Grappling with the Monster; Or, the Curse and the Cure of Strong DrinkArthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
Religion
Grappling with the Monster; Or, the Curse and the Cure of Strong Drink
Arthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
Temperance
For some years after the enactment of the law, it entered largely
into the politics of the State. Candidates were nominated by one
party or the other with reference to their proclivities for rum or
their hostility to it, and the people were determined in their
votes, one way or the other, by this consideration.
Now, the policy of prohibition, with penalties stringent enough to
be effective, has become as firmly settled in this State as that of
universal education or the vote by ballot. The Republican party, in
its annual conventions, during all these years, has affirmed,
unanimously, its "adhesion to prohibition and the vigorous
enforcement of laws to that end;" and the Democratic party, in its
annual convention of this year, rejected, by an immense majority,
and with enthusiastic cheers, a resolution, proposed from the
floor, in favor of "license."
The original Maine Law was enacted by a vote in the House of
eighty-six to forty, and in the Senate by eighteen to ten. There
have been several subsequent liquor laws, all in the direction of
greater stringency; and the Legislature of this year enacted an
additional law, with penalties much more stringent than any which
had preceded it, without a dissenting vote. No one can mistake the
significance of this fact; it was an unanimous affirmation of
adhesion to the policy of prohibition, after a steady trial of it
and experience of its results for more than a quarter of a century.
And, since that time, the people have passed upon it at the late
annual election by an approval of the policy and of the men who
favor it--by an immense majority. If it be conceded that the people
of Maine possess an ordinary share of intelligence and common
sense, this result would be impossible, unless the effect of
prohibition had been beneficial to the State and to them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Grappling with the Monster; Or, the Curse and the Cure of Strong Drink — John Shaqi
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