Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-04-28
Only Trouble with Carry
ing Out Its Mandate.
Judge Hall Reviews The Work.
ing Of Prohibition.
Much Good May Result from The
Campaign for the Law.

Judge Oliver G. Hall of Augusta.
who has just retired from the Kenne-
bee superior court after Il years of
service, during which time more than
2000 liquor cases have been before him,
Thursday morning gave out an inter-
esting interview expressing the result
| of his long years Of observation of the
workings of the prohibitory law. He
| declares that the absolute prohibition
Of the sale of intoxicating liquor is
right and that rum selling is a curse to
society. He declares that the trouble
is not with the law but with the carry
ing out of the laws mandate and ex-
| presses the opinion that much good
may result from the campaign now
| opening by the temperance forces of
| the State to retain the amendment.
| He points out that as the result of en-
| forcement of the law in Kennebec
county but very few native Americans
are now in the liquor business. Says
| Judge Hall:
MY experience in observing the eff
| forts to enforce prohibition in this
| country has given me some well settled
| conclusions as to the efficacy of law
alone. | am more firmly convinced
than ever that absolute prohibition of
the sale Of Intoxicating liquors except
ing for purposes regarded by the peo
pie as necessary. is right. There can
be no other logical conclusion. That
| rumselling is a curse to society is
truism. That it is the parent of
crime paupersm and insanity needs
no proof. No greater menace to the
public wellbeing exists. It is the
great destroyer of homes. Cruelty.
non support, abandonment, drunken
ness and neglect--the prolific causes
of divorce and home wrecking, de-
generacy and vice, are chargeable to
the liquor-seller. Anything short of
the absolute prohibition by law of so
monstrous a public evil is utterly in
consistent with the purpose znd aims
Of civilized society-its moral we'll
being
THE amount of degradation as de
veloped in divorce hearings and direct
~ caused by drink, is appalling. The |
law is right. 1t should make no COM
promise with so huge a wrong. The |
trouble is not with law That comes |
in the carrying out of the laws man
date There is no other offence |
against law and order which. to pre-
vent requires so much vigilance |
downright honesty of purpose and per-
sistent courage, combined with in |
telligent and practical experience in |
ways that are dark. on the part of the |
officer. As to most other law break |
ers the depravity of the culprit alone |
is the cause Of the offence, the party |
wronged being the aceuser.
But the crime of the rumseller is |
the result of depravity PLUS the APP |
petite and habit which he serves,
PLUS the consent of one-third of the |
community and the indifference of |
most of the rest. Added to these en-
couragers of the traffic are the enor-
nous production of liquors, protected |
by law, and seeking an outlet. backed |
by the wealth of manufacturers and |
dealers. 1t is therefore absurd to |
expect that the sale of liquors under |
such conditions can be wholly or to |
any great extent stopped. 1t would |
require an army of officers endowed |
with extraordinary detective sagacity. |
to circumvent the devious devices OF |
the Maine rumseller and, even then |
the local sales only would be reached, |
while the bottle sales and transmission |
through the express companies would |
be correspondingly increased. Our |
90 years of search and seizure have |
made the saloon keepers and their Gus
toners wary experts in the game The |
rumseller is the one criminal protect |
ed by his victims-too often by per-
jury. Resort is. therefore, often had |
to the testimony of spoilers, a class of
evidence not favored by the public and |
as little by juries. They are slow to
indict or to convict on the oath of the |
mformer only.
1T is folly then. under present con-
ditions to look for a millennium
through stopping the traffic by law
alone. The law may be said to have
delayed true temperance progress in
one sense, in so far as it has led we'll
meaning people to rely upon it as the
sovereign cure for the evils of drink
Some have sought to use it as a club
to reform the State and prevent the
sale of liquors to the neglect of moral
and educational means to reform the
other party to every Sale-the drinker
AS well rely upon law to eradicate vice
or the law of sin in the members
Shut up every saloon in Maine and the
elusive peddler will haunt the by
ways by day and night and the ex-
press companies will thrive through
bottle orders from abroad, and these
the law does not reach.
'Depravity; the custom and habit
of countless ages: the constant influx
of aliens with craving thirst and no
sense of wrong in its indulgence, are
some of the problems involved The
bottle supply is worse than the SUP
ply by the glass over the bar Recog-
nizing this fact the Legislature of
Massachusetts has prohibited bottle
sales over the bars of the licensed re-
taller. But the wholesaler is abroad
in the land and his pernicious vigil