Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-09-06
EDITORS LETTER BOX.
Continued from Page SKI

| legal sanction to a great wrong.
| Maine voters need abundant testimony
as to the real character of the IL
| censed saloon from all who can give
it of their own knowledge.
| II is an advantage to the prohibit
| tionists that prohibition was put into
| the Constitution seventeen years ago
| by axote of nearly three TO one, but
| it is of advantage to the other side
! that it has not as fully removed the
| question from politics as was expect
ed. and much should be made Of the
| prospect that there will be popular
| primaries. to be voted on also on
Sept H. as question four and that
there is further relief from politics in
sight in the non-partisan commission
| plan of city government, now sweep
| ing the country, which will bring 10
Maine q better enforcement, ana tins
win also be aided by the expected
passage of an interstate liquor bill in
| Congress to check the abuse of liquor
| importation.
The food of summer visitors. on the
whole has not re-enforced prohibit
| ton sentiment. nor strengthened Sab
| bath observance, which is the moral
| water supply" of all moral move
merits. 1t is no small disadvantage
| that the campaign has come in the
summer vacation. when moral forces
are weakened everywhere. And the
| liquor interests have been incompar-
! ably better supplied with funds and
so able to prepare and publish spe-
| cially written and well printed sophis-
tries, and to send them in fresh in
| ca llfnGntS week
/ months TO every voter.
| In the array of great names, the
Prohibition side has far outweighed
the repealers. Nine hundred and
eighuy-one of the worlds greatest men,
! including the kings Of European Sci
ence" and many members of European
parliaments have signed a petition
asking Maine to hold fast to prohibi-
| ton for the worlds sake.
| Tie effort of the license organs to
| show those whom they hope to win
| over to vote for repeal that they
| would have good company has been
| a fiat failure. Day after day i'll spa
cious cartoons they have cited great
| aud good men only to have such quo :
| tations-not one of them written on
| the Maine issue-repudiated or dis
| proved. They quoted Governor Wood
| row Wilson's advocacy of non parti-
| san local option as step in advance
| in New Jersey. and he refused to al
| low the quotation to be used as favor
| ing retreat in Maine.
| They suppressed the fact that he
| had written a letter to Texas saying
| he believed in statewide prohibition
/ wherever state was prepared for it.
| as he believed Texas was.
| 4 letter of DR. Lyman Abbott writ
| ten on Texas compaign was also
| quoted as if written on Maine issue,
| hut DIR. Abbott and ex-Presdent
| Roosevelt both protested against hav-
i ing editors of the Outlook quoted in
Il Maine fight. where they We're being
fused to further a proposed retreat
| The misapplied advertisement of DIR.
| Abhott's letter nevertheless eontin-
uad to appear, with Texas address
omitted. so that it seemed 10 be a
| me Ssage to Maine.
| \ statement of Cardinal Gibbons in
i favor of an advance to local option
| in Maryland, with an opinion that
| Baltimore was to try for prohibition
| was quoted as applying to Maine, and
| the Boston Pilot protested against
| the attempt to msrepresent the
Catholic church.
| President Taft was quoted in an ir-
relevant utterance, made before he
| was even a cabinet officer, that laws
| should not be made that cannot be
| enforced. OF course not. but that has
no application to the Maine situation.
And Mr. VIM. ]. BRYAN was quoted
! in an ancient utterance against con-
| Stitutional prohibition. but when at
| tention was called to his declaration
| this year for prohibition in ANY unit.
| however large" no correction was
made.
| And so the costly and expansive pic
| ture gallery of great and good men.
| quoted against prohibition in Maine,
has wholly collapsed, leaving not one
world wide or national eminence un>
| less It be Col Watterson, who will
hardly be paraded any longer in sup
port OF the pretended effort to substi-
uta local option prohibition for
statewide when he has just been de-
feated in the Kentucky Democratic
convention in an effort To prevent the
adoption of CITY local option III that
state. otherwise dry because they
know so well the devilment in the
famous Kentucky product
our friends, the enemy, have great
~ helped us in that the COSTLY APP
peals of the liquor interests 10 Maine
voters. printed in two and three col
umn advertisements in half Il dozen
papers. have proved conclusiVely 10
every voter that uses his head for
anything but n hat rack, that prohi-
bition reduces the liquor consumption
and its consequences more than any
other plan. This is proved over and
over again by the editorials of ma
tional liquor organs and the liter
ature sent into the State by the Press
Bureau of the National Liquor Deal
ers' Association, all besee ching Maine
TO vote Yes" on the proposal to re-
peal prohibition which should be suf-
fcient reason why every voter who
does not want to increase the liquor
business in Maine should VOTE NO.
No statistics should he needed To
prove that what liquor dealers oppose
most the opponents of the liquor
traffic should most favor for their
tfra t.AC ~, ff hut IN n