FORTY YEARS OF PROHIBITION.
From the time of the earliest English settlers in America the drink
traffic has been looked upon as a business requiring special regulation.
The influence of Puritan immigrants in the middle of the seventeenth
century led to the framing of many severe liquor laws. Ludlow's
Connecticut Code in 1650 dealt with the subject on the basis that "while
there is a need for houses of common entertainment ... yet because there
are so many abuses of that lawful liberty ... there is also need of strict
laws to regulate such an employment"; and it was enacted "that no drink
seller should suffer any person to consume more than half a pint at a
time, or to tipple more than half an hour at a stretch, or after nine
o'clock at night". The first American prohibitory law was passed by the
English Parliament in 1735, when "the importation of rum or brandies" in
Georgia was forbidden. This was done at the instance of James Oglethorpe,
then head of the colony, who declared that the excessive sickness there
was solely due to the over-consumption of rum punch.
While Oglethorpe remained at Savannah the law was strictly enforced, and
all spirits found were destroyed; but after he left it was allowed to
fall into abeyance, and in 1742 it was formally repealed by Parliament.
The modern legislative movement took its rise between 1830 and 1840, when
the whole of New England was convulsed by an uncompromising campaign
against intemperance. Almost the entire community seemed for a time
carried away by the crusade against intoxicants. In nearly every place
powerful temperance societies were formed; many gin merchants closed their
distilleries, and saloon keepers put up their shutters and bade the people
come and spill the contents of their rum barrels down the gutters. At
first, teetotalers relied solely on moral suasion; but soon the more
advanced section in Massachusetts and Maine demanded that the law should
aid them by putting a stop to the legalised sale of drink. As early as
1837 a committee of the Maine Legislature on licensing laws reported that
"the traffic (in strong drink) is attended with the most appalling evils
to the community.... It is an unmitigated evil.... Your committee are not
only of opinion that the law giving the right to sell ardent spirits
should be repealed, but that a law should be passed to _prohibit_ the
traffic in them, except so far as the arts or the practice of medicine may
be concerned." At that time the traffic in intoxicants in Maine was
considerable; but the saloon keepers were without any efficient
organisation, and consequently could not offer any united opposition to
the new movement. There were seven distilleries, and between three and
four hundred rum shops in Portland alone. According to the Hon. Woodbury
Davis, ex-Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, "nearly every
tavern in country and in city had its bar; at almost every village and
'corner' was a grog shop, and in most places of that kind more than
one.... Men helplessly drunk in the streets and by the wayside was a
common sight; and at elections and other public gatherings there were
scenes of debauchery and riot enough to make one ashamed of his race."
It is often stated that before the passing of prohibitory legislation
Maine was one of the poorest and most deeply indebted States in the Union.
This is true, but it is not the whole truth. Maine had not long been
separated from Massachusetts, and its Legislature, maybe partly
intoxicated by its newly acquired powers, ventured on some expensive
undertakings. A few costly public buildings were erected, and a premium of
eight cents a bushel was offered to farmers on all wheat or corn over
fifty bushels that they raised in a year. The consequence was that the
heavy taxes proved altogether insufficient to meet the expenditure, and by
early in the forties a State debt had been incurred, equal to three
dollars a head of the population. Money was very scarce, and both the
local government and private individuals were glad to borrow wherever they
could. But in spite of the scarcity of money, Maine was not generally
regarded as poor. It took the first place in the Union as a shipbuilding
State, and the second in the coasting and fishery trades. "The prosperity
of Maine," wrote a skilled financial observer in 1847, "was never greater
than at this moment.... She will become one of the first States of the
Union." Ten years earlier, in his Annual Address to the Legislature, the
Governor said: "It affords me great pleasure on this occasion to be able
to speak of the prosperous condition of the State.... The State, as well
as our citizens individually, are rich in lands, in timber, in granite and
lime quarries, in water power for manufacturing purposes, and, to an equal
extent at least, with any other State in the Union, in all the essentials
of profitable industry except monied capital."
Neal Dow, the son of a rich Quaker farmer, travelled from village to
village in Maine, urging the people to rise up against the legalised sale
of the drink; and, largely in consequence of his agitation, a tentative
Prohibition Act was passed in 1846. The first Act was a complete failure;
it only dealt with ardent spirits, and did not provide adequate means for
suppressing the traffic in them. Five years later, Mr. Dow, then Mayor of
Portland, framed a more comprehensive measure, and had it rushed through
the State Legislature in a couple of days. When the people understood what
the new Bill meant, its provisions excited a great deal of opposition.
Rioting took place in several towns, and was only put down by calling out
the militia. In one of these riots a lad was killed, and this so
strengthened the pro-liquor party that in 1857 the Act was repealed; but
it was re-carried the following year, and it has ever since been in force.
A final step was taken in 1884, when an amendment to the Constitution was
submitted to direct popular vote, providing that the sale of liquors be
for ever prohibited. Seventy thousand electors voted for it and only
23,000 against, so the alteration was made. The consequence of this is
that the sale of drink can now only become legalised in Maine by
two-thirds of the electors voting directly for it.
