Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-09-07
IlavQRs pRoeIsM:
The Practical Business Side of the /
J Question Fairly, and Logically \
Presented tF MI

| cred q rouSinE prohibition speech Noii~
| day evening at Yarmouth at an open air
mass meeting conducted under the aus
pices of the No-License Movement Com
mittee in the interests of the work OF the
campaign for the retention of the pro-
hibitery amendment Mr.. Stewart spoke
| in part as follows:
| I am to discuss briefly the business side
| of the liquor problem | take that skie
for consideration because we hear 1t said
| so frequently that even if the saloon is a
bad thing. and almost everybody agrees
| that it is. still it is said to be necessary
to business; that we can hardly expecI
| to have industrial prosperity or CONNER
ciai success without the saloon. If that
| is true, we ought to know It.. if it is not
| true, the sooner We discover tho error the
better il will be for all
Is the saloon a benefit to business?
Business grows out of humanity S
struggle to get the things of life. fhe
production. exchange transportation and
distribution of The things of life. give us
business The saloon either helps to do
these things or IL does not, and by that
test It must stand or fan. We accept the
blacksmith in the community because he
is valuable addition to the industrial
life of the community. We take the doc
tor for the same reason, for he adds to
the health. strength and length of life
of people and these are Industrial fac
tors. We would reject the thief for the
same reason 1t might be urged on his
behalf that he would purchase food.
clothing and shelter. but the difficulty Is,
he would purchase these things at Our
n pQ9liValpnt in
lreturn-therefore he is rejected.
Let us try the saloon by the same test.
If Maine will do so on the 18th of Sep
TENDER. there can be but one decision.
For the saloon is an economic monstrosi-
/ ty Let us suppose we had present
grocer, a thief and a saloon keeper; the
economic differences among these three
men would be that the grocer gets our
money and gives US something good IN
return: the thief gets our money and
gives us nothing in return: the saloon
keeper gets our money and gives US
worse than nothing in return. Therefore,
in the Industrial scale, the saloon ranks
below the thief.
The short cut on this point is the re-
hinder that the saloon must ever be an
enemy to our market 1t is not true
that greater part of the basis of our mar
ket is to be found in the needs of the
people. Nine-tenths of the market rests
upon the demands which grow out of our
wants and desires. using the term want
in its restricted economic sense. We
dress according To our desires, not our
needs: we furnish homes according TO our
desires, rather than our needs; the sd
loon. iff-making sober men into drunk
ards, kills off these finer wants and de-
sires, and leaves its victim where he
finally lives below the line of his actual
needs; thus To succeed il must inter-
fere with the market, and makes itselt
A foe to all lines of legitimate business.
That being the case Maine should Keep
the saloon outside the pate of the law,
as she has been doing for more than hatt
IA century.
The saloon is not real business; 1t Is
a counterfeit.
The genuine business helps its custom
or. the saloon hurts it's customer. The
saloon does business with man on the
basis of his appetite rather than his legi-
innate needs or desires. For men do not
buy drink as they buy other things. The
saloon never puts its real product on
II.
duct beneficial to man, is glad to place II
on exhibition. but instead OF exhloitli's
the real product which it turns out-the
drunkard-the saloon kicks nm INTO tue
back alley II is the only institution IN
America that kicks its finished product
out of the back door Therefore l assert
il is not business; but counterfeit
and Maine should continue to treat II as
a counterfeit.
1T is urged that the saloon may become
a benefit as a source of revenue, out IL
never can be a source of revenue. Every
dollar collected, directly or indirectly
must come from the wealth OF the people.
The saloon is not wealth creator II
lis wealth destroyer. 1t could no more
he a source of revenue than could the
picknoclxet We could take money from
the uickpocket and put it into the publ1e
treasury and thus make him collector
of revenue, but we. whose pockets ne
picked. would be the source OF It, 90 II
must be with the saloon.
II may be said that coming from ilii-
nois | can know little about Maine put
| il must be admitted that | know maca
ohout Illinois / have spoken in every
one of the 102 counties in the state ana
A
II have served in our legislature. Illinois
| is a local option, high licenser saloon
state the sort of state that some are
irving to make out of Maine. and at best
under that system we are worse thah
Maine at her worst. The liquor traihe
| has the state of Illinois by the throat
and our government is corrupted by
from top to bottom.
| Local option is a delusion and snare
| and there is no such thing as local option
as to the evils of the liquor traffic. Inc
town that votes no-license in ILLINOIS mas
to suffer the harm inflicted by the sa-
lloons in the neishbormg town when goes
for license Local option is too local ano
too OPTIONAL
! There was n tine when my state OF lii
nois and Maine stood shoulder to Shout
de, when Abraham Lincoln OF Illinois
lgnd Hannibal Hamln of Maine led in tbs
HIGHT for the Nations life. Today Maine
| has gone ahead of my state-5o years
Iahead-we trail in the procession Whera
Maine leads, and / come to urge ina
L IN ne