The Forrest City times., 1908-07-31


 threatens to thwart the very ends of prohibition. It is becoming a men, ace and If advice offered prevails the coming year may see It stricken from the official blue book as afar as argu- ment is concerned.
 The Anti-Saloon League, d modern offshoot of the prohibition movement, but with tha same end in view, has through its leaders, to use slang ex- pression, issued peremptory order to '.cut it out" he old cry of Look at Maine" is becoming unsafe.
 The meat in the cocoanut and the one tthing that threatens the very foundation of the prohibition move- ment is the Maine State prison and Jail report ofor 1907, advance copies of which have just been received in Minnesota. The report is a complete refutation of the much used state ment that prohibition prohibits and that no license means death to the abootlegger. -
 Consulting this report it is found that i'll prohibition Maine, the mother or the dry movement, there was during the year 1907, the year lust passed into history, total Jail popu- iation of 5769. This Is of small mo-
 
 an argumennatiYe standpoint when it is known that of this number 3375 of the persons incarcerated and sery. ing sentence, representa- commitments for drunkenness and violation Of the non-selling law. nearly 90 per cent of the whole.
 of the other 40 per cent it can be safely assumed that at least l0 per cent represented crimes and misde- meanors growing out of the abuse of liquor. If the claim Of the prohibit tlonlStS that all the crime is due to liquor is to be accepted as fact, then the entire jail population of 5769 was serving sentence for the use and abuse of something that Maine has been en- gagged in suppressing for fifty years
 And all thls was in prohibition Maine. with its sixteen counties abso- lutely dry, mind you, having popQ- lation of over 730, ,0oo, including Port land with population aggregating y, 900, and all with anti-liquor laws, the enforcement of which the anti saloonst vehementiy declares will drive any class of Illegal traffic out of business. The report shows many other interesting things in connection with the liquor traffic and Maine $ long eu0rJ To stamp IL out.
 None Of the commitments were for less than month and they included sentences covering period of as much as two years something not possible in Minnesota, where the maxi mum Jail sentence rarely exceeds 90 days, the State prison at Saltwater aud reformatory caring for persons committed for longer period or for the more serious classes of crime
 The population of Maines one prison, located at Thomaston, for the year was 206. On their own admission only 31 Of the Il sentenced in 1907 used hquor. Of 54 sentenced in l906, only l9 used intoxieants
 AS stated the report reviewed and from which these figures were taker IS for 1907. Compared with the jai abstract for lA06, the year previous the showing is worse and is cause fol even greater apprehension on the part of the prohibition and anti-SaIoor leaders
 DRUNKENNESS ON INCREASE
 The increase in commitments ove 1906 was l2s6, and for the abuse of in toxicants and Illegal selling of tht same, 966, nearly two-thirds of tht total increase This was for tht whole State. Some Of the iudiVidua counties put these tgu e, to shame \ when their proportion of the whole i! j. seen and considered.
 - la Androsc0ggin county the tota n commitments for 1907 were $50, O. which 5l4 were for intoxication anC Al for illegal selling. In this county | in 1906 the total number of drunks ou, of the total of 73S commitments was 369, with l48 serving sentence fol "bootlegging. An increase of nearly 90 per cent.
 III For Cumberland county, of whict l Portland is the county seat, and the largest city i'll that State, the tota commitments were 1871, of which number l007 were for the abuse anC | Illegal selling of liquor. The year pre- l yious out of a total of 1238 commit mentS, there were only 435 drunks ! but there was an increase in the nun ! Der Of blind pigs, 58 being located | against 2I for 1907
 II Kennebec had 673 commitments ! checked up against it for the year anC l the drunkS numbered 265 In all 6l l served sentences for selling the 'stuf | that cheers. Here the increase il I blind pigglng' was approximately :; | per cent over 1900
 II In Penobscot county, the second or l the list in point of commitments. the l total number was I043, of which 5s5 | were for the abuse of liquor and S9 fol selling it- Here, too, there was d de | cided advance iii the three items over | 1906, the figures for that year being | respectively S09, 455 and 76 The jai | in this county is located at Bangor, | and the prison board facetiously refers + to it as the most popular resort in the | State.
 ! York county during 1907 housed 46g prisoners. Liquor was responsible for the commitment of 266, Of which l. acknowledged 10 be selling 1t in de $ tiance of the law. In 1906 the drunk l. out of total of 434 commitments . numbered l9l and the blind piggers 6
 All of the counties named are the largest in population This by some may be taken as unfair comparison. but large or small. the Dercentaoe Of