Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-07-19

Great Britain .................. 7o1. 200 900
Austria Hungary .......,,.t.,. oaoOH,oV 1
How is it expected that our nation
can live and prosper in the end under
such conditions | would ask. with the
open liquor traffic sapping the very
vitaIs of our inhabitants year by
year? | am no alarmist. but l say
that unless our people rise up in all
their might and overthrow this mighty
evil of rum selling by prohibition.
God will wipe out our nation in the
next century or two as he did the ma
tions of Phoenicia, Thebes, Babylon
and Rome.
Every dollar expended for liquor
robs labor of at least a half-day's work,
while the whole liquor waste in our
government. rs not less than 100000
900 or 100000, 600 days work annually"
Our people are spending over three
times as much for strong drink as
they do for bread, five times more than
for butter and cheese. and also for
boots and shoes; IA times as much as
as for worsted goods and carpets. ana
nearly six times more than for WOODEN
goods; while all our tea, coffee, cocoa
and chocolate cost our people less
than one sixth of the amount of mon
ey they are expending for liquor. And
lastly, statistics show that our people
have expended in less than eleven
years time, for strong drink, more
than the value of all the products of
the farms of the United States, as
we'll as all our mechanical and manu-
featuring industries. 1t takes clear
brain 20 grasp, or even to comprehend
the immensely of the labor-Value OF
the appalling amount of money which
is worse than wasted, each year. by
our people for strong drink. 1t is
safe to say that beyond all human
calculation, the prohibition of the IL
ouor traffic throughout our land would
benefit and bless our people as Moth
ing else has done in our history ii
is a shame to any man, whoever he
NAV be. or who by voice or ballot Ia
yors regulation of the traffic in liquors,
which is the greatest enemy to clVi-
lization. Justice. morality and religion.
only a few days ago a drunken man,
who knows me we'll, stuck his foul,
Tobacco stained face near to mine
and said: Say, have you read what
pr. Abbott says about your Prohibition
hunDug IN Mdlne. 10 MS lu1otfoli
made no reply and held no converse
ton with tie poor fellow. As he stag
gered away down the dusty road /
heard him muttering to himself:
This Rev Abbott is all right; | be-
ljeye as he does, | do and so this
is what Dr. Abbott has gained by at
lacking Prohibition in Maine-the
praise of the thick-tongue of drunk
ard who applauds him for his attack,
upon a great principle, whose object
Is to do away with the breweries, dis
tilIeries and rum shops in our land.
Away with unmanlv assertions as to
prohibition in our grand old state,
which are not only false, but whose
advocacy of the regulation of the rum
traffic is deeply regretted by every
thoughtful citizen who knows fuil
well that the liquor traffic can in the
end only be destroyed by prohibition,
or it will. in the end destroy our ma
ton Shakespeare our greatest poet
has said, There Is tide in the affairs
of men which, taken at the flood,
leads on to victory" Now this is as
true il regard to movements as to
men, and, while the prohibition of the
liquor traffic. in our government may
appear most Utopiap. yet | say it is
the goal or movement which every
minister Of Christ should be striving