Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-04-05

I believe, six officials for alleged dere-
LECTION of duty.
/ Now; sirs, 1t cannot but appeal to your
sense of fairness in the first place, that
man brought in here "A hours no.
tice, with no specifications against him
but only the extremely vague language of
! this resolution, is in the first place at
a terrible disadvantage | thought l
could almost detect the irony this morn
ing III counsel's voice when he said that
they We're going to give us the evidence
somewhat in detail so that we might
know what we mad to answer to. Truly.
a seasonable notice after we are brought
here. SO that | submit we are entitled,
in the first place. not only to the utmost
consideration which | know we will re-
I ceive, but we are entitled to some fur
J ther consideration if you should think it
necessary, but which in the face of this
evidence ! do not believe you VIII, for
the extremely small time that has been
devoted and should have been devoted
to preparation, and the extreme vague
ness of the charges which aHe made here.
! The respondent in this case is 4
, man so years of age. a man. as You
may have gathered from the fra"
mentary testimony Of the State, what
ever their feelings may be about the
8 prohibitory law, every witness has
testified l believe has testified that
, no man in his city or in his county
| stands here for Il moment to CHARGE
/ this sheriff with any corrupt motive
or receiving any corrupt reward. No
man has appeared, or will appear. or
can appear before you who would say
that one dishonest dollar ever stuck
to the pocket of John W Ballou: and
the best fact and the best proof that
he is honest is the fact that admin
! istrations have come and gone, Leg
I islatureS have met and convened, and
for SO years the people of Sagadahoc
. county, whether it has been Republ!-
/ can or whether it has been Democrat
! ic, whether Bath has been Repahi:
I can or 'Dehiocratit,a has elected this
u man to this office without interrupt
tion. 't-..A-H e 'T t.-== t....L 5-#=' "=-
! aa-The office Of sheriff comes very
near to the people of any community;
the, people of each community know
better than anybody else, better than
! this Legislature can know from wit
nessesf Whom either side can bring
4, here, whether a man has been true
|
| ties of that office as they should be
performed. | may say here that | as
sumo that this matter will be looked
at by you as practical men; you Will
take into consideration | think the sit
uation of this particular county, 1T
is a comparatively small county. on"
of the smallest of the State; 1t las
! within it's limits one sizeable towns,
which dignifies itself y-the name of
! a city; the rest of it is composed oil
I small country villages.
! That city, to begin with, is practically
/ seaport town. and those of us who
! live along the coast know, in the hrst
/ place, that there are by reason OF the
population which comes and goes IN
| those seaport towns, more violations OF
! law than are apt to be in towns in the
interior of the State of the same size
and the same general characteristics.
| There are several large establishments
| and manufacturing plants there. en-
ploying 200 or 100 or perhaps 1000 men,
| so that the population in its character
| in that respect differs somewhat from
| that of the other cities. and especially
! from the fact that a large number of
| the laboring men there come from out
| they have been brought up ana have
| lived under different conditions than pre-
vail in Maine under the prohibitory law.
Now, it has been the fact that III the
practical working out of the best way
| of handling the prohibitory law in the
| city of Bath and i'll that county, that the
| local officers, the police, the city mar
shal. and the city government should
| enforce the law there because tney
coud do it better. could do it more salts
factorily, could keep in closer touch with
it than the sheriff and his deputies could
do. There are four deputies. | believe,
in that county and the sheriff; there are
eight or nine members of the police force;
and the municipal officers and consta-
bles of cities and towns are equally
chargeable with the duty of enforcing
| this law with the sheriffs and their depu-
ties. We have had marshals in Bath
who have said that they preferred to en-
force the law with their own officers. and
do it exclusively. than to have two or
three classes of officers there threshinls
apd challenging and bringing about gen.
efal chaos in the situation.