Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-01-26
Mr.. Taft in "Expianation" Reiterates.

Mr.. Taft in "Explanation" Reiterates.
The recent expression Of former
President Taft before the Boston Bar
Association, in opposition to prohib-
ition, has been revised by him using
the same sentiments in more careful
wording. and is now being sent into
every corner of America by the liquor
interests. We foresaw and predicted
that the rum trust would make the
most Of the former Presidents ut
terance, but we did not foresee that it
was to be specially rewritten in an
swer to critic. In his reiteration Mr..
Taft explains:
My personal view is that as long
as great majority of the states do
not prohibit the manufacture and sale
Of liquor within their borders, it would
be very unwise on the part Of Con-
gross to attempt to restrict the inter-
state commerce in Intoxicating liquor.
1t may be that we shall come to the
time when National public opinion will
demand such legislation, but certain
~ we have not arrived at it now. In
the matter Of lottery tickets, lotteries
were regarded at the beginning Of
the last century as legitimate means
Of raising money for many purposes. In
a century, the attitude Of the public
changed toward lotteries, so that
there was only one state in the Union
that permitted them-Louisiana-a
there ~ ek~
sentiment in that state against their
continuance. Thereupon Congress
rightly passed a law making the sale
OF lottery tickets across state lines
illegal. But we certainly have not
reached such a condition with respect
to the manufacture and sale Of in
toXicating liquors.
4 vetoed the Webb law making
illegal the transportation of liquor into
states which forbade Its manufacture
and sale, because it was not uniform
in its application to all parts Of the
United States, and was an attempt to
delegate TO individual states the DOW
er to regulate Interstate Commerce
in violation of the Constitution. The
question is now pending in the courts.
In my remarks I said also that
this appeal to Congress for an amend
ment to the Constitution by the
people Of the states where prohibition
laws were now in force, was a hu-
initiating confession of the Ineffective
ness of those laws in such states In
their local communities in which a
majority of the people do not SYM
pathize with the officers of the laws
in enforcing them
For liquor trust uses the traffic's ad-
vocates never get beyond the argu-
ments that have been in hourly ser
vice for half a century-the need of
revenue, the unwisdom of interfering
with the personal liberty of those
who furnish the revenue. the neces-
sity Of waiting until the people are
educated" up to the moral standards
of those reformers who make and sell
booze, the assertion that this evil is
different than slavery. lotteries and
other evils that have been overthrow.
and the strenuous claim that no state,
community or individual shall be al
lowed by the federal government to
defend itself against the evil from
which the government derives rev
enue."
Mr.. Taft admits that the sale of
lottery tickets across state lines was
made illegal, but if Maine or other
state demands to be freed from fed
eral violation of her liquor laws, she
is adjudged out Of order, because the
rum trust asserts that her law Is not
the will of her majority. Such asser-
ton by Mr.. Taft and the rum trust.
made often enough ought to con-
vince Maine people that her law is
the work of a few fanatics" and
"hypocrites" and that tho 1.-THE peo-
ple' had nothing to dc with it.