Radio Script #786

Little Talks on Common Things

December 15, 1968

An organization nearly three quarters of a century old that is still striving to uphold moral standards, combat the evils that result from liquor and gambling, and defend high ideals of public morality is the Christian Civic League. The organization has long published a little magazine called the Civic League Record, two early copies of which recently came into my possession. One is dated January, 1905; the other is even older, September. 1900. That 1900 issue was in fact the beginning of the publication, for its masthead says: “Vol. 1, No. 1.11

The secretary and executive officer of the League in 1900 was Rev. Wilbur Berry, father of the distinguished teacher of music still living in this area, Mrs. Mary Berry Manter. The League’s president was George Purington of Farmington, and the treasurer was Horace Purinton of Waterville.

In that first issue of the Record was published the League’s constitution. Its purpose was stated as “to educate the people in all that pertains to good citizenship and to arouse and maintain throughout the state a reverence for law.”

In 1900 the Maine Prohibition Law was half a century old and the problem remained almost exactly the same as it had been when Neal Dow put that law through the legislature. That problem was to secure enforcement by the most powerful organization in the state, the county sheriffs. That is why the first issue of the Civic League Record had on its cover a copy of Chapter 27, Section 60 of the Maine Statutes — the wording of the oath taken by all sheriffs when they assumed office. The sheriff swore to discharge. to the best of his ability, the duties incumbent upon him as sheriff. Then the law spelled out those duties: “Diligently to inquire into all violations of law and particularly the laws against the illegal sale of intoxicating liquors and the keeping of drinking houses and tippling shops, and institute proceedings against them.”

Enforcement was notoriously uneven. When in one county there might be a sheriff who rigidly enforced the law against liquor, the sheriff in the neighboring county might pay no attention to it. Then too, enforcement lagged in the larger towns and cities, where the local authorities glibly left the law in the hands of the county officers. That is why a leading editorial in that first issue of the Record said: “Mayors of our cities and selectmen in our towns not infrequently declare that they have nothing to do with the enforcement of law. yet the statute says: ‘The municipal officers of towns and cities are required promptly to enforce the laws against gambling rooms and shall make complaint and prosecute all violators of the laws against drinking houses. ”

The Record went on to make a specific charge. It said: “The Mayor of Waterville, a lawyer, is counsel to sa loon keeper Barry. While as a lawyer he has the right to take any case that his conscience sanctions, what in the light of the clear statutes ought he to do as mayor?”

As for Barry, the Record on another page devoted a whole column to him. It seems that, in 1891, the nuisance law had been amended to permit twenty voters to petition for the removal of a nuisance in a community. But until May, 1900 the amendment had never been put to a legal test. Then, says the Record. it was the League, through Secretary Berry, that prosecuted the case. It said: “Prosecutions in our courts against liquor sellers are usually brought under the criminal section of the nuisance law. While the law provides for a fine not exceeding $1.000 or imprisonment for not more than a year, the penalty usually imposed is $100 and costs.

Under such treatment the saloon in Maine has prospered and multiplied. The Park Cafe in Waterville. kept by one W.A. Barry, was a conspicuous liquor nuisance. So our secretary secured a search and seizure warrant. and accompanied to the place an officer, who found a well equipped bar with a quantity of liquor. It was decided to prosecute under the hitherto unused 1891 amendment. The required signatures were easily secured and were presented to Judge Whitehouse on May 26. 1900. It will take several months to settle the case, so slow are the wheels of the judicial process.

The Kennebec Journal announced that the Wholesale Liquor Association of Massachusetts had assured Barry he could draw upon them for funds to fight the case.”

One contention repeated several times in that first issue of the Record was that the people of any community could have enforcement of the law if they were determined to get it. As evidence the Record cited the town of Island Falls, the town from which would come a few years later one of Maine’s fine Christian governors, Carl Milliken. The Record said: “Island Falls in Aroostook is a railroad town with a tannery and a large saw mill. Yet there is in it not a place where liquor is sold or where a gambling machine is operated. Several times liquor sellers have gone there, and each time the citizens have driven them out. Lawlessness;s not tolerated. The moral forces of the community stand together. Like conditions can prevail in any town where there is a similar spirit.”

This issue of the Record has some interesting single paragraphs — news gleaned from allover the state. Let’s hear a few of them: “The Mayor of Gardiner ended a cut price competition between the beer sellers in that city and those of Randolph across the river; not by closing the saloons as the law directs, but by ordering the Gardiner dealers to meet the Randolph prices.”

“Several barrels of whiskey were secured in a search at Simpson’s in Waterville. The barrels closely resembled kerosene barrels and were labeled ‘Illuminating Oil’. From samples taken there is no question of the contents’ illuminating power.”

