The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-11-10
Prohibition and License.

Mr.. Curriers' license bill is, perhaps,
the most stringent measure of the kind
that has ever been offered for the con-
sideration of Vermont legislature. 1t
will be strongly opposed by the friends
of prohibition and those who hold that
evils should not be sanctioned by leg
islative enactment; and it is much too
stringent to satisfy the liquor sellers.
For license measure Mr.. Curriers'
bill has several commendable features,
but the rate of license is fixed so high
and the restrictions and penalties it
prescribes are so rigorous, that if it
should become law it would probably
be evaded and violated to an extent
not less than the prohibitory law has
been.
1t may well be doubted if any license
measure would be proposed in this
state if our prohibitory laws were as
fully enforced as they ought to be; and
it is apparent that the present move
ment is encouraged by many persons
who have witnessed the almost unre-
stricted sale of liquor in some of our
larger places during the past year or
two, and the do-nothing policy of the
professed friends of the law. We be-
lieve that a majority of the people of
Vermont are strongly in favor of re-
tanning the prohibitory statutes. The
chief impeachment to the greater advance
of prohibition appear to be the defec-
tive methods in enforcing the law, and
too general public indifference to its
success. There are thousands of re-
spectacle and influential men in the
state who are always ready to stand up
and be counted on the side of the law
but who are either too timid or too
weak in the moral spinal column to
take an active part in movement for
its enforcement. This condition of
things tends to weaken popular respect
for prohibition, and it has led many
thoughtful and well-meaning persons
to believe that some other means for
the restraint of the liquor traffic would
be more eXpedient and effective. We
think they are mistaken in this view.
Judging from the experience of COM
munities in other states where license
laws have been tried it may be said
that they have signally failed either to
control or diminish the traffic in liquors
or mitigate the admitted evils resulting
therefrom.
Now it is true that license law
promises a source of revenue to the
state, but this assumed benefit would
be small compensation for the injury
which the legal countenance of the
liquor traffic would inflict upon the
the success of license law would de-
pend not less than the present prohibit
tory law upon public sentiment sufli-
GENTLY strong and aggressive to secure
its enforcement; and who can prom
Use that measure of support? Prohibi-
ton is not total failure in Vermont;
it is more or less failure only in GER
tain localities where its professed
friends do not perform their whole
duty in relation to its practical enforce
ment. In any view of the question,
the licensing of the sale of Intoxicating
liquors must be considered by all true
friends of temperance as wrong in
principle and inconsistent with a proper
regard for the common welfare. We
cannot see that it would be good policy
to take any backward step by discard
ing prohibition and substituting law
that, on the whole, would be less favor
able to temperance and more tolerant
to the liquor interest. Mr.. Curriers'
bill may serve good purpose in pro-
voking an instructive discussion of the
comparative merits of prohibition and
license, and arousing the temperance
sentiment of the state into greater ac-
tivity in favor of enforcing the existing
prohibitory legislation.