Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1886-07-16
THE PRo4lelrloNIsr MOVEMENT.

]
Our friends. the Prohibtionists, are
becoming quite active and evidently in
tend to make their influence felt in poll
ties this fall. They have called a county
convention to meet here on the 22d inst.
and the State convention of the party
will be held at Burlington on the Dist.
| In view of these movements it is worth
while to consider the significance of the
new party. both aS regards the motives
of the movers in it and the probable re-
suits of their activity. The New York
| independent undertook to solve the first
part of the problem in its last issue and
arrived at these conclusions:
We have sometimes feared that not a
few of the leaders of the third party are
actuated largely by political ambition;
that their end and aim are not the tri-
umph of temperance simply. but person.
al and political preferment. Their course
has been in entire harmony with this as
sumption. In district after district where
one or the other of the old parties has
nominated unqur>tiuned temperance can
didate> the third party has thrust its own
man in the field and frequently elected
thereby the saloon candidate. They
have derided and discouraged attempts
to put either of the old parties right on
the temperance question. They seem to
/ glory in the defeat of Democratic, Repub-
| lican or non-parti>an temperance meas
ureS. Ihc Toicc. if we understand its
course toward the effort to pass the pro-
hibitory amendment resolution through
the New York legislature. and the local
Lon, -
lature. has not only not assisted in either
case. ii has discouraged the friends of
both. If we have mistaken its attitude.
We will be glad to make Il correction. 1t
certainly be titles and diSCOuragcs the
movement in New Jersey to commit the
Republicans against the saloon. 1t is
true this movement may not be success
ful. But its intent is good. Its spirit j.
hostile to the saloon. 1t is Il temperance
movement: and what j. 1t but party
prejudice that arrays the influence of JHc
Voice against it: What i it but blind
devotion to party that prevents our
neighbor from helping such movements
anywhere and everywhere;
1t seems to IL that these statements
are rather too strongly put. While it is
the fact. sometimes at least. that the Pro-
been found too heavy burdens for the
old parties 70 carry. and. not attaining
the prominence they thought their merits
deserved, sought to achieve notoriety
through connection with another organ
izatiOn. it i not the less true that the
rank and file of the Prohibtionists are
sincere. They believe that only through
prohibition can the rum traffic be put
is to be achieved most easily and quickly
through the means of a party gotten up
solely for that purpose.
We are perfectly willing to admit that,
practically, prohibition has proved the
most efficient instrumentality yet devised
for controlling the saloons. In our own
State it has killed out the traffic in the
small towns; and it is only in villages
of considerable size, where the profit of
the sale is large, that the law is broken,
and even there the trade in intoXicants is
limited. 1t can be still further curtailed
by the choice of prosecuting officers who
|
very much whether it is within the range
of possibilities to destroy the business
altogether in the larger towns. The sale
of liquor under our law is placed in the
same category with theft, arson and
murder. Now no one supposes for a
moment that these crimes can be wholly
suppressed, no matter how energetic
prosecuting officers may be, if there is
sufficient motive for their commission.
Laws cannot prevent crime; they can
only restrict it. And it is not claimed
that law is lacking in Vermont. The
most radical prohibitionist will cOncede
that there is law enough The fault
found is, that the law is not enforced.
This complaint may he well founded in
some instances where dishonest and i'll
competent officers are chosen; but taking
the State as whole we do not believe
that the proposition can be maintained.
Local causes favor laXity; and yet these
causes could not be abolished by the
establishment of Prohibition party
For instance, in town over the noun
tain the rum men of both the existing
t parties combine,to elect prosecuting of
ticers who will do nothing. There the
} better element, which is now powerless
, would, if organized into Prohibitionists