“Owen Blackden. a liquor dealer of Dexter, announced himself as a candidate for selectman last spring. When the votes were counted for first selectman, he was defeated 262 to 146. He then ran for second selectman and took another licking, 236 to 100. When he made a last try for third selectman, he got less than 50 votes. Good for the good sense of Dexter voters, say we.”

One short article is headed “A Leak in Kennebec County”. This is what it said: “It costs the State of Maine less than 60 cents a week for each prisoner at Thomaston. But it costs Kennebec County $1.75 a week for every prisoner in the county jail and that is the cost of the prisoner’s board alone. Assuming that provisions cost the same in Augusta and Thomaston, the Kennebec sheriff must make a net profit on every prisoner’s board every week. Last year 5,240 weeks’ board were furnished to prisoners in the Kennebec jail at Augusta. That would mean a profit of $6,026. Now last year Waterville’s county tax was $6,324. It is interesting that it took nearly all of that to supply the sheriff’s personal profit on prisoners’ board.”

When, five years later, in January, 1905, there appeared Vol. 5, No.3 of the Civic League Record, George Purington of Farmington was still president, but the League now had two associate secretaries, Rev. H.N. Pringle and Rev. C.E. Owen. The issue heralded Gov. Cobb’s straightforward demand for enforcement of the liquor laws.

The League didn’t like at all what was going on in York County. It said: “No person acquainted with Biddeford or Old Orchard will credit the sheriff with trying to enforce the law. He did close the bars in Sanford and Springvale, because he saw many dry votes there, but in Biddeford and Old Orchard open selling continued. As a result the sheriff found himself not pleasing either side and he is now out of office. We believe his successor will go to the revised statutes for instructions. not to the party boss in Biddeford.”

The Record stoutly maintained its non-partisan policy. While heralding the election of a Republican sheriff in York County, it was just as ardent for the Democrat elected sheriff in Hancock. It said: “Mr. Mayo was elected not because he is a Democrat, but because a large element of the predominating Republican party in the county believe he will enforce the law better than their own party candidate. While nominally a Democratic sheriff, Mr. Mayo is therefore really sheriff by votes of the people who believe in enforcement.”

In 1900 the Civic League Record carried only two ads, one by the Berlin Mills Lumber Yards and Planing Millon Commercial Street in Portland, the other by Horace Purinton & Co. of Waterville. contractors. builders and makers of brick, with yards at Waterville, Augusta, Skowhegan and Mechanic Falls.

In 1905 there were eight ads, the Berlin Mills and the Purinton Co. still being represented. Others were for Burrowes’ Rustless Insect Screens, N.T. Worthley. the Portland optician, and the Underwood Typewriter Co . presenting its “thoroughgoing writing machines”.

A full page ad is revealing of the times. It was by the Keeley Institute located on Munjoy Hill in Portland. Here is what it said: “What does the Keeley treatment do? It aims to take a man who is Sick, hopeless. uncertain of himself, nearing the grave, and make him a man again. It aims to take the sick body, poisoned by liquor, and bring it back to health. It aims to take the drunkard and restore him to sobriety. It aims to give the body the masterful dominion of a sound mind. It helps, cures, restores. That is what the Keeley treatment does.”

So we see there were moral problems in Maine Sixty to seventy years ago. And they haven’t changed much during all those years. We still have need for vigorous law-enforcing organizations like the Christian Civic League.

Now let us close with another subject. Looking recently at the Massachusetts Register for 1810. when Maine was still a part of that state. I was interested to note that in that year there were only eight churches open in Waterville and all nearby towns, and they were confined to seven towns. The only town that had more than one church was Vassalboro, where both a Baptist and a Friends Society had been established.

Waterville had only one church, open to all faiths when originally established, but in 1810 under its first resident pastor, a Congregationalist, Joshua Cushman. Becoming embued with Unitarian views, Cushman was by 1818 too liberal to suit the parishioners, so that Mrs. Jeremiah Chaplin. wife of Colby’s first president, recorded in a letter to a friend back in Massachusetts that “the people had paid him not to preach to them any more”. In 1810 the only other Congregational Church in this area was at Winslow. All the others were Baptist, located at Sidney, Clinton, China and Albion.

As for Kennebec County as a whole, there were Congregational churches at Augusta, Hallowell and Winthrop, and Baptist churches at Farmington, Fayette, Greene, Leeds, Monmouth, New Sharon, Readfield and Wayne. In all Kennebec there were only two Methodist churches,Monmouth and Vienna. The County’s two Episcopal churches were at Gardiner and Pittston. That was to be expected. for Dr. Sylvester Gardiner, head of the Kennebec Proprietors before the Revolution, and the man responsible for the settlements at Gardiner and Pittston was a staunch Episcopalian.

Year: 1968