For many years the one aim of the temperance party has been to make the
prohibition law as effective as possible, and to secure its enforcement
throughout the State. Wherever any clause in it has been found unworkable
it has been quickly altered, and every possible legal device has been used
to ensure the destruction of the drink traffic. The manufacture, sale, or
keeping for sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage is absolutely
prohibited. Any person illegally selling, attempting to sell or assisting
to sell is liable, on a first conviction, to a fine of fifty dollars, and
imprisonment for thirty days, and to increasing penalties for subsequent
convictions, the maximum imprisonment being two years. It is considered
sufficient to convict if a person pays the United States internal revenue
liquor tax, issues a notice offering to sell, or delivers to another any
liquor. Liberal powers of search are given to the authorities, and all
liquor found by them is destroyed by spilling on the ground. Municipal
officers are compelled to take action on having their attention drawn to
any cases of supposed law breaking; and thirty taxpayers in any county
can, on petition, obtain the appointment of special constables to secure
the better enforcement of the law. The necessary sale of spirits for
medical, mechanical and manufacturing purposes is made by specially
nominated agents, who are supposed to obtain no profit by such sales, but
to be paid a reasonable remuneration by the municipalities appointing
them.
In considering the working of this law, it must be remembered that Maine
presents almost as favourable a situation as could be asked in order to
give prohibition a fair trial. It is isolated, and has no towns of any
size. Its citizens are mostly native born Americans, farmers and
fishermen, innately religious and law-abiding. The foreign element, which
presents so disturbing a factor in many parts, is almost a negligable
quantity here. In 1850 there was a population of 583,169, of whom only
31,825 were foreigners. Nearly three-quarters of the people were engaged
in agriculture, about one-tenth were mariners, and another tenth found
employment in connection with the trade in timber. Apart from saw-mills,
all the factories together did not employ above two or three thousand men.
Since then factories have greatly increased, and a number of French
Canadians and Irish have settled in the State. But Maine is still
principally an agricultural district, and its largest city to-day contains
less than forty thousand people.
After a trial of forty years, has prohibition proved a success or a
failure in Maine? The answer to this question entirely depends on the
point of view from which one looks at the subject. In so far as it has not
entirely destroyed the drink traffic, prohibition is not a success; but
it has succeeded in diminishing crime, pauperism and drunkenness, and in
greatly in-creasing the wealth of the people. In 1857, a few years after
the law came into force, there were only eleven savings banks in the
State, with 5000 depositors, and a total of deposits and accrued profits
of about a million dollars. In 1882 there were fifty-five savings banks,
with 90,000 depositors; and the Hon. J. G. Blaine estimated the aggregate
deposits and accrued profits at 30,000,000 dollars or more.
Pauperism has shown a steady decrease. From 1860 to 1870, in spite of an
increase in most of the neighbouring States, the number of recipients of
official charity was diminished by 21.4 per cent.; from 1870 to 1880,
there was a further diminution of 11.6 per cent.; and from 1880 to 1890,
notwithstanding the fact that the increase for the whole of the States was
10 per cent., there was still further reduction in Maine of over 20 per
cent. In 1890 the number of paupers was 1161, or only about one-sixth per
cent, of the population. The significance of these figures is increased
when it is remembered that Maine is an old settled State, and in such the
number of pensioners of public charity is usually far greater than in
newly opened up districts. Insanity, on the other hand, has spread during
the last thirty years by leaps and bounds. From 1860 to 1870 the number of
insane in the State increased by 12.5 per cent.; from 1870 to 1880, the
increase was 94.7 per cent.; and although the complete figures for the
last decade are not yet published, there is every reason to believe that
they will be no more favourable. At first this seems to show that there
must be some mysterious connection between teetotalism and madness; but
further investigation reveals the fact that this increase has not been
confined to Maine alone. In seven other North Atlantic States, where
liquor selling is permitted, the increase has been far greater: during the
first period it was 48.8 per cent., and during the latter 138.4 per cent.
The voluminous statistics on divorce supplied by the Government Bureau on
Labour[1] do not tell conclusively either one way or another as to the
influence of the law on married life; for divorce laws differ so greatly
in various States as to make comparisons practically valueless. In Maine
there are abundant facilities for undoing the marriage tie; consequently,
the number of divorces granted is decidedly over the average for the whole
of the country: though in some States, where divorce is even easier than
in Maine, such as Illinois, the proportion is far greater than there.
Crime is steadily on the decrease, and the average number of criminals in
Maine is lower than in any other State in the Union. The number of
convicts in the State Prison is now less than in any time for twenty-seven
years; in 1890 there were 65 convicts; in 1891, 50; in 1892, 34. The total
number of commitments to the county gaols for all crimes (including
offences against the drink laws) is also on the decrease, as is shown by
the fact that in 1890 there were 3780; in 1891, 3665; and in 1892, 3515
commitments.
