The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-09-05
Notes..

On one recent Friday six murdcrcrs
were hanged in the United States. Five
of them declared that drink had led
into crime.
If the public drinking places OF Eng
land were placed side by side, III a
straight line, they would extend dis
lance of 200 miles.
The Syracuse On. " UeroM says:
"Nlark our words. The prohibition
vote means more this year than ii ever
meant before. 1t has IA larger number
OF mothers and wives and sisters be-
hind it, and its magnitude will astonish
some of the people who have tried to
throw contempt upon it,"
In more than half of the towns of
Vermont the United States revenue
collector could find, in the year ending
April y, 1888, no one selling liquor
There are 2lO towns i'll Vermont, and
in ~ of these ~ drug store, hotel or
dram shop was found that could be re-
CURED to take United States license
Pirate as they may of their love for
temperance, their zeal for prohibition,
the men who claim to be prohibitionists
and yet will vote against their convic.
tons for the sake of putting one party
in power or keeping another out of
power, have not now, if they have had,
Il true conception of the evils of drink
the crime of the liquor traffic, or the
necessity for its abolition by the gov
ernment.
We ought as soon to think of
curing volcano with pills, IA
of checking the liquor traffic and
purifying the politics of this coun-
try by neglecting the proper use of
the ballot box, for which God has made
us responsible. Heaven speed the hour
when, out of the chaos of the Old and
Gillette parties, there shall come forth IA
party embodying enough of the princi-
pies OF temperance and goodness to
hold the balance of power in this land
and to save us from the hororrs OF
alcohol.
"Although it is true that in politics
we have often presented to us disa-
greeable alternative, and that it is the
part of good sense to sacrifice prefer
cnce and tastes, it is also true that
when the alternative is not one of per-
sonal taste and preference, but involv-
ing great principles and the public well
fare, honest men will decline to be
shut up to the alternative. When the
alternative is between two evils, good
citizens will choose neither. They may
not be able TO prevent evil, but they
will not connive at it,"
In Massachusetts, which has what is
called "rigid license law" SAG per-
| hnl t, N
liquor last year, being one to every POP
of the population. In Connecticut, B.
351 persons purchased United States
licenses, being one to every lS1 of the
population. In Vermont the number
taking out United States licenses was
529, and the proportion was one to 700.
In other words more than three times
as many persons were selling liquor in
Massachusetts, and four times as many
in Connecticut, in proportion TO popu-
lation, as in Vermont.
The Prohibitionists aud the W. &. II.
L. are both regarded by very good peo-
pie as unwise in their demand for AN
abolition of the government liquor tax
Here comes Cardinal Manning, howev-
er, and after speaking of the four hun
dred and seventy English statutes
which have built up great legal scat
fold around the drink traffic in England
says. at seems to me the Legislature
ought to separate the COVER ment of
this country from all beneficial interest
in the trade in intoxicating drink" lie
has discovered MS have many others
that there is no greater obstacle ID pro-
hibition than the fact that government
grows fat in revenue from the manu-
tacture and sale OF liquor.