The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-08-22
Why the Temperance People No minated
County Ticket.

EdHor Register and Enquiry
has been made through your columns for
a statement of the reasons why the tenn
perance men of this county have deemed
it needful to put in nomination fol the
ensuing election ticket with distinct ref
erence to the more thorough enforcement
of the law against the sale of intoNcat-
| ing drinks. None of those who have in
stituted these enquiries have seen fit to do
so over their own names. They have cho-
sen to remain unknown. and so they are
not entitled to an answer on their own
account. Yet it is perhaps fitting that
those who have taken this action should
state at least some portion of the evil
dence which has constrained them to be-
lieve in the necessity of this course.
One fact in the outset is plain to every
man who is not utterly blind to all the
circumstances by which we are surround
ed. 1t is this The law against the traf-
tic in Intoxicating drinks is. in this coun-
| ty, persistently and almost undiSguiSedlv
violated. Indeed. it is the boast of the
enemies of that statute that it is seldom
or never enforced, and that the sale may.
| anywhere in the county. be carried on
with almost perfect impunity. Such being
avowedly the case, it is plain that the Of
ficials to whom the enforcement of the
law is entrusted are either incompetent or
unfathful. Suppose that like state of
things existed among us in regard to any
of the other criminal statutes of the COM
monweath We have Il law against theft.
Now suppose that in every considerable
village, and in many rural localities.
horse-thieving was matter of almost dali
ly occurrence. Suppose that this prevailed
Inn o. -.
stances of this specific crime occurred
every year, and yet not half a dozen
cases of conviction on this score were to
be found in the records of the court for
the year. Suppose, further, that when
the parties were arrested and gave bonds
for their appearance, those bonds were
forfeited, and then chancered, or cut
down, until the guilty parties could well
afford to pay the small balance remain
ing and yet make large pecuniary gains
from their WantOn violation of the law.
suppose, again, that when the proper
prosecuting officers were called upon to
Interfere and an abundant list of wit
nesscs in regard to the case was put into
their hands.t the names of all the respecta-
BILE ones were ignored, and only those
were summoned who either could not
remember, or would not tell who the
guilty parties We're, and that, through
such agencies as these, hOrse-stealpg con
| tinued to be a profitable occupation in
every part of the county. How long
would the administration of the law be
entrusted 20 officers either so wretcbedlv
incompetent or so utterly unfaithful? TO
ask such question is to answer it. We
all know that officers so entirely falling
in duty would be sent into ignomnious
retirement ut the earliest opportunity af-
ter their ineifciency had been thus glar-
ingly displayed.
All this we know has occurred in the
administration of what is known as the
| llquor law III the county. 1t is fact
known and read of all men that it has
been violated in hundreds of instances in
this county during the last two wears.
1t is also perfectly well known that the
convictions have been very few. that the
bonds of those who failed to appear have
been cut down so that the gains of their
guilty traffic could well afford the small
deduction TO which they were thus sub
Jectcd; that when lists of witnesses have
been furnished all the reliable ones have
been left unsummOned, and so conviction
mas Jailed; that Sub-oflicial has been
continued in Office who had himself Ia
Ken out United States license. under
when he OF course intended to act i'm vi
olatlon of the law of the State: that
when man has been arrested for drunk
enness ana placed in confinement gill he
should disclose, lie has been released
without disclosure; and that as the result
OF all this. and much more of a kindred
character, this detestable traffic in the
bodies and souls of men has gone ON
practically unrestrained, when the faith
full administration of law would have
eVentuated in its utter suppression.
All this calls for change, The times
are rife Tor change. | notice that some
body in the REGISTER pleads for the CON
tlnned lncumbency of the present State :
attorney on the ground that on entering
INTO Office he was inexperienced and so
failed to do his duty. Two replies are
evidently pertinent to this. The office
OF states attorney was not created 10
educate men To become competent law
yers, and ought not to be EN-,
trusted to man who is so ignorant
or so inefficient or so corrupt as
utterly to fail in its discharge. and. fur-
thermore, the present incumbent gives no
5 evidence OF capacity or even desire to
pront by experience. The watch-word
= OF all true men should be, Enforce the
p law. Elect men to Office who are com.
, petent and faithful, and who will in hon
J est and hearty fidelity discharge their
trust Then our towns and villages will