St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-03-14
THE PROGRESS OF PROHIBITION

Massachusetts is getting walked up
as never before on the question of
prohibition The immediate cause
| of this awakening is the proposed
prohibitory amendment to the con-
stitution on which the people are
soon to vote The more remote
cause is the strides intemperance has
been taking of late years and the
menace the liquor interest is to the
very life of our nation, not to say
the peace and prosperity of its citi-
zenS.
Under such circumstances it is very
natural for the people of the Bay
state to look to states where prOhi-
bition has been tried in their endeav
or to get at just estimate of the
value of such a radical movement.
On this subject the testimony is con-
hicting; and yet when the character
of the testimony is taken into con-
sideration there is no question as to
the verdict For the present the
opinion of Neal Dow on the success
of the prohibitory law in Maine, and
the Boston drummer's testimony on
the failure of the law in Vermont
will be omitted, and attention will
be turned elsewhere.
Eastern people who have travelled
much in the West during the last few
years, and who have kept their eyes
and ears open, have been impressed
with the much more active and deep
er temperance sentiment there than
in the East. Especially is this evil
dent in Iowa and Kansas These
states have been giving the prohibi-
tory law a trial and, taking the
character and position of the wit
nesses into account, it must be adj
mitted with little short of marvellous
good results. Governor Larrabee of
Iowa has taken pains to obtain full
and explicit replies from the forty-one
district and superior court judges of
that state as to the working of the
prohibitory law in their several judi
would advise its amendment or re-
peal. Their replies have been made
public and even the most sanguine
temperance men are astOn1shed at
their strong and united approval of
the law. We hope to give abstracts
from all these replies at an early day,
because coming from the source they
do, we believe them the strongest ar
gument for a prohibitory law ever
published. We give two sample tes-
timonies of these Judges:
Judge Traverse of the second dis
trict court says: at is the most
Christianizing and civilizing event
that has happened within the age"
Judge Harvey of the third district
court writes: Il am not aware that
there is a saloon in the district. 1t
has reduced crime at least One-half,
and the criminal expenses in like ra-
ito. would not, and do not, favor
the repeal of the law"
We will now add just a sentence
from Governor Larrabee's testimony
and leave the subject for another
time: During the last year there has
been a decided falling off in peniten-
tiary convicts, and very large num-
Der of county jails have been empty.
There has been a marked improve
ment in the condition of our poorer
people. What was formerly squan
dered in the saloon, now goes to the
support of wife and Children
Please remember that the above is
not stump OratOry nor newspaper
gush, but a quotation from the bien-
NAL message of the governor of one
of the grandeSt states in the union
Fitted for Both Offices.