St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1890-03-27
Obe Californian.
PROHIBITION IN VERMONT.

PROIIBITION IN VERMONT.
\ campaign has been opened in
Vermont whose object is to set aside
the present prohibitory for a license
law. The Rutland Herald has the
honor of leading this movement.
While some forty other papers in the
state themselves as stand
ing firmly by the law, yet the Herald
has Il respectable following of citizens
i'll all of our commercial centcrs.
They are encouraged by the example
of other states that have recently re-
coded from ground previously as
sumed. The line of argument taken
to secure their object derives no adj
vantage by it's novelty.
The present law is not assailed be-
cause unsound in principle, or want
ing in constitutional validity. 1t is
opposed on the double ground that,
being prohibitory in purpose, it fails
of that purpose, and practically is a
low-license.law. liza high-license law
be substituted therefor, no more
liquor would be sold, and the state
would get the advantage of a large
license Since the saloon will
do no more damage under a high
license than under the present law,
why not make the substitution and
save to the state the revenue which
it now foregoes?
Waving the moral aspect of such
reasoning, it is apparent that the
matter is reduced to a simple question
offact, Is the prohibitory law of Yer
mont such a failure as is here as
sumed? If such a failure, why in
augurate IN elaborate scheme to set
it aside? Why the rumor that q
fabulous sum of money is to come in
to the state to influence our next
Legislature? Do men of common
sense go into such a scheme, and ex-
pend money to demolish a failure?
ThcquestiOn is not as to the success
or failure of the law in ten of the
larger towns i'll the state; how is it
III the remaining 232 smaller and
rural towns? Except as they are i'll
the Immediate environment of some
of these law-defying centers, how is
it? AStO the beneficent effects of the
law as 1t now stands after the test
OfSOmefOrty years the writer wishes
to make the following record of fact.
He is the pastor of a representative
rural parish whose aggregate at
tendance at church is some three
hundred. On the last Sabbath in
February, he gave notice that on the
ensuing Sabbath he would call for
raised hands in response to the fol-
lowing questions: az Those who
know of Il man within the radius Of
five miles who a be called a drunk
ard, or whose home is under the
curse of drink-nOt q man who is
known to drink occasionally, or
often, and who may at times become
intoxicated, but a man, foreign or
n~ativebOrn, who has on him such an
inveterate habit as to impoverish
and degrade his home. (2) Those
who know of such q man within the
radius of ten miles, please Indicate it.
He urged his congregation-many of
whom were men who had an extend
ed acquaintance throughout the ter
ritory embraced-to be studious in
their survey. On the first Sabbath
III March, at q full attendance, he
called for a response to these ques-
tiOns. Not a hand came up. After
wards, the writer III conversation
with individuals demonstrated
against their non-expressiOn, when
hegot uniformly this reply: "A good
many men drink occasionally. Now
and then one drinks to excess. And
once i'll a while one gets drunk, and
some may be on the home stretch
toward drunkenness; but as for
oId-fashioned topers we have abso-
lutelY nOne-We know of no family
under the curse of drink"
The writer, not satisfied, went to
q firm which does a mercantile bust
ness of $40, 600 per year, and asked,
Have o Il customer whose credit
on your books is impaired by his in
temperate habits ," The emphatic
response was, Not one" He went
to a flour feed mill which does a bust
ness of 100000 per year with the
same question, and got the same
response He went to a physician of
sixteen years practice i'll this region,
and asked if he ever did business in a
family pinchcd by hard drink. And
he answered, Il have no such family
within the range of my practice"
Such now is the fact, and, with the
guards and limitations given it, it
can be reaffirmed throughout the
rural villages and towns of the estate.
IfnOt incorporated into the constitu-
ton of the state, it has a firmer in
trenchment in the moral stamina of
her people. The strength of our hills
is in our prohibitory temperance
law; and for any party within the
state, or outside of it, to attempt its
renovation our statute book would
be like attempting to dump Mount
Mansfield into Lake Ghamplain.-
Rev. DR.. c. b. Hubert of East Hard
wick in the Congregationalist.