Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1894-09-04
A Vicious LAW.

| which vainly gJies % prevent the con-
sumption of drink by making the selling
| of it crime.
We all know what have been the re-
suits of such efforts heretofore-how
ephemeTal if not useless-how drunken
ness and its attendant evils have not
even been checked. Indeed, if anything,
these evils have only been aggravated by
these efforts, honestly and zealously
though they were made; and that very
soon these would-be reformers, dis
heartened and disgruntled, have rested on
their oars and seen free rum doled out
year after year to any one who would
buy, and all under law prohibiting abso-
lutely such sale.
There is a strong and growing opinion
all over the State that the solution of
this momentous question lies rather in a
change of law than in any repetition of
the many abortive attempts to enforce
the present one, that the energy ex.
pended in these spasms of prohibitive
enforcement would more effectually
further the cause of temperance by edu-
eating and persuading the autocratic mi
nority who inhabiJ the hamlets of the
State, educating,as to the conditions and
sentiments existing in the larger places
and persuading it to let us have what
we are so overwhelmingly in favor of,
viz: A local option high license law, they
to retain their prohibitive oneif they see
fit.
After over forty years of sad expert
ence people are convinced that no legis-
lative enactment can make the general
public consider the drinking or selling
of intoxicants in the light of crime, and
that any such indirectly sumptuary law
will fail of that support necessary to
make it effective.
Rather, it is thought that this traffic,
dangerous as 1t IS, should be treated re-
strictively, considering it in the same
light as the traffic in any other often
useful, but if misued, vice-creating sub
stance. Chloral, morphia, cocaine and
other narcotics are powerful agents for
good in the hands of the skilful physi-
clan, but their abuse is degrading, if not
deadly. How then can any one regard
as a crime the sale of that whose bane-
full effects are only apparent in its abuse.
No, the deprivation to all on account of
the excuses of the weak can never be
made the basis of successful law.
In short, whether right or wrong,
many able men of the highest character,
whose honesty of purpose cannot for a
moment be impunged, and who are as
earnest in this great cause of temperance
as any living, consider that it would be
far more productive of good TO regulate
this traffic by restricting it to RESPONSE
BILE persons whose interest it would be to
see such law enforced.
The prohibitorv law has worked COM
paratively well in some Of the smaller
towns; in the larger there can be no
question that it must be condemned by
every fair minded man as an unmitigated
and universal failure, though strength
ened from time to time by every
feature that its most Jealous advocate
could suggest. Yes, not only has it
been failure, but worse-a breeder of
corruption that unless summarily check
ed bids fair to undermine law and order.
A law that cannot be enforced, that
public sentiment will not uphold, is
worse than no law at all; for it is preg-
nant with greater evils than those it was
intended to lessen.
But the very word ''license' sticks in
the crops of these, as we think, mis-
guided Prohibitionists; it seems synony-
nous to them with ribaldry and de-
bauchery; from their actions it would
almost appear that they would far rather
see every man in the State roaring drunk
under their prohibitory enactment than
the most perfect condition of temper
ance unoer any other form of legislation.
If they could be induced to read the
text and history of the practical work
ings of one of these high-license laws,
say that of Nebraska, and to ponder
over it in the light of their sad expert
ences, they would perhaps think better
of it and its advocates. We would, to
please them, gladly change the name to
the Restrictive Law, which more aptly
defines it.
1t is high time that the honest advo-
Gates of temperance reform should cease
making fetch of the name 'prohibi-
tom and realize that the law masked
under that name is snare and a delu-
sion and could with greater accuracy be
denominated the "Corruptive Law"
Why not then a law that has worked
more satisfactorily than any other in
States where the various systems have
been tried and tested-A Local Option
High-License providing for prohibit
ton with the severest penalties where
the public will so decide, and for strin-
gent regulation of the sale in others
where license is asked for by its citizens
to quote from recent committees re-
port on this subject.
There seems to be good ground for the
belief that a majority of the citizens of
the State are to-day in favor of trying
such law; and there can be no manner
of doubt that Bennington, in common
with most, if not all, of the other towns
of equal Importance, would eagerly seek
to secure such boom from our Legisla-
ture.
If the House of Representatives of the
State of Vermont represented its people
instead of so many square miles of terri
tory, we probably would not have to wait
longer than January LIST, 1895, to see the
desired change made in our statutes; but
as long as the votes of six in the sparse
ly settled portions of the State, who are
in great part ignorant of the conditions
that beset us, weigh as much as those of
the six hundred so beset, we can only
grin and bear it, hoping that time, in
creased facility of communication with
the outside world, and the consequent
spread of knowledge will emancipate us.
LUMAN S. NORTON.