[20] The state of Maine is assisting the experiment with beet-root by granting a premium of one cent a pound on all beet-root sugar produced in the state, but even with this help the industry has failed to establish itself to any considerable extent. CHAPTER X. PROHIBITORY LAWS AND THEIR EFFECTS. We have now reached a point at which we may properly recur to a topic already suggested and inquire a little more carefully into the actual working of the prohibitory laws. On this head we shall confine ourselves chiefly to the testimony of men who have made the matter a thorough study, and that not at a distance, but in the very midst of the operation of such laws, and as Maine is the state which led the way in the prohibitory movement and has since followed that course with most persistency, it is proper that it should occupy most of our attention during the inquiry. Not long ago a number of the most prominent men of the state, men of different political parties, wholly above reproach, and especially fitted by official position or private observation to form a just opinion in the premises, became so well convinced of the evils of the present system, and its detrimental effect on the people, as to unite in an effort for its amendment. Their movement took form in the presentation by Mr. Fox of Portland, a lawyer of high reputation and a member of the Legislature, of the following proposed Act: “_State of Maine, 1879._ “An Act in relation to Cider, Native Wines, Ale, Porter, Lager Beer and Malt Liquors. “Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in Legislature assembled, as follows: “Cider, Native Wine, Ale, Porter, Lager Beer and other Malt Liquors, when pure and unadulterated, shall not be considered intoxicating liquors within the meaning of the laws of this State.”