The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1892-04-20
A New York View of 1t.

The Chief Justice of the Vermont supreme
court recently announced that he and his
associates had decided to adopt a new sys-
tenn in regard to the punishment of offenders
against the liquor law. The state has for
forty years had prohibitory law, but it has
not been generally enforced, and the main
reason appears to be that the courts have
been very lenient in the matter of penal
ties. AS to the present Chief Justice, it is
said that his court has rarely, If ever, adj
vanced liquor-seller beyond the first Of
fence in the schedule of crime. The fine
has for forty years been imposed and paid,
and the seller has returned to the traffic, to
make up by larger sales. or by greater di-
luting or adulterating of his liquor, the
money the state has taken out of him in
fines" AT the recent term of court in Rut-
land, Chief Justice Ross announced that he
understood how the people of the state feel
about the liquor traffic and how the legis-
lature had for forty years been making the
liquor law more stringent and adding
heavier penalties. The judges realized that
the only reason why people violate the law
is for money. So it had been decided to
adopt, as a general practice, an increase of
the ordinary penalty for selling. If increas-
ing the money penalty does not stop the
traffic, imprisonment for the first offences
can be added. He therefore imposed a fine
of $50 for each first offence, which is double
or:treble the usual sum.
things. According to Chief Justice Ross,
he and his associates on the bench have un
derstood how the people feel about the
liquor traffic, and how the legislature has
been for forty years making the liquor law
more stringent and adding heavier penal
ties; and yet the judges all this time have
been imposing penalties so mild that the
traffic has been fostered rather than dis
couraged. The Montpelier WATCHMAN thus
describes the prevailing rule: Judge Ross
held court in Washington county not many
terms ago. A number of liquor cases came
before him, and following his judgments
there was greater boldness among rum
sellers greater freedom in the sale of liquor,
than had prevailed for many years. For
more than generation just such a mis-
taken leniency has prevailed. In conse-
Quence, old time seasoned, case. hardened
offenders against the prohibitory law have
multiplied and tiourished and grown rich
Immunity from effective legal prosecution
and from wholesome judicial severity has
rendered rumsellers defiant of law and re-
gardless of its officers. Immunity from the
sterner penalties has led scores of men to
forsake honest industry and engage in the
unlawful traffic with expectation of great
riches, fine houses, and all the accompani-
ments of wealth peacefully possessed by
those who have successfully engaged in the
traffic and evaded the law"
The extraordinary feature of all this is
the fact that during these forty years legis
latures have been making the liquor law
theoretically more stringent, while the
judges have been making it practically
more lenient. To cap the climax, in Yer
mont the judges are elected by the legsa
ture for only two-year terms, SO that the
same body which tinkered the prohibtory
law has repeatedly reelected Judge whose
record showed that he would not enforc,
the statute as il previously stood. What i,
the explanation of this anomaly?-NeU Yorl
EceRiHg Post,