Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1922-11-29
Names Prohibition
Is Time-TeSted

A'AssAAA~ - AVAAAOAGAOAt
Is Time-Tested
Toronto. Nov 2s.-Dr. c. E. Owen.
Supt. Of the Christian Civic League
of Maine, addressed the convention of
the World League against alcoholism.
In opening he said:
One Sunday afternoon about fifteen
years ago, on a cross-country drive
from one speaking appointment to
another. as we turned SHARPLY to the
right, beautiful panorama of pros
porous farms suddenly burst into
view. A broad expanse of green
fields. rising in gradual slope, and
ending where the earth seemed to
meet the sky in a long line Of thrifty
trees, lay before US. The line Of trees
upon the crest marked the presence
Of road known as the Ridge Road"
and at intervals along this road
could be seen groups Of farm build
inSs which. even at such a distance,
gave unmistakable evidence Of a
prosperous community. At the foot
of the slope nestled quiet village.
At the sight Of this picture this
exclamation leaped my lips, What
beautiful FARMS" Eyes," said the
old gentleman who accompanied me,
as he pointed with his long whip to
the farm houses, land I have known
those farms from their clearing, and
I have lived to see nearly all of them
change hands"
I'm the days prior to prohibition Sc
he continued, when everybody drank
liquor, in this village which we are
approaching, every grocery store was
a gros shop, and the accounts kept
by those traders indicated that rum
was a more frequent charge upon the
looks than any other article of mer-
chandise. On Saturday afternoons
the people of the countryside were
accustomed to gather in this village
for holiday. They drank freely and
some got hilariously drunk: some
We're quarrelSome and scarcely q Sat
urday passed without several
drunken fights among those neigh
bors.
1.-THE men who then owned the fine
farms you see yonder acquired the
drink habit" Then the old man, with
sadness in his voice, names one by
one the men on that Ridge Road"
who, in those pre- prohibition days
literally drank up their farms. 1T
was not until prohibition came" he
said "and this little village ceased
to supply the beverage which de-
stroys thrift aand wrecks homes that
those farms yonder began to take on
their thrifty appearance. Another
generation which knew not the
temptation of the grog shop came
into possession of the Ridge Road"
farms and made them the homes of
comfort and thrift which you see"
1t was an impressive story plainly
and truthfully told by one who per-
sonally witnessed the facts he related
The experience of that community is
typical of the experience of hundreds
OF other communities of rural Maine.
In those days Maine was all rural,
but even SO prior to the adoption of
prohibition as a governing policy it
had acquired the reputation of being
the most drunken state in the Union.
AS it's population increased and
people in increasing numbers gath
cred into manufacturing and COM
mercial centers the people of Maine
steadfastly adhered to the conviction
that the best interests of all the
people, whether in city or country,
were best conserved by keeping the
liquor traffic under the ban of the
law.
With one intermiSsion, for seventy
six years, the prohibitOry policy has
been continuously maintained. Four
times the law has been referred to
the people and each time received
their endorsement. 1t is safe to say
that at no time in the past have the
law abiding, man-loving, God-fear-
ing citizens of this state stood more
trmly for the established policy than
in this year 1922. This statement is
warranted by the fact that in the
state and national election of last
September no candidate of either
party, for any office, national, state,
q county stood before the voters for
any other than the old, established.
time-tested prohibition policy
The speaker reviewed the history
Of the prohibitory law in Maine ana
told Of the reyerses and successes
Encountered and the perpetual war
fare maintained.
1.-THE Maine Law prohibited both
manufacture and sale. The thirteen
distilleries and the 200 GROCERIES for
100000 people went out of business.
AS the means of communication and
transportation developed the friends
of the traffic within and beyond the
state seized upon these agencies 10
supply the thirsty and keep the trade
alive
1.-THE United States mails We're
open to liquor firms in neishborinS
states for soliciting orders and the
transportation companies were per-
mitted to deliver the goods
when New Hampshire protected
her own people against the open
saloon by prohibitory law she per-
mitted her breweries to go on manu-
featuring and sending their product
to Maine Or wherever they would
"Our friends on the north adopted,
with splendid results, the prohibition
policy as to the local sale and i'm
portation of intoXicants. 'Ontarlos
Six Years Dry is an inspiring record
of marvellous achievement OF which
the temperance forces of Ontario are
Justly proud. The state of Maine ex-
tends congratulations. But Ontarlos
six distilleries and thirteen brewerles
are still manufacturing and exporting.
without violation of law. their poison
Gus product to neighboring states
ppCaV nuceT