THE TEMPERANCE FAILURE 151 



allowed to go free from the lock-up when sobered. In brief, this 

 is the condition of the liquor traffic in Maine." 1 



" The effort of the police — as the City Marshal informed one of 

 the present writers — is restricted to keeping the streets clear. So 

 long as a man is able to go home quietly he is not interfered with." ^ 



Throughout the Prohibition States of America 

 the conditions of the towns is everywhere similar 

 to Portland.^ "The position of things in Maine 

 and other States is not that Prohibition is im- 

 perfectly enforced, but that after a long period of 

 experiment, the authorities have deliberately 

 suspended Prohibition by a definite (albeit irregular) 

 system of license."* Messrs Rowntree and Sherwell 

 thus sum up the whole situation : 



" In view of all the facts, it is hardly matter for surprise that a 

 lurking distrust of State Prohibition as a practical scheme of 

 politics is steadily asserting itself, even in quarters that once were 

 favourable to the system, and that recent elections give evidence 

 of a growing reaction against the law in several of the Prohibition 

 States. That there is such a reaction no one that has followed 

 the history of the experiment at all closely can doubt, and it was 

 repeatedly emphasised by those friendly to the prohibitory law in 

 the course of the present investigations. Nor is it possible to 

 explain it on any other ground than that of the manifest failure of 

 the prohibitory system to achieve the results that were previously 

 claimed in its behalf. The evidence is conclusive that in no 



^ Zioris Herald, 26th January l8g8, quoted by Rowntree and 

 Sherwell, "The Temperance Problem and Social Reform," p. 159. 



2 Op. cit., p. 160. 



^ Op. cit., Lewiston, p. 180 ; Bangor, p. 192 ; Bedeford, p. 194 ; 

 Augusta, p. 199 ; Bath, p. 202 ; Rockland, p. 204 ; Waterville, p. 204 ; 

 Gardiner, p. 207, etc. 



■* Op. cit., p. 242. 



