The Referendum in Maine has resulted in a majority of
twenty votes in favour of the repeal of the constitutional prohibition of the manufacture and sale of liquor. The campaign has been of great interest, as Maine is the oldest Prohibition State in America. Prohibition dates from 1853, and the law was incorporated in the Constitution in 1884. The Prohibitionists held prayer-meetings in the churches and pressed school children into their service to parade the streets. It is notorious, however, that about as much liquor has been consumed in Maine and the other " dry " States as in the ' wet" States. Ingenuity found hundreds of ways of evading the law, and we cannot think that this vast system of humbug was a moral advantage. Apparently public opinion in Maine, in spite of the strong tendency to conserve old custom; approves of substituting a system of high licences and local option.
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