is not one-fifth as much as it il
} in one Of your Delaware counties" y
Gas to speakeasies," said Mr.. Lewis, t
'hen l spoke of them, 'they do not give d
s any trouble. OF course, when dis C
,ict first goes under local option, it is t
atural to suppose that more or less illegal
'afic in rum will spring up, and indeed
liable to do so at any time should vigil
nee become a little lax, but they can n
asily be put to rout. I remember several S
ears ago, when Mr.. Towers was States fl
ttorney, they broke out here and there o
/ the county. Towers went after them el
his determined way, landed about n
lirty of them in the house of correction,
I'd the speakeasy vanished from the land. C
o, no, that is a piece of exaggerated &C
1nsense. You have nothing to fear from m
e speakeasy if you will go after it." ci
"As to the influence of local option on Of
lsiness, l say to you unhesitatingly, that pC
has most salutary effect. There is no la
ore fourishing town on the Peninsula NJ
an Denton. In twenty years it has be- OF
me a new Denton. From a compara- bi
rely little town, has grown to be an i'm WI
rtant business centre, and in my opinion 70
is all due to the operation Of the local DR.
tion law" ce
MR.. GOLDsBoRoUGH's VIEWS.
had very pleasant interview with I. N
an Goldsboro, the present States Attor-
Y. He talked to me very entertain
yly about Caroline county, its healthy ~ ~
ancial condition, its freedom from VI
me, the morality of its youth, the SUBJ ~
+ Z ] IL |