Sober by act of Parliament / by Fred A. McKenzie.

  • McKenzie, Fred A.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sober by act of Parliament / by Fred A. McKenzie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    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. Con- siderably over half the total criminal convictions are connected with breaches of Prohibition Acts. The num- ber of committals for liquor selling and drunkenness in 1890 was 2300; in 1891, 1468; and in 1892, 1714.1 The divorce statistics also show that drunk- enness 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. 1 Mr. C. W. Jones, Inspector of Prisons and Gaols, Maine, to whom I am indebted for these figures, adds that the increase in commitments in recent years “ is not because those crimes are on the increase, but because of the better enforcement of our laws relating to those crimes”.
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