Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-01-14
MAINE EDITORIAL COMMENT.
Maine Makes Good Progress.

" IsApi CSS.S
A liquor paper which has reached
this office discussing the practical ef-
fects of prohibition from the liquor
standpoint makes use of the phrase
''bucolic, bleak and bigotted Maine,
most of whose inhabitants are engaged
in logging and catching Goldfish" The
effort of the liquor people to discredit
the intelligence and honesty of the
people of the State of Maine is gen.
orally well understood. In their effort
to make it appear that the people of
this State are below the average in
intelligence and virtue they have I'M
fortunately had the assistance of some
Maine people, who in their eagerness
to serve the whiskey interests have
apparently forgotten the larger debt
they owe to loyalty to their own. 1t is
significant and perhaps fortunate that
the annual report of the State asses
sors should come at the same time that
this new attack in the accepted bill
lingsgate of the trade arrives. 1t fur
inshes us an opportunity to compare
the conditions in Maine with those of
last year, and to call emphatic atten-
ton to the fact that the people are
not less progressive and less prosper
Gus than those of other communities.
It was the fortune of the editor of
this paper, within a few weeks past,
to be called into another state to de-
fend Maine from the attacks that
were being made upon her by these
same self seeking interests. 1t is a
matter of corgratulation that the re-
port of this official board should SO
justify the defence that was put up
for the Pine Tree State under those
circumstances.
The report of the Board of State
assessors shows the largest increase
in taxable property for the past year
that was ever returned to the board
The exact figures of the increase are
$14, 1906, which is an increase of
over per cent, the present valuation
being 1854 l6,S4S, and that of last year.
$40, 32S,7i2. That the policy of pro-
hibiting the liquor traffic has not
wrought general wreck of the ma
terial interests of the State is thus
made evident, and it is to be ac-
knowledged that the law prohibiting
the traffic has been better enforced
tuTouSHolt ti'C t'tdte tiIdlt IstS Dcci
the case before for some years.
A recent cartoon in an English pub
LEGATION represents factory. 4 saloon.
a savings bank. and home. The
picture shows that the men who go
from the factory to the saloon. have
no occasion to go to the savings bank,
while those who avoid the saloon find
the savings institution Il safe and
convenient depository for the surplus
funds not needed in the home. The
lesson is so true and so patent, that
it needs no comment.
The report of the State assessors
also shows that there has been an in
crease in taxable property in every
county in the State. There are no ex-
ceptions to the rule The increase is
in all kinds of property, real estate
and personal property, and in corpora
ton values. The people of Maine
have not been going backward during
the year that has passed. There is no
license for the enemies of this policy,
which is becoming so fast the policy OF
many sister states, to refer sighting
ly to the material condition, or the in
tellectual accomplishments of the peo-
pie of Maine, and every effort to boil
stcr UP losing cause by any such
arguments must fail.