Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-03-23
DEBATE IN THE SENATE.
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in the meetings of Mrs. Stevens or
any Of the w. G. T.. Z. meetings
Moral suasion is one way to pro-
mote temperance and law another
way The first is a success, the other
is o failure. We have tried all kinds
Of law We put it in the statutes but
that didn't handle the rum question
It WAS put in the constitution where
it's advocates said il would have no
teeth The teeth may have been there
but they fell out at the first bite.
'"rhe special liquor constables once
came into Belfast and q young man
named Mitchell who hated rum as
the devil hates holy water, put every
effort into enforcing prohibition.
He closed the bars in Belfast but
the young men sent away and gof
their liquor by the gallon. They were
gathered into the cooler and the
courts and the jails were busy. We
never had the Sturgis Commission i'll
Waldo county for we have had some
pretty good sherffs there. But The
italians were allowed to have their
! beer and wine and no sheriff molested
them for fear they would get cut ana
| they would have no one to perform
that class of labor.
in Belfast, the lid is on now. Did
you ever try to put the lid down on
! {. kittIe of hot water? Pretty soon
/ lets of steam come out. With the lid
on they succeed in getting all they
want just the same. But the liquor Is
| miserable stuff. Some of ii is manu-
featured in II minutes and in 10 MN
/ utes after it has gone down man $
| throat he can tell neither his latitude
nor his longitude. We had murder III
Belfast. where a half pint bottle OF
| the stuff put three people out of com
| mission one for life. Fathers New
England rum never did that.
What has prohibition accomplish
Cd We used to have bars where they
| bought beer on draugHt. Nov they
| cont like the bottled stuff and drink
/ something more powerful. The farm
| ers used 10 come TO Belfast and buy n
drink or two when they did their
trading. Now they buy it by the gal
Ion and keep it at home. The boy
watches his father drink day by day
and tie homes ale being turned into
t:ppling shops and drunkards are be-
| ing mad of the young men as never
before.
Then in the cities, we have kitchen
bar-rnome and dives holes where the
| hogs wouldn't go in yet men ~ there
| for tha stuff. Because | believe in tenn
perance ] wish the citizens of Maine
| To say whether or not we shall con-
time the present conditions.
Tile prohibitory law is the parent
| Of hypocrisy and perjury, second to
| nothing else in the history of the
world. Judas Iseariot sold Christ for
| 20 pieces of silver but he had an at
| Jack Of remorse and threw the money
away. | never saw in my dealings with
| the prohibition hypocrite any symp-
| TONS Of Knowledge on his part that he
was hypoclite.'
Senator Hanson then digressed IN
his speech To make a personal attack
upon the late Congressman Milliken
for what he termed his hypocrisy UPON
the. question Of prohibition and said
| had the Ananias club been formed
| then Congressman Milliken would
have been = suitable candidate for 1t.
He declared that the prohibitory law
had made pefiurcrs of shcrilfs, coun-
~ attorneys and judges and that one
&C the reasons why he favored the re-
call of Judges was because he wanted
some Of them to go way back and sit
down.
He said that Coy Cobb had tried his
best to enforce the prohibitory law but
| was obliged to come to the conclusion
that free rum was better than the eN-
| listing conditions. He insisted that no
| lalipN.41 f9laf la.
sale of rum could he really stopped.
| He told of Il visit which the clergy
men of Belfast made to him in which
| they asked him to enforce the law.
| He referred them TO the county Of
| iicials, who had all the machinery to
| enforce the law, and asked them to
make complaints but they did not do
! so The ministers asked him if he
| would vote to license a crime and he
| replied that of the two evils he would
always choose the least il he knew
| what they were.
He described his plan for what he
| deemed am ideal license system, He
would take the liquor question out Of
| the spring elections, sell the right to
operate saloons at auction and have
annual license fees. The saloons
| should sell pure liquors, have no
shades at the windows, no tables and
no chairs and prohibit treating. The
saloons should be made to keep
blacklist of habitual drunkards and
| neither cell to them nor minors, nor
allow treating For violation of the
license provisions he proposed for the
first offence. closing the saloon for Sc
days for the second closing it 60 days,
and for the third offence taking away
the license.
lie declared that the September
election had not settled the question
and blamed the Democratic party for
getting into a state of coma last fall,
and not debating the question but al
lowing their opponents TO make all tho