Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-04-01
Now We See, and Now We Don't.

Now We See, and Now We Don't.
Saturday night three Jews at the
supper table of the Augusta House
were arguing for local option and
license, advancing the usual stock ar
gurnents" against prohibition. One said
that he had never seen a drunken man
in local option city. He claimed
that Maine was in a bad way because
of prohibition. This morning the
Times man who had listened to the
Jew in Augusta, picked up tho Boston
Post and the first scare head was
Kills Wife in Drunken Rage" This
was in Everett, in license and local
option Observation-Disclosures Times
Within the week We have heard a
good Christian gentleman remark: Il
saw more drunkenness in Augusta on
election day this spring than I ever
saw in all the license cities have ever
lived in" He believed himself. for it
is so common a declaration that many
who repeat it have come to believe It.
They have used II and have heard 1t
used. in defense Of local option ever
since the liquor evil began teaching its
supporters what to say. We have
heard it repeated a thousand times by
we'll meaning men who were unaltera-
bly, biased and had never considered
the evidence-would not care to do SO.
Consider these facts. In the local
option state of Massachusetts, where
our friend had never seen any drunk
enness, were more than 100000 arrests
for that cause in the year just passed.
Some one must have seen drunkenness.
That number we find in the report of
the commission appointed by the leg
islature to investigate drunkenness in
the Bay State.
But that which is still more striking
is the declaration by the same COM
mission. that the number Of arrests is
small compared to the number of
cases, when social practices in homes,
clubs. banquets and the like where
those unable to care for themselves
are cared for by their less-intoxicated
friends and do not fall into the hands
of officers or court, are considered.
We have heard men whose vision
was blurred by the number of nips
they were taking every day in con-
forming to their notions of moderate
that they were never drunk in their
lives, and none of the men with whom
they associated ever drank too much.
And vet these men were under the dis
qualifying influence of stimulants ev-
cry day of their lives. They We're new
err arrested for drunkenness, but they
were a constant brutalizing influence
in their homes, their business offices
and their associations. They were not
living normal lives, nor were they do
ing for themselves or for others all
that God had fitted them to do. be-
cause they were temporarily indulg-
ing in a useless habit and fooling
themselves with the oft-repeated dec
laration that they were never intoxi-
Gated.
Local option cities are filled with
men who are habitually drunk and
who are accepted as sober because 1t
is their usual condition, and because
the public under standing is degenerat-
ed by the order of things. Men who
never see drunkenness when liquor is
on every hand and every one is drink
ing, are abnormal in judgment None
is so blind as the man who will not
see. On the other hand, the friends of
those who make and sell liquor for
profit can see all kinds of drunkenness
under system that restricts sales and
limits that profit
1t is wonderful how desire can af-
feet the eyesight--even more effective
ly than intoxicants.
.