Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1895-10-31
The Rutland Hcrald's Tables.

How much confidence is to be put in the
Rutland Heralds tables purporting 10 give
the number OF United States liquor IL
censcs is d matter of doubt. In former
years the books from which alone they
could he derived were not open to public
inspection. They seem to he now access-
HE to a few persons who will use them in
aid of the longtime intimate alliance be-
tween democracy and whiskey. Whether
ana to what extent the figures have been
'doctored" for purpose, is uncertain.
Till verified, in some responsible way, and
till they are accompanied by facts showing
how many of the persons who have pur-
chased licenses have gone out of the liquor
business, and how many actual rumholes
are represented in the lists of licenses,
such lists must be misleading and imper-
feet sources Of information.
As basis for the comparisons which
the Herald deduces with such show of
elaboration, they may be still more mis-
leading The number of saloons and bars
in one town where the law is allowed to be
IA dead letter, may, and doubtless does in
some cases, represent greater amount of
liquor-selling ard drunkenness than twice
where the authorities keep mp steady
pressure on the tralflc, and compel it to
Turk in hiding places and behind locked
doors. one effect OF enforcement of the
law, in any city, may be to scatter the
traffic, and while lessening the amount Of
it, to multiply places where small stocks Of
liquor arc kept. The Heralds tables and
comparisons certainly are misleading. for
the conclusions to which they point fly in
the face of notorious facts, 1t is tolerably
well understood in which of the larger
towns of the State the law is violated with
greatest impunity; in which open bars can
be found; in which the most drunkenness
prevails; in which the greatest proportion
of young men acquire the habit Of drink,
and the peace of families and OF the COM
munity is oftenest disturbed by rum; and
in which Of the towns the best public
sentiment is on the side Of the laws and not
on the side OF the saloons, in which cases
Of intoxication are followed up, and ar
rests and seizures oltenest follow distur-
Dances of the peace and quiet of a neigh
borhood, and IN which there Is some effec
tive 0hough often impcrfccD repression of
the traffic. And the Hcrald's tables can
not upset the general understanding of the
facts.
The prohibitory law enables every com
munity TO do what it chooses with the
liquor traffic In many of our rural towns
md smaller villages it practically
abolishes the saloon; and it an
swers its main purpose so well in
80 many of these that If every con-
to the Legislature a representative
pledged to fight the law, they could not
make beginning towards repeating it.
In other towns it is made 10 serve the pur-
pose Of keeping the traffic in check, and
REFRESHING in n measure the vice and nls-
cry resulting from drink though it cannot
or at least does not abolish the secret bar
and hidden saloon, In two or three of the
larger places-of which Burlington is not
one-the law is, VIC fear virtually dead
letter. But wherever any prctcrce Of
enforcement is made, and throughout the
State as a WHOLE the law removes from
the drunkard the temptation of the open
bar and OF the saloon window filed with
allurements to his appetite for strong
drink. 1t makes tho liquor traffic dis
reputable; and the universal opposition to
ii on the part of all liquor dealers, small
ana great. within our State and outside its
borders, proves that it lessons their bust
ness and profits. 1t does not work mira
cles. 1t does not eradicate, though we be-
licYe it lessons, the use Of intoxicating
beverages. The most serious charge
brought against it, is that ii tends to lessen
moral effort on the side of temperance by
substituting for such effort reliance on the
statute, which, however. will never en-
force itself, and could not take the place
OF moral effort if it did. IT is but a means
10 an end. II Is not perfect statute, or a
specific for the cure of intemperance and
human frailty and deprayity, But It is