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The Temperance Battle in Maine

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 29, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 9.

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The Temperance Battle in Maine

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

MANY of the readers of the REVIEW who helped in the Temperance Instructor campaign in Maine last autumn, may be glad to hear some news from this great storm-center of prohibition. There is not much being said on temperance at present, but both parties are planning and working for the fierce battle to be fought in a few months.
The governor and many of the leading officers of the State and of the city of Portland are anti-prohibitionists; but the best class of the citizens stand strongly for prohibition.
Last week I asked a prominent man of Portland where he stood on the temperance question. His quick reply was, “I have five boys; I am for straight prohibition.” The safety of the youth and the home is the foremost question in this issue on the part of the temperance people, while increased revenues and greed of wealth are the strength of the liquor man’s argument.
The governor of the State has called a special session of the legislature to convene March 20. One reason given for this session is the need of the help of the lawmakers in coming to some satisfactory conclusions on the temperance question. It is thought that the legislature will either pass some laws regulating the question or propose an amendment to the constitution of the State that will meet the mind of both parties, and then let the citizens accept or reject the proposed measure at the ballot-box next September. It is a strange coincidence that this special session of the legislature is to convene on the anniversary of the birth of Neal Dow, the great pioneer of temperance in the State of Maine.
Now is the time to educate the people on temperance principles. When we saw the present needs, we requested the Review and Herald Publishing house to print fifty thousand copies of the chapter “Liquor Traffic and Prohibition,” in Ministry of Healing. We wished it illustrated just as in the book. Sister White gave her consent to this, and the Review and Herald generously responded by donating us fifty thousand copies of this tract. We greatly appreciate the help and encouragement given us in our work here by the brethren in responsible positions at the headquarters of our work. Without the support they have so heartily given, it would have been impossible for us to do the work we have done.
We are working systematically with the temperance literature. Our company of workers connected with us here in Portland has already distributed several thousands of the “Liquor Traffic and Prohibition” tract, and we are now perfecting some plans by which we hope soon to have the tracts circulated throughout the entire State. We hope, by the help of the Lord, to do much more than circulate the fifty thousand tracts the Review and Herald has so generously given. We believe there are others just as deeply interested in this work as our brethren at Washington, who will help us to print fifty or one hundred thousand more of these tracts, so that we can do a work with them that will affect the votes at the polls next September.
One of our workers gave a woman a Temperance Instructor a few weeks ago. When he called again, she said: “I want to thank you for that beautiful paper you gave me. My husband has never taken any interest in religious things, has always seemed hardened; but when I read the article entitled ‘A Bottle of Tears,’ in the Temperance Instructor, the tears rolled down his cheeks. I went to our ladies’ club the next day, and they asked me to read a select reading that the leader had chosen. What was my surprise when the leader gave me a Temperance Instructor, and I read another article from it.” This shows that the people appreciate our temperance literature.
We have a company of workers with us, none of whom are on the conference pay-roll. They came to us as self-supporting workers, and the Lord is blessing them in sowing the seeds of truth. Since beginning our house-to-house work here in Portland, our workers have distributed the following literature: Tracts loaned in homes, 92,891 pages; tracts given away on the streets and in homes, 83,486 pages; papers given away, 3,162; papers sold, 609; bound books sold and delivered, 284.
We have been sowing bountifully, expecting the Lord to fulfil his promises wherein he declares that he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully, and that his word shall not return unto him void, but shall accomplish that whereunto he sent it.
Our brethren of the Pacific Press have kindly donated us a club of one hundred copies of the weekly Signs of the Times, and our workers are lending them in the homes from week to week. They find many who recognize the Signs as an old friend. One woman said that for several years before her death, her mother had kept a file of the Signs as a great treasure, though none of the family was ever a Sabbath-keeper.
Before the weather was so severe, we had permission from the city authorities to place a tract table on the street. A worker sat by the table, giving tracts to all who paused and wished to take them. In this way we reached many who otherwise would not have been reached.
For the past three months, we have held a cooking school each week in the vestry of the church, with good success. In this way our work has been brought before some of the best people of the city. In a few weeks we expect to open a health school to be conducted each week in place of the cooking school.
The Maine Conference has just sent Elder E. E. Osborne to assist us, for which we are very thankful. He is opening cottage meetings in different parts of the city. Our workers have been studying hard, and are now beginning to make appointments for Bible readings in the homes.
Our plan of work has been to conduct public meetings in the church only three evenings each week, leaving the other evenings open for the workers to hold cottage meetings and Bible readings in different parts of the city.
The membership of the Portland church is small, and there are only a few to help, but they have taken hold heartily to do what they can to increase the attendance at the Sunday evening meetings, and we have all felt encouraged by seeing a good attendance.
There has been a deep-seated prejudice in this city against the truth, but we are thankful for the doors opened to the workers, and the amount of literature we have been permitted to place in the homes. We hope to keep pressing in the literature and visiting from door to door, as we feel sure, with the blessing of the Lord, this work will break through the highest walls of prejudice.
We are all of good courage, and trust our brethren will not forget to pray that God will bless the work in Portland.
S. N. HASKELL.
63 Grant Street, Portland, Maine.