Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-06-09

No: 50 | will vote to legaliZe the saloon.
is to admit a purpose which is of itself
dishonest IL the saloon is good thing
every community wants one. Where is the
man who wants his boy To become
drunkard? Yet in voting for license
every man is saving, Il don't care" You
can't run the liquor business on other
peoples boys. The liquor seller is no re-
spector of persons. He is out after dol
lars and he will take one from your boy
Just as soon as from the gutter drunkard.
Yes. sooner. for in your boy he sees
possible patron of his bar for years.
where the sot has finished his career.
It's the boys the saloon keeper has his
eye on and when you vote to legalize the
traffic. as you will when you vote to re-
peal the constitutional amendment you
are simply throwing the biggest tempta-
ton possible before your own boys.
If you are a license man you don't care
what becomes of your own or your neigh
boris children Analyze the problem and
this is the only conclusion You can't
build any glass houses about your chill
dren. You can insure them from the
temptations of the saloon only by keep
ing il out, and YOU propose to vote for
a change. / care not how clean the COM
munity, how positive the sentiment, how
devoted the parents, every child will
meet in that community all the tempta-
tions necessary to try the moral fibre of
his makeup. When YOU open the saloon
and encourage its business success you
are surely endangering the future OF your
own child. If you have no children, and
are willing TO jeopardize the lives of your
neighbours, what is your standard of
honor. 1t is useless to say this is far
fetched for 1t is only a plain statement of
fact. If the licensed saloon is good for
the city it is equally so Tor the country
If il is good for your neighbors it is good
for you; if il is worthy of recognition by
the state ii is worthy of a location by
every church, schoolhouse and grange
hall. There cannot come to any commun-
ity. too much of good thing. If there
be evil lurking i'm the saloon then IL can
not bring good to any community. The
man who votes for license takes the posi-
ton that he does not care what becomes
of the young people in his community.
else he is dishonest with himself. II you
want license in order that you may get
liquor more easily be honest and say so.
but admit at the same time that YOU
don't care what becomes of the boys in
your own family or those of your neigh
bors. There's a logical conclusion to
every proposition and here you have it.
II you want freedom from contagious
diseases you isolate the sick. quarantine
all those exposed. and exercise the great
est possible care over cats and dogs and
even seek to destroy all mice and rats
about the infected premises. The good
of the public and the danger of possible
infection, necessitates all this, but those
| most anxious here propose to throw
down the bars. legaliZe the saloon, invite
it To come in to every neighborhood and
refuse to admit the element of danger To
young or old, any injury to property.
Why not be consistent and refuse the
saloon by unfolding the present eenstitu-
tional amendment and seeking to make
the law effective2
The logic of the situation cannot be OBJ
liberated. Actions speak louder than
words and the position a man assumes
must be accepted as indicating his pur-
pose. Where is the man who wants a
saloon in his own neighborhood where il
Will be likely To jeopardize the future OF
his own boys? This is not fancy. not
sentiment but cold. hard truth.