PROHIBITION STALWARTS.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4320, 3 August 1907, Page 1

PROHIBITION STALWARTS.

‘ -6 GENERAL NEAL DOW. The attitude of the law to such a traffic ought not to he one of license, or permission, but of prohibition. Reflections such as these made ' * NEAL DOW A mOHIBITiONIST, and from 1837 to f <the close of his long .life Neal Dow was unwearied in his efforts to procure the legislative prohibition of the liquor traffic, and to urge others to do the same.’ And here it is well to point out the fallacy pf those ' who make, no distinction between prohibition and suppression.. The object and end of prohibition is suppression, but where suppression does - not , ensue, owing to some defect in the machinery of law, or to the neglect of the officers of the law, it'is quite unreasonable to* charge the faulty or failure, upofi the principle of prohibition, the legal and moral justification of which is ;the duty of society to protect itself against controllable causes of social injury. Firmly believing that projiibi - tioh, not license, or regulation, was the v only effective way of dealing with the drink traffic Neal Dow began a systematic AGITATION FOR PROHIBITION by the distribution of literature and personal visitation pf all districts of the State* Maine is not a large State,' as American ’ States go, having an area of only 33j040 square miles, about equal to one-fourth of the area of the United but the population was very. Scattered and facilities Of t|avel could. not be said to have* an existence. Neal Dow, I fear, never kept a diary, or acted on the maxim of the Emperor Titus—-Nulla dies sine linea (“ No 7 day without a line ”), or a register, however brief, of bis prohibition travels, and labours from 1837 to 1851, would have formed a record of extraordinary interest. Some friends joined him in his visile - tions,but the bulk of the labour aid cost must; Have devolved upon, himself ; and this is the distinctive glory of Neal Dow, that he, a citizen of Maine, spared no effort and no sacrifice in order to induce his fellow citizens to deliver themsdves and their -children from the curse of the liquor traffic. He had first to convert a majority of the electors to his views, then to inspire them with his enthusiasm, and then—most difih* cult of all —persuade them to use their electoral influeuce to send to the Legislature men shariug their beliefs and pervaded by their patriotic spirit. Prohibition could only, result from a majority of votes in both branches of the Legislature—the House of Representatives, chosen by the mass of the electors, and the Senate, by a smaller electorate on a higher qualification. ,

FIRST ACTION IN PORTLAND. It was in 1839' that Neal Dow induced the Board of Aldermen in Portland to take a vote of the citizens ou the ones.-* lion of “ License ” or u > <>- License.” The votes for licpuso were 599; for no-license, 5G4. In L 843 a poll was again taken, when no-license was' approved by a majority of 420 votes. The light was spreading.; the leaven was working. This poll may have had some effect upon tha licensing action of the Board of Aldermen, but its value lay . in the ahcouragemeitit gave to Neal Dow and his coadjutors to continue their, agitation throughout the State.

* (To he Coutimiei.L .