The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-03-27
The Trend of Constitutional
Prohibition.

COnSllJuIlOnal amendment pTOnlblllug
the sale and manufacture of alcoholic
liquors, the amendment not only failed
to receive the requisite two-thirds vote,
but was defeated by majority of more
than five thousand. Besides New
Hampshire, Michigan, Texas, Ten
nessee, Oregon and West Virginia have
within the past two years rejected
constitutional prohibition by majorities
ranging from six thousand to over
ninety-two thousand. The vote in
New Hampshire was light one, indi-
eating, the Christian Union observes,
"either an unexpected degree of in
difference or, what is more likely,
considerable number of voters who do
not believe in prohibition, but who did
not wish to seem to identify them
selves with the liquor traffic by voting
against prohibition" There was also
ga moral incongruity" in permitting
the manufacture and sale of cider and
prohibiting ale and beer. Thirty-four
years of statutory prohibition have
proved Intellectual in the cities and
larger towns. Constitutional prohibition
would subject all communities to the
employment of one unvarying remedy
for the evils of intemperance, remedy
that third of a century of experience
has shown to be imperative in the
centers of population and business.
A conviction that prohibition means
practically the unrestricted sale and
use of liquor in such communities seems
to account for the fact that there the
vote was uniformly and largely against
the proposed amendment. 1t is true
that in the cities and larger towns the
classes who are the natural opponents
of all restrictions upon the sale and
use of liquors most do congregate; but,
given measure on which all the friends
of Temperance are in accord as sub
stantial as are its enemies, there are
very few cities or towns in this coun-
try, we believe, in which the former
would not largely outvote the latter
The country does not seem to be CRAWL
tating toward that very desirable de-
gree of unanimity. Between ultra pro-
hibition and rigid restriction an i'm
passable-and Interchangeable seems to
be fixed
In Massachusetts, now the point of
greatest interest in this spring cam
paign for constitutional prohibition,
representative friends of temperance,
if the newspaper reports are trust
worthy, are dividing sharply on the
question of the wisdom of this sys-
tenn of control. The Congregations
dlst, the leading paper of the denom-
ination in New England, expresses a
doubt as to the wisdom of abandoning
the attempt to bring the liquor traffic
within reasonable limits by combined
high license and local option law and
substituting therefor constitutional pro-
hibitiOn. An effort to coerce the paper
and sympathizing clergymen into sup
recent ministers meeting in Boston,
by the adoption of intolerant resolu.
tons accusing the recalcitrants of being
in alliance with the enemies of church
and state, and classifying the believers
in the high license and local option sys-
tenn with the friends of the saloon. Sc
bitterness is added to the weakness that
is inseparable from division.
The editor of the Boston TranScrip
recently sent circulars to one Thousand
representative men of Massachusetts, oil
all professions and in all departments
of business, emitting those whose opin.
ions were already we'll known, request.
ing them to give their views upon the
J subject of the prohibition amendment
: to the constitution. A considerable
number of the people addressed whC
gave their opinion accompanied it will
J a request that their names should no
, be made public-a precaution, perhaps
: against hostile prohibition influence i.
, some contingency when thu writer
! might be candidates for office. OF thos,
= who returned the circulars with an ex
= preston of opinion, sixty-three were at
torneys. Fifty-four, headed by so dis
| tinguished lawyer as +. lockwood
7 Hoar, declared against the amendment
= OF siXty-seven ministers thirty-fv,
r were for and thirty-two against tn
5 amendments preponderance, but no
3 so great as one might expect in elias
/ of men whose training and habits o
= thought impel them to consider ques
e tons in their ethical rather than il
< their practical bearings. Among tn
= business men forty-three, with ex-Gov
t ernor Rice at their head, followed b.
r many of Boston's esteemed and sub
e stantial merchants, expressed view