Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-03-21
Rev. Henry E. Dunnack


spoke on national prohibition. In sub
stance he said:
Long years of experience teaches us
that the only way to handle the liquor
traffic is to destroy it. This traffic
has become so entrenched in national
life and is so destructive of all that
is best and good in civilization that
the nation must enter the contest to
destroy it. The day for halfway
measures is over; the day for half
hearted support is past. Political par
ties and individuals must come out
in the open and declare their unalter-
able opposition to the traffic in strong
drink or meet with the united opposi-
ton of every man and woman who
loves his home, his country and his
God.
The battle is on: the hour has struck
when We must uplift the Constitution
of the Republic as our banner of re-
form. Because the liquor traffic i'm
perils the life of the nation and of ev-
cry state the federal Constitution
should prohibit this traffic.
It is altogether fitting and proper that
the people of Maine and of this Capital
city should gather on the birthday of
a resolution asking that the Constitu-
ton should be amended by inserting
the following:
Whereas, exact scientific research has
demonstrated that alcohol is a narcotic
poison, destructive and degenerating
to the human organism, and that its
distribution as a beverage or contain
ed in foods lays a staggering economic
- y.,-e e ftan
pie, lowers to an appalling degree the
average standard of the character OF
our citizenship, thereby undermining
the public morals and the foundation
of free institutions, produces wide
spread crime, pauperism, and insanity,
infiiets disease and untimely death up
on hundreds of thousands of citizens,
and blights with degeneracy their
! children unborn, threatening the fu-
ture integrity and the very life of
| the nation; Therefore be it
Resolved by the Senate and House
of Representatives of the United
| States of America IN Congress assem-
bieG (two-thirds of each House con-
curing therein), that the following
amendment of the Constitution be, and
! hereby is, proposed to the states, to
! become valid as part of the Consti-
tuition when ratified by the Legisla-
lures of the several states as provid-
ed by the Constitution:
Section l. The sale, manufacture
for sale, transportation for sale, i'm
portation for sale, and expectation for
sale Of intoxicating liquors for bever-
age purposes in the United States and
all territory subject to the jurisdiction
| thereof are forever prohibited.
Section 2. Congress shall have pow
er to provide for the manufacture, sale,
| importation and transportation of in
toxicating liquors for sacramental.
medicinal mechanical, pharmaceutical
or scientific purposes, or for use in the
arts, and shall have power to enforce
this article by all needful legislation"
Mr.. Chairman: l move the adoption
of this resolution. The history of pro-
hibition states warrants the adoption
of this resolution.
Take Kansas during the 80 years of
prohibition the illiteracy of the people
has been reduced from 40 per cent. to
| 2 per cent, and this trifling amount
! is almost entirely among the foreign
element in the mining section of the
southeast. With los counties in the
| state, 81 of them have no insane, 81
have no predetermined. Sc have no
inebr;ates, and what few there are
ccme from the cities which deed the
| law until recent years. There is only
| one pauper to every 5000 population,
and there are SO county poor farms
which have no inmates. In July, 1911.
SO county jails were empty and So
counties had no prisoners serving SEN
| tence. Since the establishment of
prohibition the population of Kansas
has increased more than any of the
| surrounding states, and her wealth has
increased until it has become the rich
est state in the Union per capita. Re-
cent statements from the banks show
that in the $50 state banks there is on
deposit belonging to the people of Kan
sas about s120,o00,000 and on deposit
in the 213 national banks about S90,O00,-
900, making a total of $4,000, or
about 1928 for every man, woman and
child in the state. The increase in