Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-08-07
Rev. W. F. Crafts Speaks
Before Great Crowds.
Rousing Meetings Saturday and
Sunday for Temperance.
Death Of P. S. cohh--A.W. Smith Re.
tires--ln Business 46 Years.

Richmond Me-, Aug. 6.-fSpecial).-
DR.. Wilbur F. Crafts of Washington.
superintendent of the International
Reform Bureau, with Mrs. Crafts pass
has been speaking in the large cities
and popular beach resorts. but inelud-
ed Richmond in his series. as it was
the village where he lived in Maine at
the time that the war broke out. and
SO is wildly remembered At that
time it was a place famous for the big
ships built there.
He spoke Saturday evening in Post
Office square on the temperance ques-
tion and THE Foundations of Morali-
ty," an interview with Count Okuma
of Japan He presented as the foun-
dations Of universal morality that
should be recognized in all countries,
first the universal prayer commonly
known as the Lords prayer: second
the Ten Commandments; and third
the scientific teachings as to morals
with regard to Sunday and temper
anee. In this connection he discussed
the prohibition issue in Maine from
physiological and medical standpoint
As the French republic is using many
official posters to warn the people
against the alcoholism or chronic
poisoning that results from daily tip
ping, the relation Of alcohol as a pro-
Queer of disease is brought into world
wide prominence
He referred TO six diseases that are
no longer considered as private mat
ters for personal sympathy, and in
dividual doctoring, but public matters
to be restricted By legislation These
diseases are the plague, smallpox. yell
low fever. tuberculosis, typhoid. hook
worm. 1t would be just as appropriate
to bring the argument of personal lib
erty to bear in the case of persons
afflicted with infectious diseas es, as to
bring that plea to bear in the case of
the traffic which is known to be the
promoter of all these diseases. AS the
French poster expresses it, For the
sake of individual Family and the Ma
ton. alcohol is TO be repressed as one
of the most deadly scourges.
Mrs Crafts spoke in the afternoon
to a general audience on keeping the
grip of alcohol from the State. illus
trating the branches of the evil by the
fingers of one hand clutched at the
throat. and the method by which the
State was to be saved from this clutch
by the fingers of the other hand.
DR.. Crafts in the evening spoke on
the theme. Keep Prohibition in the
Peoples Law, the Constitution" First
of all, he surveyed the enemy's line.
showing that the central division is
made up of distillers, brewers. Illegal
liquor dealers, gamblers, white slavers.
all of them unanimously i'm favor of
the repeal of prohibition; but this di-
vision alone cannot win. So they are
busily at work seeking to recruit right
and left wings made up of unstable
prohibitionists who can be deceived by
their sophistries. The left wing is to
be composed Of those who can be per
suaded that license with local option
is better than constitutional prohibit
ton, and the right wing is to be com
posed of those who can be persuaded
that statutory prohibition. controlled
by the Legislature alone, is better than
the question in the hands of the peo-
pie. The strange thing this is that any
person who is against the saloon
should allow himself to be lined up
with such q motley and evil army as
makes up the center of this line.
And off against these three divisions
stand the three branches of the prohibit
ton argument; first that constitutional
prohibition is better than statutory pro-
hibition, because it is in harmony with
the great movement Of the world-insur-
gency-which is protecting the govern
ment of the people against vested Inter
ests, of which the liquor traffic is one of
the mightiest The proper way to pro-
test prohibition against the whiskey trust
is to keep it in the constitution where
no corrupt Legislature can change 1t
without the peoples consent. The second
reason why it is better far in the consti-
tuition is that it will keep it out of State
politics to a large degree. With these
arguments as the center of the prohibit
ton column the right wing is the argu-
ment that Statewide prohibition is better
than local option, and the left wing is the
argument that prohibition is better than
license. The main reason why any re-
spectacle people in Maine might give ur
constitutional prohibition to substitute
high license and local option is the claim
that it would produce lawlessness and
eliminate speakeasies But the testimony
of scores of people who are speaking Ii