Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-09-11

| repub' lean majority of two years ago
j as an indication of dissatisfaction
with republican supremacy, the demo-
Gratis have waged a campaign with
the vigor of desperation and the saw
agery of a forlorn hope.
Not an issue has arisen during this
campaign that was not an issue in the
| campaign of two years ago, and upon
which the democratic party was ut
terly routed. Shall Maine be hon
| est?' was then their battle-cry, and
| the people answered it election day.
| Indignantly resenting the implied
charge that she was not honest, and
for the past two years the State has
continued it's march of progress and
prosperity.
In the present campaign there was
nothing for the democrats to do but
| to ring the changes on the old issues
| reSubmission. unequal taxation. in
creased expenditures, extravaganza.
graft. and scandal. and not one Of
these charges" has been any better
sustained now than then.
! 1t has not been difficult for the re-
publicans to meet the charges which
! have been made: to show that there
has been no graft, no scandal, no ex-
| traVagance-none of the horrible
things which have been charged d.
rectly or implied.
| On the other hand. the State rec
/ ords have been as an open book, and
they show that not a cent has been
Incorporated, not a cent UNI
accounted for Expenditures have
increased in recent years; what of IL.
~,
wealth and material prosperity are
| also increasing?
They talk of increasing expendi-
lures as though it We're a crime. Do
they tell of the corresponding in
crease in resources? Do they tell that
the taXrate twenty-five years ago
| was four and one-half mills, while
| now it is but two and one-half mills?
Do they tell of the $4.000.00O public
debt of those days. now reduced to
three quarters of a million? Do they
| tell of the sources of revenue because
of which a low tax-rate is possible?
Oh, no; but up and down the State
/ their orators, from their candidate
for governor down, are telling how
tax-ridden we are: how poor we are
! how pitiably small our savings bank
deposits are; how pauperism abounds,
how drunk we are. while all the time.
up to the opening of this campaign,
all Maine was congratulating itself on
its sobriety, progress, prosperity ana
, happiness.
| The democrats are to be credited
| with consistency on at least one issue;
| they are for resubmission. and they
| advocate it for the purpose OF uitl-
mately substituting local option ana
license law for the present prohibitory
law That is what resubmission now
| means; it is democratic measures
| republican resubmission-a PROPOSE
| ton to resubmit in order to give
voters an opportunity to reaff1rm
] their faith in prohibition-is; DEAD
| very dead.
And the pity of it is that in order
to show how demoralizing the prohiDi-
tory law is they are depicting a con-
dition of things in Maine really TOO
| horrible to relate-a condition Whic.
in fact has no real existence except
| for two or three weeks before electloi'
and then only in the minds OF demo-
cratic editors and stump speakers
| who between elections would theih
selves be among the first to resent tI'e
outrageous assaults on the fair faiie
Of Maine in which they themselves
are now indulging.