Daily Kennebec journal., 1914-01-16

ceived few, but not many. The facts
ocratic leaders fear above all others
| Is the rum issue. Their leaders have
been defeated, downed, discredlted, by
that same issue. Mr.. Pattangall, the
one-time dictator of the party, has
been hammered down and out. His
voice is no longer of weight in the
councils of his party. He will not fig
ure in the coming campaign. Cyrus w.
Davis, the gifted orator and financial
wizard, former secretary of State and
special pleader and promiser before the
beer trust court, is no longer to be
considered as a Democratic force. Col
Gov. Plaisted, the handsome exponent
of Imperial kennebec" and the Gov
cred Bridge" no longer sways the
convocations of his party.
All these men and others have had
their royal swing with boundless bun
dies of booze Doodle and have gone
down before the righteous indignation
of the people of Maine. Even the
! much-lauded and supposed -to-be in
vincible politician, Mr.. Pattangall, was
licked to standstill in his own district
by divided and bitterly warning Re-
publican party.
Politically dead, these men who were
., ar
cy a few years ago! And why? Be-
cause "a fool there was and he made
his prayer"-they made their prayer to
King Alcohol, and like all the others OF
his victims, they reap what they should
for their folly.
Up in good old Somerset and in other
counties, Democrats are turning from
the rum god. There a Democratic
sheriff today Gas other Democratic
sheriffs have done before) is beating
the rum traffic back with relentless
hand-and Somerset likes it and ap-
plauds, Democrats and Republicans
alike. Square Sam Gould voted in Con-
gross for the Webb bill and felt the
lash of his party leaders at home be-
cause Of it. But his people, the honest
Democrats of Maine, understood and
approx ed, and they made it plain in the
Pattangall contest for Congress.
At the opening of the Third district
campaign last year. the Kennebec
Journal said that while personally
and his honest morality it hoped for
political reasons that Mr. Pattangall
would be nominated at the primaries,
because it could easily down him on
the rum issue-and it did
If the present Democratic leaders
and papers think their pretense that
the cities of Maine are for rum, let
them agitate the enforcement question
all they desire. We are ready for
them. Let the merry dance go on We
know, and every intelligent person
in Maine knows, that temperance, pro-
stronger today than ever before in the
States history. 1t is living, grow
ing, vital energizer that is just begin
ning to know it's purpose and strength.
Sheer at it. dodge it, sidestep it, deny
it. ignore it in any way you will, the
days of liquor trust domination in this
country are numbered. Every day,
new moral forces are springing into
existence. Every day new voters are
been educated against the folly and
curse of drink. Every day the represen-
tativcs of the people are hearing from
home" in tones they cannot mistake.
In ten years American federal partic-
ipation in the rum shop business will
have become thing of the past.
AS slavery was swept before righte-
BUSINESS; as lotteries were driven out
by progress; as gambling has been out
lawed by decency; as live target shoot
ing was abolished by growing human
mercy; as impure foods, unsanitary
methods and infections and contagious
diseases are disappearing before sci
ence and cleanliness-like all of these
tho very king evil of all, Old John
Barleycorn and his allies and concu-
bines, criminalty and social evils,
must give way to the irresistible force
of Christian progress and enlighten-
ment.
The sooner the Republican party
all elements and units of it-and the
Democratic party, and all other parties,
awaken to these plainly evident and
blazingly potent facts, the sooner
will they proclaim to the world that
they are blessed with more descern-
ment and common sense than geese.
1t is to come; there is no stemming
the tide, and those poor tools who are
beating their. silly heads against the