St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-05-02
HON. A. b. VALENTINE ON ENFORC-
ING La w.

Mr.. Valentine, one of the foremost
citizens of that section of Vermont,
gives his fellow townsmen of Ben
nington the following sound sense
and good advice
am surprised to note the DISPOSE
ton in our public prints to go on
record as sympathizing with the
violators of our laws, and practically
to say, that, because a law is dis
tasteful especially to its violators).
therefore it should not be enforced.
Itmay be, and is, a debatable ques-
ton whether prohibition or high Ii
cense is most in the interest of tenn
perance, but it should not be a de-
batable question whether the law as
it is should be enforced. If our pro-
hibitory law is wrong, enforce it and
make it so odious as to cause its re-
peal, but while it is a law, it should
be obeyed. [ am among those who
are perfectly willing to go on record
as believing that we would be better
without hotels, than with those
whose principal business is to sell
rum to our tOwnsmen.
The cry that liquors must be kept
for guests is a fraud, and our hotel
keepers know it. 1t is the patronage
of the bar by our citizens that they
want, rather than to be able to salts
fy the modest demands of the travel
ling public. Good food, good rooms,
and good bed, are enough for the
average traveller, and, where these
arefound, have yet to learn of COM
plants because there is not a public
bar. On the contrary, complaints
have been constantly made against
our hotels, by travellers, on account
of a too free flow of whiskey.
Business men travel, but business
men very rarely patronize the saloon,
by whatever name known.
In our village, but one, or at most,
two good hotels can be supported by
legitimate hotel business, but, in
stead of that, the cry is for four or
more places where rum can be had,
under the name of patronage of the
hotels. The state of affairs which
has existed in our town, in this par
ticular, is simply a disgrace to us,
and disreputable to our hotel keep
joice and be glad that there seems to
be beginning of the end of it.
For a quarter of century, or more,
Lewis Cady, of the olden time, kept
the Stark house, on strictly temper
ance principles, and prospered as none
of his successors have prospered under
the bar necessity rule. A similar
house can be kept today, and pros
per- The moral influence of the late
Landlord Lewis Cady, the IRE
prOachable character of his hotel
and its business success from legiti-
mate hotel patronage, is in strong
contrast with the moral influence
which has since gone forth from the
hotels whose doors are now barred
against the public, because, forsooth,
they cannot sell rum and violate
statute law with impunity.
repeat, this is not a question of
the best law, but of the enforcement
of the law, considered by our legisla-
tors as the best.
If our hotel proprietors do not fam
CIV the business or the law, let them
retire to more congenial pursuits, or
go where the laws are more to their
liking. No one asks them to pursue
business at a loss, and no one ought
to ask them to stay in town and set
the example of law breaking But,
as they have chosen to stay here, and
have deliberately taken the risk of
violating the laws of Vermont, even
after the experience of fine and threat
ened imprisonment, let them take the
consequences like men, and not go
about seeking sympathy and, as they
express it, endeavoring to manufac-
ture public opinion. They cannot
even plead in extenuation of the of
fence that they have not been mott
fed, and warned, and expostulated
with
No, citizens of Bennington, who
take pride in its good name, let us
not countenance compromise for the
sake of liquor selling hotels, let us not
assent to law breaking as reward
for opening their doors, but rather
let us go without a hotel for a sea-
son, as we may be sure that, when it
is settled that no open bar is to be
allowed, that our laws must be re-
spected, that temptation shall not