The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1911-08-17
MISREPRESENTATION BY CARTOONS OF
GOOD MEN, CLEVERLY QUAsHED
False Front Pulled own---No-License Speakers
Heard By Large Gathering

who has strongly denounced saloons
also protests against being quoted
against prohibition in Maine. With q
portrait Of President Taft Is publish
ed some words of his written long
before he was president, as follows
Nothing Is more foolish, nothing Is
more at variance with sound public
policy than to enact a law which on
account Of the sentiment in a COM
munity is incapable of enforcement. -"
These words were not written with
reference to Maine and have no appli-
cation to the case in hand, for the
Maine law is capable of enforce
ment'-has been usually we'll en-
forced in most of the State and at
times in every part of it. President
Taft, who before he became presi-
! dent, turned down his glass to stay,
and who has said that to eliminate
/ the saloon from the city is to make
clean municipal politics possible
cannot fairly be quoted in favor of
any backward step in the battle with
the liquor raffic.
Hon. William ]. Bryan is quoted
in an old utterance as preferring To-
cal option, but his latest word, at the
Presbyterian Assembly of this year,
is that any unit, however large or
small, should be permitted to rid it
self of the saloon.
"Ex-Gov. William T. Cobb is quoted
/ in an old utterance that he says If
made at all was made in some mo-
ment of impatience and does not rep
resent his present views which are in
favor of retaining constitutional pro-
hibition.
AS for the preachers in this pic
ture gallery alert men will note that
they are but the exceptions which
prove the rule Three or four min
listers on the anti-prohibition side of
the question in the whole State of
Maine should signify chiefly that the
weight of ministerial influences al
most entirely on the side of prohibi-
ton, and also the churches as shown
in the declarations made by ministers
and laymen together in their confer
ences. The very denominations
to which these -prohibitionist
preachers belong are on the prohibi-
ton side.
THE only picture left in this 'stript
and garnished gallery of a great and
good man who wrote specifically on
this present Maine issue, is DR.. Ly-
man Abbott and against him may be
quoted thousand men of equal emf
hence In scholarly achievement, from
Europe and the United States, who
in the World Petition appeal to Maine
to hold fast to prohibition.
when DR.. Abbott's argument is ex-
people with common sense, who will
accept his reasoning, which is in brief
this that he is against the saloon in
his own town, but thinks that the peo-
/ pie of the northern part of the State
should not be concerned about what
is done in regard to saloons in a city
OF the southern part.
at takes no very keen intellect to
see the fallacy of his reasoning, for
manifestly the action of city in the
southern part of a state, whether it
has reference to liquors, thieving,
murder or corrupt politics affects
every part of the state through the
state prisons, the state asylums and
the state Legislature, which last may
be swayed In important matters af-
fecting the whole state by the legis-
lators sent to it by saloon influences
j in any section of the state. Any OF
the good who are inclined to CO.
operate with the gamblers, the greas-
ers and the galoots' in repeating pro-
hibition should do some serious think
ing before casting a vote on Sep
TENDER H."