Year: 1879

| fON DColNbSo hO1ElAo Oh


TowNsPEoPLE.


To the Editors of the N. Y. Observer:


The New York Herald has lette
from Portland, complaining of the strin
gency of our anti liquor law, and assert
ing that it Injuries the business of tn
town and of the State, at the same tim
that it admits its favorable influence
upon the morals of the people


If it were true that the prohibition o
the grog, shops is injurious to the busines
of the State, prohibition must go to the
wall, because the virtue and piety of tn,
State are not equal to the strain that
would be put upon them in an effort tt
sustain the moral and spiritual Interests
of the community in any way involving
an injury, however slight, to trade"


This cry that the Maine Law "hurtc
trade has been repeated many times by
the enemies of temperance in othel
States, but it has never been uttered
here in any respectable quarter, and all
our intelligent people know that it ii
false in whole and in part. On the con
trary, the law helps trade by saving to
the State the health, character and lives
of the people from the malign influence
of the liquor traffic, and by saving at
| ledsI @l,OOOtOOO d year, WulCu Uub iOF tue
law would be wasted in drink; and an.
would be lost and wasted directly and
indirectly in many ways through the
grog shops. 1t is not too much to say
that Maine is gamer by the Maine Law
in the annual accumulating wealth oi
the people to the amount of 100000 000


Maine has suffered far less in this
financial crisis than any other State, by
reason of this vast saving of the wages OF
labor, which but for the Law would have
been wasted in drink. Some time ago
saw this same statement in the New
York Sun, in letter from Portland that
the city had lost large amount of most
valuable business, never to return, as
the result of the Maine Law, while the
State had lost large amount of revenue,
| The State never at any time received a
penny of revenue directly or indirectly
| from the grogshops; nor is it true that
Portland has suffered financially from the
Law in any way. l took this letter OF
the Sun at the time to the cashier of our
largest bank, and asked him if the state.
ment was true. His reply was: Port
land has never done more satisfactory
business than now; some branches of
trade are dull or depressed, but the gen.
0FdI GFdu0 Ol Iu0 ClGy was never U6GG0r
than now, as the traders will tell you" l
went directly to a great wholesale house
and said: 1.-THE New York Sun has a
letter from Portland, saying that the
Maine Law has greatly injured the bust
ness of the city; what is the fact y 81
have been in business in Portland nine
teen years, and have never had half so
good business as now,-nor payments
SO satisfactory Other merchants will
tell you very much the same" Our peo-
pie are enabled to buy and pay for nee
essary, useful, convenient and beautiful
goods, because they do not spend their
money in drink.


Portland lost S1O,OOO,OO0 in 1866 in a
great confagration, and 10000 people
were turned out of doors in night. But
the valuation of the city has been since
constantly increasing, and is now larger
than ever before, having gained $3.50 900
the last year under prohibition, while
Boston, with license" Gree rum) lost
$70,000,000. You, Mr.. Editor, know
much better than 1 do, how much New
York and Brooklyn have lost. Four
hundred and eighty thousand dollars is
not large sum in this connection, but
it is better on the right side of the
ledger, than very great sum on the
wrong side.


The Herald correspondent says: "The
hotels have all they can do to pay rent;
the bar is closed in each" That may be
true about the rent" Great hotels
generally pay their rent and make money
beside from the profits of the liquor they
sell; but the bars are not for the accom-
mediation of the guests of the houses,
but for outsiders. A friend of mine
asked landlord of one of our great
hotels who complained that he could not
sell liquors:


DO you want bar for the guests of
the house?"


mo; for outsiders"


"Outsiders who are they p


20, citizens who come in, townspeople
who play billiards and are constantly
passing on the sidewalk, who call in for
drinks"


Then why do you run great, costly
hotel for that? Why not have only a
bar with the billiard roomT


why, then outsiders would not come
in the hotel renders the bar respecta-
BILE, or at least when outsiders come in
persons who see them do not know it is
to obtain drink"


A plea that great hotels should be
allowed to sell liquors SO as to draw in
outsiders and make money from them in
that way, is no more legitimate than one
would be that they should be allowed to
have department for gambling, and an
other as a house of i'll fame, and another
for selling lottery tickets, and another
where dealers in base money could meet
their customers. If a house is needed |
for legitimate hotel purposes, it will pay
and if great hotel will not pay in that
way, its deficiencies should not be made
good by any process which will inevita-
bly, impoverish, pauperize and degrade
the people.


The Herald correspondent frankly ad
mits the fact that the Maine Law does |
prohibit, does effectually extinguish the
grog shops, great and small, marble
and dirty slop boards all alike.
In this he is truthful, while great many |
say falsely that the law is a failure, and |
that there is as much liquor sold as ever.
A committee of our Legislature has just
issued most mendacious report on this
matter asserting that 1.-The consumption
{ of liquors) is as large as before the law.
The fact is that the quantity of them
in Maine is not onetwentieth |
as large as before the law, while the |
most careful and cautious say that the |
quantity is not one-teuth as large.


NEAL Dow.


scientific American.


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