Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1867-01-03

I
men shall, in agreeing with such agent
allow him any part or all the profit of
his sales, for his compensation, or In
any way make his compensation depend
on the amount of his sales, every such
selectmen must furnish the liquor, II
any Is sold. The compensation must be
| paid from the town treasury-and all
the receipts for sales must go into the
! treasury. In many towns the temper
ance men have not known whether the
agent was buying and selling for him.
self or for the town. In several places
these abuses have been corrected during
the past year and 1t is believed they
will be less frequent in the future. Many
towns have no town liquor agent, and
If there were not moresthan two or
three in each county it might be better
for the people,
| FACILITIES.
We have the facilities for carrying on
our work far more erectually than 1t has
ever yet been done. II the ministers In
every town should agree together, as
| they have in some places, and speak out
boldly against intemperauce and the
rum traffic, their united efforts would be
felt, as resistless power against the
common foe. In too many places there
are ministers who seldom or never preach
specifically and plainly against these
great sins of the present day, And yet
these are among the chief, If not the
greatest impediments IN the way of the
gospel. The ministers of Vermont are
most thorough and fearless advocates of
the temperance csuse-and the members
of our churches are generally right in
the theory and practice of temperance
but if the 10000 members Of our Yer
mont churches should all be urged on,
by the hundreds of their ministers, TO
that vigorous action In this department
Of christian labor which is required by
true christian faith, we can scarcely es-
innate the advance that would soon be
made in the cause of temperance and re-
ligion in the State. The pulpit and the
press are both powerful agencies, when |
rightly used, in promoting our work. 1t
is matter of encouragement that the
newspapers of our State, with but very
few exceptions, are regarded as favorable
to our cause-and a few of them are its
earnest advocates.
Another of the chief facilities in our
temperance work is our State Liquor
Law. With the exception of some of
our larger villages-this law is respected !
and its benefits are realized to q very
gratifying extent. In by far the largest
portion of the State-perhaps in four
tlfths Of the towns, intoxicating liquors
are not sold in violation of our law, un-
less with great secrecy, and to q very
limited extent. From observations and
estimates made in travelling many thou
sands Of miles in this and other States,
| am satisfied that the traffic in intoxi-
eating drinks in this State does not
amount to more than One-fOurth the
amount of such traffic in other States
where it is sanctioned by LAWN pro-
portion to the pOpulatiOn-and that it is
at least so much less than it would be,
with any license system with which the
common traffic, for drinking purposes,
could be regulated OF course we can
not ascertain the exact amount of such
unlawful sales but there are facts on
which an estimate may be based, and by
which we may approximate near the
truth in the case From present indica-
tiOns, it may be safely inferred, that the
traffic will be very much reduced dur
ing the coming year. Our town protect
I've temperance societies, constantly in
creasing, with their vigilance commit
tees, sustained by the whole membership |
are proving terror to evil doors in |
many parts Of the State; and in some
places the people seem to be rising with |
great unanimity and determination to
put down the unlawful traffic totally and |
forever.
1t has been claimed by some that our
law is not sustained by the public senti-
ment of the State, and that even the tenn
perence men desire its repeal To settle
this question, during the first four
months of the year, in all the meetings | |
attended, which were held nearly every
evening, resolution approving our tenn
perance law was presented, with a request |
that the people would vote on it Just as |
they viewed the question and it was
adopted, unanimously, in every place,
excepting IN one town there was but one
solitary vote in the negative, against the
rising vote of every other person in a well
filed house in its favor.
The truth IS, the public sentiment, at
least of the sober, intelligent and better
class OF our citizens, who compose large
majority of the people of Vermont, is right
on this subject, although in some places it
seems to be dormant, and only needs to be
aroused to action. Our chief difficulty in
the enforcement of this law, is in our larger
towns, on account of the svmpathies. or
the business, kindred or neighborhood re-
latlons between liquor dealers, and those
whose duty 1t IS to suppress their traffic.
The dealers understand, ana take advan
tage of this state of things, and claim it
as public indulgence, or even public
approval of their trade. And yet nothing
IS more OBVIOUS than that in all these
places, the virtuous and law abiding Cit
zens, generally, would be glad to have this
law thoroughly enforced; only they would
prefer to have it done by other parties.
who are not subject to these neighborhood
relationships or sympathies. Hence a
state constabulary, somewhat similar to
that which is proving so effective in Mass
achusetts, but on more limited scale
and without eYpensp tn the State ayeant