The Republican journal., 1916-04-13
Keep Maine Dry.
This is the Message from Maine-born
Resident of California.

Just received Journal of the 10Th, and
am so pleased to read that Hanson, can
didate for mayor, was defeated. Bel
fast is not large city, but Mr.. Hanson
has been big disgrace to your beautl-
full little New England city. Do you
know the wet Western papers have been
publishing his rotten siush as to Prohi-
bitlon In Maine? Why, Mr.. Hanson of
Belfast says it is e colossal failure; and
that is all the evidence necessary, be-
cause Mr.. Hanson ought to know, and he
surely would not misrepresent his State
and his own city. Well, you have laid
him on the shelf to dry, and there is no
use of his coming out this way to shoot
OFT his mouth. They won't listen to him.
This week | read in the Los Angeles
Daily Record that one of the liberal
things in your Prohibitory law is it does
not interfere with the great cider indus
try; that farmers do not have to uproot
their apple trees same as the grape
growers will have to do if this State
goes dry. This is in line with some of
Mayor Hanson's false statements. The
writer did not know that 1t is as unlaW
full to sell cider as Whiskey in Maine, and
that prohibiting the sale for beverage
purposes did not ruin the Maine farm
ers, but old cider presses and mills were
turned into vinegar factories and the
farmer realizes more for his apples than
when made into cider.
1t makes US Maine folks hot when we
read that the Prohibitory law in Maine is
fiat failure. 1t is pity that some of
our western cities and States could not
experience the same kind of failure; if
we did we would have more money in our
savings banks-the hard-earned money
of the industrious temperate laborer. l
regret that the law is not enforced in
some localities as it should be. 1t is no
fault Of the law, but the fault of the
voter. If they would elect honest, law
abiding office holders there would not be
the howl that the law is not enforced.
There are cities in Maine where the law
has been almost a dead letter; liquor
sold and very little effort to prosecute
the violaters of the law. My experience
in North Dakota has been that if few
men and women in community make
up their mind that the law must be obey
ed, the blind pig and boot logger have to
vamoose. If you want Belfast dry,
law-abiding city you must get rid of
such men as Mr.. Hanson. 1t is such
men that bring the good name of old
Maine into disgrace.
Pardon me for mixing up in your State
affairs, but being native born and hav-
ing helped to put your prohibitory law
in the statutes | think | may say some
things with propriety. If the Republi-
can party would do more actual work
and less political pledging it would do
more good. it is easy when running for
office to promise the strict enforcement
OF law if we are elected. 1t gets votes,
but soon as the election is over candl
dates forget the oath they took to en-
force the law. see by the papers that
the liquor forces are trying to upset
your prohibitory law. 1t don't seem
possible that you could find corporals
guard that would lend themselves to such
wild scheme in face of the fact that 10
States have gone dry and seven more
will go dry as soon as they can vote, and
the nation will go dry in 1920. You
have been the beacon light of the civil
lied world in bringing happiness, pros
perity and good cheer into darkened
homes, made so by drink. Surely you
will not take any backward step in this
matter. If some of the advocates of
geles and see the ruin and desolation and
Ine expense 10 LAX payers Chey Woulu
get the scales off their eyes.
Last years chief of police, now Mayor
Sebastin, made the statement that over
so, 900 arrests were made for drunkenness
in IL months, and it cost an average of
$40 for every arrest, making about half
million dollars expense to the city. These
DRINKS paid some money as fines, and
| the saloon licenses amounted to about