Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-08-19
Too Many Saloons.

Even persons who are neither by
profession nor practice Prohibitionists,
are often tempted to question the wis
dom of allowing three or four saloons
to flourish side by side and the JUS
tice of some of the transfers of licenses
which are frequently granted. When
saloons are stationed at the very
doors of factory ready to proffer
their temptations to tired workmen
when they are least able to resist
them, when employers of labor plead
against the transfer in the name of
order and good morals. and when re-
spectacle residents of the locality pro-
test against an addition that is likely
TO degrade it, it seems that the county
commissioners might stay their hands
and refuse to place another saloon in
position where saloons are alto
gether undesirable. Even at its best
the saloon is an enemy of respecta-
bility and the massing of two or three
drinking places close together invari-
ably means the degradation of q
neighborhood. Even a business street
should not be dragged down to the
danger point by their too frequent
presence. A certain type of saloon
often carries in its train worse vices
than excessive drinking, and it is to
be feared that some of the transfers
of licenses remove saloons from TO-
calities in which their character has
become too we'll known TO decent
neighborhoods which they are certain
to eorrupt-Bridgeport, Comm Tele-
gram.
those rn i'm.
to the pointless and oft-repeated
declarations that prohibition does not
prohibit" we would recommend the
reading of the above editorial from the
Bridgeport Telegram. 1t strikes US as
setting forth the fact that regulation"
does not regulate; that the laws
which are advocated by the Rum
Trust and its organs furnish no bet
ter protection, even to their friends,
than does the prohibition law to the
people one and all. It shows that even
those who have favored Rum Trust
learn, when it is too late. that the
tendency is always DOWNWARD aud
that the liquor interests, although free
with their promises and enthusiastic
in their claims of ideal handling of an
accepted evil. they soon become de-
fiant, and the officials who are elected
m IL. tho .trag,,1atip.,' 80 a. .,.a,.,,,
defiant and neglectful of their duties
as are the most careless of the sheliffs
elected to enforce a prohibition law.
This Connecticut paper makes plain
the danger which it is impossible to
avoid under any license plan. At the
very doors of factory, saloons are
stationed to prefer their temptations
to tired workmen when they are least
able to resist them"
Augusta might expect, under a IL
cense system, to see one or more sa-
looms established as near as possible
to Cony High school. We wonder how
the parents in the Capital City of
Maine would enjoy the aspect of sew
eral saloons on the east side and some
of them ready to appeal to the boys
as they go to and from their studies.
The bridgeport Telegram declares
Even at its best, the saloon is an
enemy of responsibility, and the mass
ing Of two or three drinking places
close together invariably means the
degradation of a neighborhood."
This paper has discovered that "even
business street should not be drag
ged down to the danger point by their
too frequent presence"
We should like to know where this
Connecticut newspaper would draw the
line between frequent" and too FIRE,
auent." 1t seems to be convinced tha
too many" saloons are Il menace Il
a neighborhood and to city, but ae
cepts the doctrine that some of Their
are necessary. TO our mind. one sd
100000 is too frequent" But GU
contemporary seems TO think tina
even while the saloon is ever a
enemy of responsibility" civilization
is obliged to put UP with a certai
number of them, and our neighbo
finds that when the system IS one
established it goes ON and on. eve
downward in the scale of respectabi
ity, and always increasing in numbe
and disreputable character the saloor
established.
We hope every reader of the Kenn'
bee journal and the editor of Il
bridgeport Telegram as well, will rea
our excerpts from the descriptive stoi
of saloon conditions in the city
Newark. Ohio. There the edit'
Of the Telegram viii find,
Ray stannard Baher's 1.-The I'M
Crust Of Civilization just what Gil
like bridgeport may be expected