Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-04-23
The Remedy.

Editor Of the Bdnner:-In my two pre-
vious articles l referred to the evils of
the liquor traffic, and the question is,
what shall be done?
The physician has made careful ex-
animation of the case in hand and with
unwavering fidelity to the interests in
volved in a successful treatment makes
out his prescription, and gives directions
for the use of the remedies.
Thus faithfully should the citizens
deal with evil in whatever form it may
appear as the cause of suffering and in
jury to our fellowmen, inasmuch as we
sustain an interdependent relation: 'Tf
one member suffer, all members suffer
with it,
Has man committed murder, how
quickly the whole community is aroused
to capture and punish the criminal. The
law of self-preservation seeks to place
the offender out of the reach of the
temptation or the possibility of repeat
ing the crime.
No one can for moment question that
of all the evils in this world, the liquOr
traffic is the sin of such gigantic proper
tions that it not merely leads to crime,
but from its nature is the deepest crime
on earth against God and man.
Wherever by consent of the commu.
nifty it lifts its hydra head, it scatters the
seeds of discord, sorrow, disgrace, ruin
and distraction, until human language is
wholly inadequate to justly describe its
blight.
And the question is often asked, what
shall we do? What can be done to stay
this work of destruction? AS men hon
esUly differ on other things, thus there is
difference of opinion as to the best and
most effective way of dealing with this
curse.
There are those who believe in the IL
cense system, i. e.. the dealer, for GER
tain sum of money paid into the town or
city treasury, receives a certificate of
protection in carrying forward his work
of rum.
To be sure this will bring into the
treasury quite a revenue, but how about
the outgo for the support of Criminals
and criminal courts, when at least so
per cent. of the cases in our criminal
courts are traceable to the liquor traffic?
w. NJ. f. Round, secretary of the New
York Prison Association, estimates the
annual expense to the Nation of crimi-
nails at S4OO,O00,0O0. 1t would be safe to
credit the saloon with three-fourths of
this offense.
With this before us, the outlook for a
license system is not very cheerful, and it
seems to me that the tender hearted and
sympathetic nature of those who advo-
thirsty tiger, rather than to those ex-
posed to his power.
Then, as it is sin and crime, shall the
Government put hedge about the traf-
fic, and then indorse criminal making by
putting responsibility upon crime, stain
ing itself with infamy by partnership in
this business of wholesale ruin? Every
dollar that enters the treasury from this
traffic is the price of blood.
A short time ago an editorial appeared
in the Concord IN. H. Monitor. The
substance was: If you license a person
to sell liquor, then on the same ground
license person to drink it; let the law
protect the drinking man as well as the
man who sells him drink and fires his
brain into flend.
1t seems to me that the only honest
and honorable course for the Govern
ment to pursue, is to deal with the traf-
fic and make it amendable to laws paral
lei with crime of like nature. In the
case of arson, adultery or murder, the law
says, thou shalt not" Nor is it a mat
ter of time, neither method employed, to
burn his house or take his life. The
question relates to the fact.
And because there are those so lost to