Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1895-12-20
An Interesting Proposition.
The Hotels and the PrOhibltory Law


The Hotels and the PrOhibitory Law.
The following circular letter has recent
ly been sent out to the hotel-keepers of the
state:
Dear Sir:-Beinga hotel man mail you
this letter in confidence, hoping that you
will give us your aid for mutual protection
and benefit. In later days nearly all bust
ness and labor have some organization for
mutual protection. Hotel keepers have
none, and therefore are left as open prey
for any and all sharks.
have especial reference to the people
who rob us through Vermonts prohibition
laws. My claim is that it is necessary for
hotel men to serve liquors in a moderate
way to their guests. 1t is demanded of
them, and it is not possible to do success
full and satisfactory hotel business without
it.
do not advocate that hotel keepers shall
turn their houses into rumholes or dives,
but that they shall be allowed to supply the
wants of guests of their houses without a
term in the workhouse staring them in the
| face.
In union there is strength Then let us
organize and support each other. Do not be
| faint-hearted; it can be done. Let it be
understood that if the law strikes one it
strikes all, and is liable to end in the clos
ing of every hotel in the state. Then these
fanatics will think twice before they make
a move
If man is touched for selling, let there
| be an investigating committee of hotel men
sent to look the case up. If it is found he
has only sold to guests of his house in what
we may term legitimate way, then inform
the authorities bringing the suit that the
organization will stand by him.
If, however, it is found that he has run
business otherwise than as the organiza-
| ton shall approve, then let him take his
own chances with the law.
This idea is of course, crude and rudi-
mentary, but, gentlemen, it can be worked
out and made a success. Will you, then,
help to bring it about.
Let us call convention of hotel keepers
of Vermont, say at Montpelier, at an early
date, and there discuss this question of mu-
tual protection. 1t will give to hotel keep
ing the strength and dignity that it does
not possess today. The expense will be
but trihing, and much good may come of
| it.
Will you pledge yourself to attend such
meeting and give it your support? An
early answer will be pleasing.
There are 210 hotels in Vermont, repre-
sentng over 81 100000 capital.
II. L. DOYLE AND TWENTY ONE OTHERS.
Address all letters to II. L. Doyle, pro-
! prietor Avenue House, st. Johnsbury, Vt.
Without personal knowledge on the sub
ject it is entirely safe to say that the man
who wrote or mapped out this letter is not
hotel-keeper who simply wishes, in the
usual and orderly conduct of his business,
to supply bona fide guests of his house
with what they suppose themselves to need
in the way of liquors, and to let his traffic
in intoxicants positively stop there. If
this were his wish, and the whole of it, he
would not need state combination to pro-
tect him from harm. The proposition
proceeds upon the idea that hotel-keepers
are a privileged class and are entitled to a
monopoly in breaking the law, while the
fact is that there is no more reason why a
hotel should run a rum-shop as an adjunct
of its business than why the butcher, the
baker and the candlestick-mak should
claim the privilege. 1t used to be thought
that grocery stores must sell rum, but they
have mostly got over the idea. The surest
way to make the people of Vermont posi-
lively demand that all hotel-keepers be
held to a strict account under the prohibit
tory law would be to let it be known that
the hotels have formed a combination TO
resist the law. And when any hotel, or
all the hotels, were closed because "fanat-
ics'' made them feel the force of the law,
the answer of the public would be, "Open
them when you get good and ready"