Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-12-11
Where the Blame Rests.

WfcFc inc pidNie NESTS,
The following quotations are excerpts
from an editorial in the Biddeford Rec
ord. We did not publish the editori-
al entire, first because we did not care
to waste the space and, second, because
the assertions omitted are just as un-
reliable as the first one following;
Murders continue to increase in
Maine
..The latest is the double tragedy at
West Gardiner, in which an aged couple
were murdered and an attempt made to
burn the corpses In the hope of conceal
ing the crime. Like nearly every one OF
the murders that have occurred in Maine
in recent years booze appears to nave
played a prominent part in the tragedy.
Not only does prohibition fail TO pro-
hibit but it helps to increase murder and
other crimes.
whenever an attempt is made at
strenuous enforcement of Names pro-
hibitory law the less harmful beverages
are shut out, those who drink fill up on
poisoned whiskey and the result is an
increase of crime of all kinds, with an
occasional murder so fiendish as to shock
the entire country like that one just re-
ported from West Gardiner"
To begin with, murders are not in
CttdSiuS III h4dlilC- u ldii IL ldI
err. arrests for other crimes and mis-
demeanors are decreasing in number,
under active enforcement of the pro-
hibitory law. even in Names worst
sink-holes.
And, were the worst element of crime
and vice in Maine those who sheer
at law and encourage violation of it
as rigidly suppressed as Is the rum
traffic, the evil would be almost en-
tirely wiped out.
Such reasonable sheets as the Bidde-
ford Record are more guilty of the
crimes in Names history of recent
years. than are their poor ooze-soaked
victims who have been wheedled into
personal liberty Indulgence and urg-
ed OH to do their worst, that the law
which the rum trust and its paid tools
hate, may be discredited.
Not a crime of any sort is commit
ted in Maine, but the Waterville Sem
tine, Portland Argus and Biddeford
Record jump up and shrek: "Prohi-
bition!"
Both the animus and the purpose
are so plain that at last even the dull
est devotees of your-own-way-in
spite-of-the-law are awakening to the
fact that they are only the poor
monkeys pulling the nuts out of hell
fire for the Rum Trust Imp.
We agree with these papers that
nearly every one of the murders that
have occurred in Maine in recent years
booze appears to have played a promi-
nent part in the tragedy"
That is true everywhere. That is why
we stand for a law prohibiting the
stuff. That is why we demand that
the Maine prohibitory law or one much
more drastic be made national.
1t is true, too, that in other states
where license prevails and the MUIR
ders per 1000 population are four to
eight to our one, all other crimes are
increased proportionally. We believe
these things quite conclusively show
that the foundation of nearly all crime
is booze and the ways in which it is
used to get money.
Our liquor interest serving neighbors
complain bitterly of the poison" that
men have to drink (under prohibition
and enforcement of law in order to
rob themselves of intelligence and fit
themselves for any crime. To them
all intoxicants that are not allowed
to come in and be sold according to
rum trust regulations" is poison"
But every intelligent citizen nova
days knows that it is ALL poison.
In some of our states that are under
rum trust law, where saloons are ev-
erywhere and show windows are piled
full of intoxicants of all sorts; where
the newspapers and magazines are
ablaze with the advertising of the
makers and sellers of liquors; where
all booze is pure" and folders circu-
lars and posters announce the seduc-
tive charms of special brands, there
they have murders and other crimes.
The news dispatches every day tell of
the horrors-but no one blames it upon
an attempt to enforce the law.
Missouri is one of these corners call
ed the rum trust paradise In the
three months of July, August and Sep
TENDER, last. there were 81 murders
and las suicides. No one has yet heap
ed the guilt of such conditions upon