Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-07-01

| deceitful are tbs. kisses of.-an enemy |,
| Mr.. Haines proposed resubmission as
a friend Of prohibition. He feared for
| it's future. 1t is plain that the Re-
publicans of Maine do not share his
fears. A great protest against re-
| submission in every form has gone up
| from the hands that guide the pillow
and the feet that rock the cradle. The
| Republicans of Maine clearly believe
| that prohibition is safe without re-
submission. They believe it is better
| TO hear the ills we have than fly to
| those we know not of. They believe
| tina. bulwarked by a united party, no
assault by Democracy can drive pro-
hibition from its vantage ground or
fifty years possession. In party gov
eminent, as in public. the will of the
majority is law. This contest with
in our ranks will prove a blessing
You have settled the policy of the Re-
publican Iarty. Resubmission by the
| Republican party is dead. Resub-
mission by the Democratic party lives
for license They will deny it but the
people will say that the voice is the
voice of Jacob but the hands are the
hands of Esaw. The Republican party
VIII HSHl HCeilSe III every ioliii' "iiu
Mr.. Haines will fight with you, as he
always has. 1t will fight in the fu-
ture as it has in the past, for the
home, for the school, for the church,
for the boys. your boys and my boys,
our pride, our hope, our inspiration,
God bless them, one and ALL
No element of prohibition is more
pcrpleXing than the sale of liquor for
medicinal and mechanical purposes.
some prohibition states have left such
sales to druggists Maine has tried
the system of agencies. Its wisdom
is doubted. Some system is a neces-
sity. Not Mr.. Haines alone. but
many thoughtful friends of prohibition,
have advised committing such neces-
sary sales to druggists under strict
regulations. Mr.. Haines = beheVed
that he could draft law under which
less liquor would be sold for necessary
purposes by druggists than through
the agencies of the towns. He be-
lieved the change would help pro-
hibition and what is far more impor-
| tant, make easier the enforcement OF
| the law. Gentlemen, law unen-
forced is stumbling block to truth.
He may have been mistaken. It's a
pcrnlexng question. Experiment alone
would answer it. Give him credit for
deep sincerity of purpose.
No man has been more misunder-
stood Or more misrepresented than he
on the issue of tax reform Because
he has praised many of the good
features Of the present system, he has
been painted as opposing all change.
To hnI
that is old is bad, nor all that is new
is GOOD. He sees no reason for
apologizing for tire record of the Re-
publican party When he entered
public life the State tax was four
mills This year the State tax is
one-third of a mill for your new policy
of good roads, one mill and half for
schools and but one mill and a sixth
for State purposes. Is the Republican
party ashamed of such record? When
he began his public work the cor
porations paid substantially nothing.
Year by year he has fought with you
to euualize the burden until today
they pay upwards of a million and a
half He has said he was proud Of
such q party record. So are you. He
stands and has stood, he has fought
and will fight with you for every adj
vance in legislation that looks to
equality of taxation.
All, but he is a wild-land owner
Yes. When did it become a crime to
own lands that raise trees and a vir-
tue to own lands that raise hay and
grain. But they ought to be more
equally taxed. Undoubtedly, but
how? How reach them by law that
tho court will sustain as valid? In
1905 you proposed a statue assessing a
State tax of two mills and three
quarters on lands in the towns and
fifteen mills on lands in the wilder
ness.
The Court annulled it. They said
it was not equality. If you are to
reach the wild lands by a property
tax, then as you increase the State
tax on them just SO much must you
increase the State tax in the towns,
but as you increase the burdens of the
State, and lessen the burdens of the
towns, just so far will you equalize
taxation upon your forest wealth.
Today the towns bear too much, the
state too little. Put your schools,
your roads, your bridges, your poor.
your insane, your courts, your CTlllll-
nails on the State and your small
towns will flourish and the wild lands
bear their just and equal share.
Prosperity in the towns upon the hills
means prosperity in the cities by the
sca and on the river banks. Wild
land owner, as he is, timber baron as
overzealous men have styled him in
the heat of contest Mr.. Haines has
fought for years for just this change.
At the last Legislature he led the
movement for the increased State tax
for schools and good roads. Most of
his timberland, located in towns and
plantations, already pay full taxes,
some two per cent, sCme two and
three quarters per cent. Upon his
wild lands his speech increased his
taxes 25 per cent. He fought, in fact,
for more than that. He believes in
abandoning our Anticipated policy OF
division of burdsns between State and
town, borrowed from England two
hundred years ago, and abandoned by
England more than century ago. |
England never began her mighty
march ahead until the State took up