Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-03-25

we nave Always naQ III. Ihey ten u
there is rum being sold, today. in the
} state of Maine and a great deal of II
no places selling other than thos1
where it was formerly sold. 1t is a
great problem for our counties and it
is a great problem for our cities. this
ratification of our Maine law; so I
say 1t has become great economic
and g. great moral problem. We have
tried many things in recent years: we
have had officers whose special duty
it was to follow up Investigations. Do
the people want to enforce prohibit
ton? They had a chance to have 1t
enforced under the Sturgis law and
did they like it? Didn't the very exist
ence of the Sturgis law and the pres
ence of the Sturgis commissioners and
deputies practically cause a revolution
| in the political life of Maine? All
classes seemed to rebel. They did not
want enforcement: and l have often
| said if | believed in prohibition I
should have believed in the Sturgis
| law. But because having believed in
prohibition, l, as one among many cit
| liens in this State, fought the Sturgis
| law to a standstill; and, as the Gov
ernor said the other day. what shall
we nave? It must be notification or 1t
must be another Sturgis law. Do we
| want either2 Must we be forced to
| take either, notification or the old or
der of things on the one hand or an
| other Sturgis commission on the other
hand? / am glad that the people of the
city of Augusta allowed me to come
and hold down little Joe Williamson's
chair for few days. Gaughter.) 1t
| was not because ! could talk upon this
| question wholly. but that L could be
| here in this House and consider with
you this question shaped now as I
have hoped for Is years that it could
be shaped. This is nothing new to me,
gentlemen. For Is years / have believ-
ed in local option in Maine and new
err believed | would live to see the day
| when n Maine House and Senate
| would have submitted to it a resolve
like this The line is drawn now; there
| is no make believe here; the line Is
sharply drawn and I believe the peo-
pie of Maine are going to line up on
one side or the other, and so far as
support of parties go l believe We are
coming to a new line of cleavage. This
great question of local option we have
now to face in the State of Maine.
This bill is local option bill; 1t Is
framed right; it has truth and sin
certify and honesty behind it. 1t is go-
ing to the people, and if not from this
Legislature it is going to the people
nevertheless. Men will go into all the
| places in Maine and tell the people the
| truth about this matter.
This matter of local option, what is
! it? 1t helps us to solve the problem in
our Maine cities and it assures the
| Nf p1,fl
quor traffic which the country towns
never had the pleasure to enjoy before.
If 81 per cent. of the legal voters in
country town want this law as the
cities may have it, then l say they
have a right to it, and you will agree
with me they have a right to it, and
yet no Legislature can force this thing
onto you, gentlemen, in country
town. 1t shall be up to your people to
express themselves. 1t Is my prophecy
If this bill should pass and If the peo-
pie should approve of 1t and Ii it could
! be enacted into law and become
part of the Constitution, it is my opfn-
ion soherly stated that Maine would
see more actual dry prohibition than
! we have ever known in the State OF
Maine for the period CT so years. be-
lieve it will work that way. We have
the problem in our cities, we have to
confront II, we who live in cities This
little city of Augusta has the prob
lem all along it's line on the liquor
traffic which some of you fellows at
home in the quiet country village or
countryside have got to face. We ask
YOU not to support the Democratic
party. we ask your support, you MI
nority members of this House--we ask
you not to support the Democratic
rarty but to help the people of the
Maine cities to solve this economic
end moral problem; we ask You not TO
support us but to support what is best
for the State of Maine.
Now, gentlemen. think you will agree
! with me that the people who go TO PED
tonight in Unity Plantation go to bed
under different conditions than confront
the people of Lewiston. You cannot
think of Lewiston, that manufacturing
city and that Industrial center. that cos
mopolitan town-you cannot THINK OF
Lewiston tonight under any kind or con-
ditions as prohibition can do it. They
say there are 200 rum shops in the city
of Lewiston. 1 don't know whether there
are or not; I wouldn't be surprised II
there were. l have here volume which
can find in the Bible about the history
and the creation of the world. book
covering the liquor business in Maine uil-
der date of 1893, with such men as Car
roll D. Wright, Seth Low, President Eliot
of Harvard. and other great educators
and philanthropists on the committee or
fifty These men issued a set of books
and this one concerns results discovered
in Maine at first hand. Men came 10
Hallowell, to Gardiner, to Augusta, to
/ Watervlle and to Rockland, and they
went to Pennington and Houlton ana
all over our State, and they found in 1898
that in the city of Lewiston there were
200 places; they found that Augusta had
g. open places where the traffic was pub
lie. We haven't got that today In Au-
gusta, I am happy TO say. Those mon
told the truth and they say in these
pages just the amount of temperance
sentiment they found in the old Augusta
House in the old days when legislators
gathered there. They seemed to find out