Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-11-05
The NulIifier's Worst Mistake.

The Nuiiifer's Worst Mistake.
The Waterville Sentinel describes,
and quotes freely from, a Portland
Press report of conditions in that city
at the present time. The Sentinel
adds.
Here we have on good prohibition au-
fhority confirmation of the statement OF
ten made that rigid enforcement OF the
prohibitory law tends to increase ,n Int
evils the law was designed 10 cure ne ne
reporter finds the pocket peddlef, Tue
kitchen bar and the dive. In one expe-
dition about town he counts % persons
in a state of intoxieation He mas tqal
five of these persons are women re
mentions the inferior quality of the malt
liquors sold 1t is reasonable assump-
ton that the whiskey was not OF the
best variety II Is safe 70 assume ,od s'ia at
do deadly work at 40 rods Il would ap-
pear that the investigator did not dare
10 sample II.
Portland after half year of Haines
enforcement 1t is condition described
in n newspaper friendly to prohibition.
IL bears out the assertion that prohibit
ton cannot be made to prohibit in the
CITIES of the State"
The Sentinel points out tina: no IL
uucr OF any kind could be purchased
by rhe investigator over a bar in Port
land. Hotels, drug shops and saloons
had gore out of business. only kitchen
joints and pocket peddlers are left. and
these doing hazardous traffic be-.
cause they are SO low in the social
scale that Imprisonment Is no digrace.
They have no sense Of honor. no iap-1
probation of the rights of others, or
sympathy with law and order. They
are the LEGITIMATE CONVERTS OF
such publications as the Sentinel. Bid
deford Record and Portland Argus, all
OF which stand as the champions of the
rum traffic.
That is the best the Sentinel can
muster in defense of its beloved traf-i
fc-.bootleggers and sink holes THAT
ALWAYS EXIST UNDER ANY RE-
CINE. The Sentinel gives its readers
to understand that Portland has swap
ped It's booze clubs. hotel barrooms,
drug store sidelines. and brazen sa-
looms. for something infinitely worse
pocket peddlers and kitchen dives.
Such an Inference is false in more ways
than one:
First, when Portland was wide
open" in 1911, or at the worst period
inssitss history. it had these same kit
chen dives and bootieggers IN ADD
TfoN q its open bars, l
Second. contrary To the Sentineis
assumption these dives ana pocket.
peddiers are NOT WORSE than the
BARS which sell good. poison They
are BETTER,. for the community, be-
cause mo man who retains spark of
respect for himself, his. family or his
fr.ends. would be seen going into these
kitchen. eH-holes. or chasing up such
thugs as neaale booze from their
pockets. 49,
Third. conditions in Portland, accord
ing TO the Sentilrers own analysis, are
far better with the traffic confined to
p0foTiousIy disreputable persons and
places. For these things skew the
business ut its level and just where
It puts respectable persons. IT is dis
credited, despised, and carried on only
by persons who excite disgust and
koathing II Is where respectable peo-
gie gan easily avoid tia noisome
thing. driven into corner to await
the death 1t deserves. and its agony is
only prolonged by sophistry such as
the Sentinel can invent in its favor
The Sentinel's editorial. Tnes,iGy
morning, on conditions in Portland, Is
aspaean of praise for prohibition and
of thanksgiving to those who have en-
forced the law. s9s
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