Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-11-11


D., formerly pastor of the Chestnut
street church, Portland, now Of Pasa-
dena, Cal, in which he tells who the
real prohibition fanatics are. 1t
may interest you to learn, if you are
interested in the liquor question one
way or another. Here is what the
scholarly orator says about it;
| II we were making collection of
epithets, a prohibition campaign would
spell opportunity. The liquor squad
are given to argument by adjective
and exposition by epithet They illum-
mate the public mind by characterizing
the prohibition forces as "cranks,"
''hypocrites," "bigots.' and similar in
formational titles. There is one aged
and decrepit veteran of discussion
which has seen hard service in every
such campaign-the opprobrious cpl
tibet, fanatic" 1t is a very convinc-
ing method. to tag with the label Of
fanaticism any one who believes in the
abolition of the saloon with all its at
tendant evils and allied interests.
The purpose Of this article is the
Identification Of the prohibition fanat-
les. The outcome of such quest is
in the nature of a surprise. The sa-
loon advocates are sure they know the
opponents of prohibition fanaticism,
but the writer has never heard the
real fanatics even mentioned by them.
The discovery will be one of genuine
interest to all concerned.
Strange to say, the real prohibition
fanatics are not the professional tenn
perance agitators who are frequently
masters of the platform; not the
preachers who lift their voices against
the saloon in behalf of suffering hui
manity; not the sweet-faced old ladies
who wear the white ribbon of the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union;
not the third party remnant composed
of those who are content to lose
their votes year after year in bearing
political witness against a monstrous
evil not the few legislators who glut
the pigeon holes of unsympathetic
committees at Washington and Sacra-
mento; and not the majority of the
voters in the sovereign states who
have decreed prohibition for great
commonwealth. These, strange as it
may seem, are not the prohibition IA
natics. That species must re sought
elsewhere.
vets charge that prohibitionists are
trying to dictate what men shall eat
and drink. There Is no truth in the
assertion. 1t would be just as true to
declare that all those who vote wet
are trying to perpetuate the wine room.
the gambling den, the political cor
ruption and all the vice, crime, pau
perism, disease and death which are
the inevitable outcome of the saloons
in any community. The prohibitionist
does not attempt to say what man
may eat or drink. He may eat de-
cayed rats or drink cellar poison in
the fullest enjoyment of personal lib
erty.. The prohibitionist is interested
in what a person makes and sells. He
insists that when it comes to selling
certain things in the open market the
act ceases to be an individual matter
and becomes a social problem.
The right of any man to take a
drink, under conditions which do not
interfere with the rights of others, is
not challenged. But the ordinary, gar
den variety of prohibitionist says that
q man ought not to be allowed to carry
on q money making traffic in diseased
meat, infected milk, rotten vegetables,
dangerous drugs, and destructive ex-
plosives. That is a matter of public
welfare. Prohibition only says to men:
Thou shalt not SELL" None of those
who are commonly branded as fanatics
have gone so far as to say to individ-
uais: Thou shalt not drink" Thel
prohibitionists are against the traffic.
But there are those who go to the far
extreme of saying to men: Thou
shalt not drink" and these are the
simon-pure fanatics of the prohibition
cause. It will be interesting to study
the species.
Railroad Maenates Prohibition Fanat-
les.
The whirling dervishes of prohibition
fanaticism are the men who administer
the great railroad systems Of the
United States. They are leagues In
advance of the narrow and bigoted
preachers, the third party voters. the
Temperance Union women, and all the
other cranks who vote to abolish the
traffic. These are only asking that the
state forbid the distiller and brewer
to manufacture and the saloonkeeper
and bartender to sell. But these rail-
road magnates are SO fanatical on the |
subject that they have actually issued
orders to hundreds of thousands of free
American citizens saying that they
must not drink intoxicating liquors.
Indeed, these railroad operators are
such prohibition fanatics that they
discharge their employees if
they are only seen going into or COM
ing out Of a saloon, even when off
duty.
Here we have prohibition in its most !
drastic form. These railroad fanatics
have established a system of espionage
ON many Of the roads to make sure
that their prohibition prohibits. The
Railroad has its men
terrorized. 1t reports that |
l25 .226 observations were made in Feb |
ruary of this year to determine to
what extent employees were prohibited |
from drinking or frequenting saloons,
and not one man was found who dis |