Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1926-05-01

1910 .oI@O
These figures are compiled from the
official records filed annually in the
Office of the Attorney General by the
County Attorneys throughout the
State.
IAN even more gratifying decline
| was shown in the number of liquor
violations which went down from
1900 in 1924 to 1923 in 1925 or a
decline of nearly 20 per cent.
I'm spite of the decrease in Of
| lenses the fines and costs collected
showed an increase from $4,000 in
1924 to over $S7, 1000 in 1925.
Four Pardons Granted Last Year
aside from the executive Glenn
ency exercised on the advice of the
Council under the somewhat unusu-
al circumstance attending the
Aroostook liquor prosecutions, four
pardons were granted during the
year 1925. This corresponds rather
| closel.- with the pardon record OF
| Calvin Coolidge while he was Gov
/ ernor of Massachusetts,. The par
doning power is an extraordinary
| prerogative and must be used with
the utmost regard for the DEGREES
| of our courts.
| at is becoming increasingly appar-
ent that the United States is to face
| a period exactly such as the State OF
| Maine passed through when prohibl-
! ton for a generation was the footbali
of party politics and hypocrisy was
rampant without end. The attitude
of both great parties in our State to-
day is sufficient indication that those
days in Maine are long since passed.
No party and no candidate cares or
dares to advocate an ignoring of our
| law.
Enforcement Platforms
| ut seems reasonable to expect. how
! ever, that both platforms and candi-
| dates should declare themselves not
merely upon enforcement but upon the
| maintenance and strengthening of our
! existing laws. The insidious appeal
| is being made for what are termed
| light wines and beer The present
| alcoholic content to make liquor in
toxicating was determined long before
| prohibition was nationally considered
| by the Brewers Association who
| wished to prevent what they termed
unfair competition with the licensed
| saloon. They settled very definitely
! to their own satisfaction and the sat
! isfaction of the courts of the United
States that one-half of one per cent.
was reasonable limit to impose. The
| fact that they are now hoist with
| their own petard' may to them be re-
| grettable, but it rather effectively re-
| flutes the suggestion of bias or preju-
| dice on the part of the temperance adj
| vocates who consider sauce for the
goose to be sauce for the gander.' Out
of their own mouths they are con-
| demned.
Meanwhile the development of an
| intelligent public sentiment concerned
| with law enforcement is dependent in
| large measure upon the public press.
| Powerful influences are at work to Gre
ate a constant flow of news conceived
! to be favorable to the anti-prohibition
cause. The newspapers and the great
press associations are not conscious
| ly seeking to create disrespect for law
/ but clever interests are constantly
| stimulating one form or another of ac-
| tivity that is legitimate news and the
| consequence is to give to many earn
est citizens the impression that there
| is subsidy of the press.
| Meanwhile temperance organiza-
| tions for time slackened their eff
| forts after the enactment of the fed
eral prohibitory law and are only now
| beginning to realize that the day of
their test is at hand. Slowly and
ponderously the forces are herring
momentum that will reinst:. the
| temperance education that brought
| about this great reform. More trou-
blesome days may we'll be ahead as
vicious and selfish interests seek to
| cultivate the basest passions of their
| fellow men. but to those familiar with
| America there will be no occasion to
| doubt. Parties and candidates must
| ultimately face this issue and take
their stand upon one side or the other
| of the greatest moral reform that the
| world has seen since the abolition of
slavery over half century ago.
1.-THE prosecution of the patrons of
| the bootleggers in the State of Maine
little time ago marked an epoch in
! the efforts to enforce the pfohibitory
i, law. The recognition and punishment
of these purchasers as essential ac-
cessories to the crime will contribute
| most profoundly to the drying up Of
the market which. after all, Is the
| only reason for the existence Of this
il1a1o1 tvodeo