The official returns of the value of property cannot be altogether relied
upon; for it is a notorious fact that real estate is systematically
under-estimated for the purpose of taxation. But while giving no accurate
idea of the value of the holdings in the State, they do show that the
material prosperity of Maine has greatly increased. In 1857 the valuation
of property was about a hundred million dollars; according to the annual
report of the State Board of Assessors for 1893 the valuation was
270,812,782 dollars. The Census Department estimated the true valuation of
real estate in Maine in 1890 at 254,069,559 dollars.
It is admitted on all sides that the prohibition law has not succeeded in
entirely extirpating drinking, and liquor can still be obtained in most of
the larger cities by those who seek for it. But the open bar has been
almost everywhere swept away; and those who wish for liquor have either to
order their supplies from other States or else go to work secretly to
obtain them. The prohibitionists claim rightly that they have put the
traffic outside the sanction of the law, and have made it "a sneaking
fugitive, like counterfeiting--not dead, but disgraced, and so shorn of
power". The returns of the Department of Internal Revenue show that there
are still a considerable number of drink sellers in Maine. In 1890 there
were 868 retail dealers in liquors of all kinds, and 73 retail dealers in
malt liquors. During the fiscal year ending 30th June, 1892, there were
808 retail and 7 wholesale liquor dealers, and 214 retail and 5 wholesale
dealers in malt liquors. There were no brewers or rectifiers. It must be
remembered that every person licensed under the Maine law to sell drink
for "medicinal, manufacturing, or mechanical purposes" is reckoned in the
Government returns as a liquor dealer; and that the individual who at any
time sells a single glass of rum is at once made to pay the tax by the
revenue officials, and tabulated by them as a licensed liquor dealer for
that year. So although there are nominally 808 retail dealers, it would be
a mistake to suppose that there are 808 saloons doing business in Maine.
Considerably over half the total criminal convictions are connected with
breaches of Prohibition Acts. The number of committals for liquor selling
and drunkenness in 1890 was 2300; in 1891, 1468; and in 1892, 1714.[2] The
divorce statistics also show that drunkenness has not been entirely
suppressed; for in the twenty years ending in 1886, 432 divorces were
granted for habitual intoxication, either alone or coupled with neglect to
provide.
Yet, there has undoubtedly been an immense reduction in the consumption of
drink. One who should be a most excellent authority on the question, the
Revenue Superintendent of a portion of the North Atlantic States, said
early in 1872: "I have become thoroughly acquainted with the state and the
extent of liquor traffic in Maine, and I have no hesitation in saying that
the beer trade is not more than one per cent. of what I remember it to
have been, and the trade in distilled liquors is not more than ten per
cent. of what it was formerly". The latest available revenue returns show
that the drink trade has been further reduced to about one-eighth of what
it was at the time this was said. The same revenue returns give the most
conclusive proof possible of the great reductions in the traffic. In 1866,
when prohibition was only very partly enforced, Maine paid 2,822,000
dollars in internal revenue, chiefly on drink and tobacco; in 1887 the
amount paid was only 50,000 dollars, or less than two per cent. of its
former amount.[3]
The drinking that now goes on may be divided into three classes,--(1) open
violations of the law, (2) secret drinking, and (3) obtaining liquor from
the authorised city agencies. The open violations prevail now to a very
slight extent; but for a long time three or four cities, especially
Portland, Lewiston and Bangor, practically set the law at defiance. The
authorities let it be understood that they would not take action, and
juries refused to convict even on the clearest evidence. This was partly
due to personal feeling, partly to political considerations, and chiefly
to the fact that the rum sellers were strong enough to turn out of office
either Republicans or Democrats, did they attempt to proceed against them.
Most of the drinking that goes on is done either secretly or through the
licensed vendors. Of the secret drinking it is not necessary to say much;
for it no more proves the uselessness of prohibition than the existence of
illicit stills in Scotland and Ireland proves the impracticableness of our
licensing system.
The selling by the city agencies is a far more serious matter. These
places are supposed only to sell drink for the purposes allowed by law;
but, as a matter of fact, they are often little better than saloons
licensed to supply spirits to be consumed off the premises. People who are
well known to require liquor solely as a beverage can obtain it with ease
on simply stating that they want it as medicine or for trade purposes.
Judging from the amount of whisky sold as medicine in Portland, a
considerable proportion of the inhabitants of that place must be chronic
invalids.
Yet in spite of its failings, the people of Maine regard their law as a
success, and mean to maintain it. As a correspondent, himself a State
official, and in a good position to gauge public opinion on the question,
recently wrote to me: "In the discharge of my official duties I
frequently visit all the cities of Maine, and in no parts of the country
do I see fewer cases of intoxication than in Maine cities and towns. In
our country towns a rum shop or a drunken man can rarely be found, where
formerly liquors were sold at every store. Our people are prosperous, and
an overwhelming majority of them are perfectly satisfied with our Maine
liquor laws."