The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1911-09-14
THE MAINE ELECTION,

THE MAINE ELECTION.
The election in Maine Is over and the vote
is so close that 1t has hardly yet been definitely
determined which side has won, although at
present ii appears that the effort TO legalize
the liquor traffic has been successful by small
majority.
The question naturally arises why. then,
should be such change in the size of the
majority against the saloon. In 1884, the ma
lorty 10000, while in 1911 the
majority is only a few hundred. II has been
argued by many that this is a proof that the
people OF Maine have changed their minds on
the question of the sale of intoxicating liquors
and that this is strong proof that the state
wide prohibition law IL "a failure and therefors
it should not be tried in other States
But an examination Of the facts will show
that there has been change Of conditions In
Maine. and that these changes very largely
explains the differences in the size Of the ma
jority.
Sinse 1884 there has been great change
in the population of all the New England
States. Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire
have lost largely of the old native American
born population and there has been large
influx into the cities of foreign born popula-
tons The French Canadians have come in
from Canada In large numbers, the most OF
these new corners are Roman Catholics III re
ligious faith and there is not the strong senti-
ment in their church against the liquor traffic
that there is in the Protestant churches
The vote on the amendment in 1854 was
7o-s3 to 23,si1. making a total vote OF about
$4,000 The vote on Monday. September lith.
was In round numbers 1000. about evenly
divided This shows net loss in the prohi
bition vote of about 10000, and gain in
the license vote of about $4,000. There is no
evidence from these figures that any OF the
advocates of prohibition nearly thirty years ago
changed their minds and that result in 1911 is
prooftha prohibition has been failure. The
vote shows that the great change in the popula-
ton OF Maine there being large increase
in the cities and corresponding increase in
the wet vote.
II ia to be remembered also that for practi-
calA half a century there have been no legalized
saloons In Maine The persons who led IN
the original campaigns knew all the horrible
conditions which attendant upon the saloon.
The present generation is acquainted only
with the wells attendant upon bottled gin, blind
tigers etc and they Informed that these
evils are far greater than the open saloon and
MANY have been persuaded that it is better
10 have licensed saloons An experience with
~ licensed saloons in the neighborhood OF their
homes would WORK a speedy cure in such cases,
In the present campaign the liquor traffic of
the nation centered It's tremendous power upon
the effort to repeal the amendment They
poured In money influence voters and every
man who could be persuaded 10 sell his vote
was bought FOR a good sum OF course. the
pastors. women and church leaders generally
could not use such methods Taken all in
all these is no proof that the people OF Maine
Who favored prohibition In 1884 have chang
OF their minds, but only that there has been
a great change In the poulation OF the State
The great interest throughout the civilized
world in the result proves that the saloon is
burning question in the business social and
moral life OF the nation. The battle is on
no, only for local and state prohibition, but
also for national prohibition The most i'm
portant step in the prohibition fight today is
The passage by Congress Of the hill prohi4 LIZ
the shipment of liquors from vet into dry
territory With such hin passed by the ma
tional government, the liquor traffic could no
longer nufy the will Of the people in dry ter
rtory The TWO Senators from Virginia. who
have Just been renomnated have pledged
themselves both 10 support and work for the
passage Of such bill
REMARK ABLE OPINION