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


| and | want to read 1t to you:
IF the people of Maine ever abandon
or materially change the prohibitory law
and it will be done only after they hav.
! seen it enforced honestly and uniformly
and in the same reasonable and persist.
| ent manner that other laws are enforee1
! and after they have become convinced
| that such an enforcement has actually
! failed to accomplish the desired end. En-
forcement may cause the law to be
! changed, but non-enforeement never
| And under the inspiration of such q
| man there commenced in that Legisla-
ture an honest attempt to destroy multi.
fieation in Maine. Mr.. Chairman, as an
attempt to do that there was enacted in
this Capitol what is known as the Stnr-
gis law; and l want to say what you
know TO be true. that there never was
more honest attempt TO enforce the law
than there was in the enactment of the
Sturgis law. I say TO you that the an
thor of that law was honest in speech
and sincere. The friends of the Sturgis
law have always been honest and sincere
1t was a mistake on the part of the Re
publican party to enact it; what ought
to have been done, and We see 1t now,
was to have said as the Democratic par
ty have since that time said, that the
law should be enforced through the reg
ular officers of the State, and not
through any commission. If that had
been done, and if no Sturgis law had
been enacted, and If the regular officers
of the State had been forced to do their
duty no Democratic administration
would be in the Capitol of Maine to-
night, and you know it.
What is the result? The result was
just what you would expect to happen
The people of the State will stand by
their sheriffs and county attorneys that
they have elected Away up IN my eoun-
ty. in a town there settled by the Puri-
tans of western Maine years and years
ago, the old pioneer stock, honest, God
fearing, hard working old farmers, law
abiding-they elected q sheriff, their
sheriff, the high sheriff of their county
whom they all love to speak about: and
he went up into the lumber woods to ar
rest an outlaw. He brought Inns outlaw
down to this town and in a moment of
treachery the outlaw killed the sheriff.
Those old farmers went out there and
took that man and hung him TO the near
est tree and went back to their farms
and went on with their work as if MOTH
ing had happened. They loved the sher-
III and they would stand by him and
would lay down their lives for the regu-
lar sheriff, but those same old farmers
up there would join together to mob n
Sturgis deputy that came into Aroostook.
And that is the result which happens
when you turn away from the path of
10. at4a n hax~ ,ala d. ali
take your responsibility; and if the Dem
oeratic party today has made a mistake
IL is turning away from the performance
of faithful duty and trying to hold pres
tige and place and power under nullifl-
cation.
What was the result? Why, the result
of the Sturgis law was to drive the Re
publican party from power in the State
of Maine; and ii was a natural result;
and the Democratic party saw it, the
Democratic politicians saw it, and they
saw their opportunity and in the plat
fern OF ians the Democratic party said
this:
I'VE demand the honest, thorough and
impartial enforcement of all laws by our
courts and our duly elected officers; We
books shah. be sincerely enforced or re-
pealed." That sounds good, doesn't il,
gentlemen? h sounded good to the
people Of Maine, and everywhere in
that campaign on the public platform
by the Democratic orators they We're
putting forth that plank to gain votes,
and made the people, the common peo-
pie of Maine, the w-abiding people
of Maine believe that notification
would end by the advent in power of
the Democratic party. The people be-
lieved it, and the result of the election
showed ii, and you thought you had
accomplished so much in that way you
would follow it up. Just as Lincoln
said, you can deceive all the people
part of the time So you followed
that up with your last platform which
said this: Enforce the law or laws
by the regular constituted officers"
And the people liked that. and they
believed you and they believed you
were going to do it ana that you were
going to enforce the laws of this State
by your regular officers, and they vot-
ed for you; and that was not all. Your
candidate for Governor in the last cleo
ton, the present Executive, went all
over the State of Maine and on every
platform-he might not have said
much about a covered bridge" or
used those words, l don't know wheth
er he did or not, but he used words
that meant the same thing. | heard
him speak i'll my own town, and you,
| gentlemen, heard him speak in your
| towns; YOU heard him speak and you
saw him stand before the people as he
| can stand, and tell them how as sher-
| if of Kennebec county he enforced the
! law and how, as Executive and as
| Governor he would enforce the law
! of the State; and the people of my
| county cheered him to the echo and
voted for him. They believed he would
! do it. and they believed he meant what
he said, and then he followed that with
! his letter of acceptance. Here is his
letter of acceptance, in which he says,
Il believe in the enforcement of the
| laws" and the people elected him be-
| cause they believed in it, Well, he
| was elected. | was here as represen-
tatiVe and heard his message; many
of you heard his message here. Lest
you forget it, ! want to read to you
from his message Here il is: