Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-07-23


such, for the existence Of a political pro
hbition party, that it may, by making
things very much worse for Il time, at last
bring about u condition Of affairs which
shall arouse the people from their torpor
on the temperance question, and secure
In the end more effective restriction Of the
liquor traffic. Having done IN his day
perhaps more than any one man in Chit
tenden county has done to sustain law.
repress intemperance and arouse and sus
tam a wholesome public sentiment on the
temperance question, our correspondent
now, If his words means what they seem
to mean, in his older and what ought
to be wiser days, almost despairs of
any further promotion of the cause
by direct and straightforward effort
adopts the signature of Free Rum"
and is almost willing to try period
of free rum, of indefinite duration, in the
hope that it may sometime be followed by
more rigid prohibition. He sees, as every
intelligent man must, that the first result
oil the organization of a prohibition
party, in any Republican State, must
be aid and comfort to the allied
powers of Democracy and whiskey but
he finds temperance men who are willing
to welcome the full reign of these powers.
in the expectation that their reign will
become uncomfortable and in time arouse A
rebellion against whiskey, if not against
Democracy. In this way they are willing
TO work evil, or permit evil to be worked
that good may perhaps come. Expanded
and put in other words this suggestion
amounts to this: Prohibition has pre-
vailed in Vermont for a generation, yet
the curse of intemperance is not wiped
out. True, less liquor is consumed in our
state than in any other population of
equal numbers on the globe True, there
are many towns in which no rum hole or
saloon is tolerated. True the traffic is
everywhere under Il ban, and under heavy
risks; the liquor that is sold is sold in
closets and underground dives and Sc
cret places. No sign or placard of attrac-
tive potiOns, no array Of bottles and demi.
johns with seductive labels, no open bar
attracts the drunkard, or the man who has
begun to form the habit of drink. The
man who wants liquor as a beverage
must 90 to look for it and sneak out Of
sight, and invite another man to break a
law, i'll order to obtain it, 1t is true that
there was gathering of fifteen thousand
people in the largest city in the State on
the last Fourth of July, and the officers of
the law attended well to their duty, and
but three men were arrested for intoXica-
ton. True that such q thing could not
have begun to be possible in Pittsburgh
or Whitehall or any town in any license
State. True that the legislation of the
State gives to the temperance men and
women all that they ask in the way of
legislation and makes the law constantly
more stringent and easier to enforce
| True that prosecutions under the
law take place by hundreds through
out the State. True that every liquor
dealer and lOon-keeper feels the pressure
of the law and cordially hates it, and
would pay heavily to get it repealed
True all this, and more-still liquor is sold
prosecutions aud fines. Men get bot
ties filed at the drug stores. The
law is often evaded and often vic
| lated. Young men are ruined by
dissi patton and drink husbands become
/ drunkards and wives and children suf-
fer and starve. Therefore, because all
the good is not done that we would like
to see done, and all the wickedness, suf-
fering and wrong from alcoholism that
we would like to have prevented is not pre-
vented, let us 90 over for a time to the
enemy. Let us attack the organization
that has given us all this restriction of
the traffic; let us strike hands with its
old opponent the Democratic party, which
! uait har nrptaDpa or prart ice of Sn n
port of temperance or resistance to rum.
| Welcome free rum, rather than law
which comes short of enacting the millen-
mum Welcome riot, pauperism, crime,
the more the better, for the soon
or will the reaction set in, and the people
rally in stronger earnest against the de-
mon of strong drink
If this be good logic, it need not be con
fined to the temperance question The
laws against swindling, theft, adultery,
murder, are constantly violated The
evils against which these statutes are
aimed are not eradicated, therefore away
with the statutes Having tried in vain
by legal enactments to abolish tine evils,
let us now give free rein to violence, lust
and crime in the hope that better social
order may follow the period of chaos and
despair. II this is good logic for com
munity or a party, it is good for an indi-
vidual. If father has a son inclined to
dissipation let him not waste further
time in entreaty or command, but rather
say to him 90 ahead Here are money,
wine, women-sow your wild oats-have
out your fling in time you will learn by
sad experience that lawlessnes is folly ; in
time with stated passions and ruined
frame, you will be compelled to abstain.
There is no need to pursue the line of
argument further The man, if not utter
ly wrecked, mdB in time he led 10y the
very violence Of his passion to reform,
The community, If not ruined in the pro
cess, may through social chaos. reach
social order. The country, if not destroy
ed by free rum, may in time through free
rum, reach more effective prohibition,
But at whose door meantime will lie the
aggravated misery, crime, decentralization,
md loo, invnlVa1 N thnS fubtipp