Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-08-22

should be obliged to again thresh out
the old question of prohibition. 1t
should have been settled for ever. and
that was the intention when it was put
into the constitution of the State. But
now and then someone saws that they
have not had an opportunity to vote on
this question, and think they ought
to have chance, and it has to be
threshed out every campaign. First,
they want resubmission, and next null
Hf1cation, and then they want repeal
1t Is something new every year, but it
is the bark, my friends, from the same
old tree. 1t reminds me of an old In
dian doctor who came to our neighbcr-
hood when 1 was a boy, practising
medicine. He had a medicine that
would cure every i'll that flesh was heir
to. l was out with other boys and
saw the old doctor gathering his herbs.
He had wide bladed knife and would
serape the bark from the top of a tree
down and put 1t in one basket, and
scrape from the roots up and put in
another basket. I said Doctor. you
have all kinds of herbs here. what is
the secret of the way you scrape the
bark?' He said When l scrape from
the top down l put it into that basket
and make a medicine / call High
cock-a- lorum,' and when | scrape from
the bottom up put it into this basket
and make a medicine l call Low cock
a-lorum. 1t is all from the same
tree. and they mean that we need to
have saloons and rum shops in Maine.
| regret that it has been reported in
the Press that the Democratic candi-
date for governor from Portland has
said we must have rum, and that if
we must have rum, let us have rev.
enue from that source sufficient to
educate our children. / do not agree
with him. After having prohibition,
and fairly we'll enforced for nearly 30
years, l do not believe we want to go
back and have rum shops tablisbed
anywhere in our State. l do not be-
heve there is Democrat Repub-
Ican or Progressive that wants sa-
looms in this neighborhood. Would
you have them for all the money in the
banks of Maine?
remember when there used to be
rum shops in the, villages of Maine. 1t
does not seem possible to these young
people here that it could have been so.
but my memory reaches back to the
time when in almost every village of
the size of Readfield there was sa-
loon. There is not a man belonging to
any party in this beautiful town that
wants a rum shop here at this time.
We hear much said about business,
and what splendid thing it would be
If our communities could only have
rum sold so that the summer visitors
would come in and spend their money
in the saloons. What an idea! In the
first place, the very reason we have
so any summer visitors Is because we
have the purest morals in the world.
and the purest sentiment among our
young people of any State in this
Union.
l heard a good deal about good bust
ness, and began to investigate a good
deal while governor, and 1 made a
careful investigation Of other states
that had license. I went to the State
of New York, the empire state, doing |
today the business of a hemisphere of |
a few years ago, with seven times as
many people in the city of New York |
as we have in the State of Maine, and |
found in that state but 10 per cent of |
in. I thought that was not fair per
cent, and 1 took another state, and |
came to Massachusetts, that we set off
and made state by itself. and they did
very well. I found in that magnificent |
state, covered with colleges and INTEL
ligence, that only IS per cent of the
people owned the homes they lived
in Then took a state smaller, and
conditions similar to ours, and l went
to Connecticut, and there I found but
ID per cent of the people in that beau
tiful state owned the homes they lived
In. Then I came to the State of Maine
and looked around to see what our
people were doing. I am proud to say
That AZ per cent Of the people of the
state or Maine own the homes in which
they live. And why is it? Because we
have had prohibition and temperance
here. And found we had more money
per capita In our banks. And more
savings banks depositors than voters
m the State of Maine.
/ thank God that the sires and
'athers Of the State Of Maine estab-
ished the principle Of temperance
md good morals. and that it has
spread until nine states of this great
Jnion are temperance prohibition
states. When the Rev. Mr.. Dunnack
II Augusta presented a resolution in
he Progressive convention in Au-
yusta, asking that convention to go
IN record as favoring national pro-
libition, and they turned it down, I
aid that the Republican party was
rood enough for me, and we will fight
A,A holt |
'eople want to keep along on the
anne line.