The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1896-05-08
The Great Libel Suit.

: the citizen who wants to undcrstan
the real working of the article Gale
Vermont prohibition. 1t is needles
to say that il leaves the governor in
sorry plight. He had to admit unde
the fire of Mr. Prouty's cross exam
ination that he had forgotten" al
about the acts he had signed as gov
ernor, making ii a punishable crime
to allow ON his premises what he di'
allow as a hotel man in the serving
of wine at various banquets. Thu
moral turpitude of this permission
which he claims to have only grant
ed under protest will be measured
differently according to mems differen
ideas about the subject itself. Blu
there cannot be any difference of opju
ion as to the humiliation of the facts
disclosed, the hypocrisy, the democrat
ization, rottlng to the very moral fibre
of the state. involved in the proof that
the ono great hotel of the state claim.
ing to be temperance house, and
owned by the man who is not only
the executive of the laws of the Estate
is posing as the representative of
the prohibition principle and repeated
ly signing bills to make this law more
stringent, is and for years has been
harboring the violation of the law in
the worst and most sneaking way that
it can be violated.
a fair statement of the evidence is
that it shows con stant and regular
furnishing of liquor to guests of
the house year in and year out for IA
number of years past. Hundreds of
cases were found out of thousands it
is reasonable to presume to have oc-
Cured. In fact, it does not appear to
have been more difficult to get liquor
at the Van Ness than at any other we'll
conducted hotel that has no open bar,
and being furnished by the bottle as
well as by the drink, it may fairly be
doubted if the net result in the way of
is not fully as bad as it
would have been from even a greater
traffic at a regular bar.
The facts about the traffic are too
overwhelmingly proud to ad NIT of any
dispute. The only question is of the
governors legal responsibility. 1t is
true that he has not made dollar di
recty from rum sales and it is fair to
believe that he had conscientious |
scrupes, as he claimed, against getting |
dollars in that way But the business |
has been done in a way to benefit him
indirectly to great extent by hold
ng patronage for the house that would |
nave gone elsewhere if liquor had been
'esolutely and uncomprisingly exclud-
I'd as should have been done If the law
vas to be obeyed in its full spirit and
n the way that the governor has pro.
essed to advocate AS Republican
eader Numerous cases were testif ed
o where liquor was paid for at the
iice with the rest of the hotel bill,
nd though it was without profit to
he house, we do not see, il this testi-
1ony is believed and as thellaw has I
itherto been interpreted, as in the re
ent case in Brattleboro where an en-
ressman was fined for like transac-
ion, how the governor can escape Ii.
bility for furnishing
However, this is the question that y
J with the court and does not touch
lie gravest consideration of all. the =
oral one, that is involved in the
bell boy traffic that was established =
II the sake of lodging direct Z and
responsibility under '
lie law. 1t is true that Gov Wood =
lry testified, though he is somewhat :"
sputed at this point, that this thing u
as gone on all these years without his %
lowledge or dreaming of it. =, If we "
e to believe him about this. weImust
so believe that he was mighty care. ID
! not to know what was being done "
his own premises. But, however all !
is may be, the fact remains that this ~
lme of selling rum which the law ~
clares to be one of the worst of Sd
ines, emitting men To life imprison. ~
mt in somc cases, has been loaded 10
TO little boys, who have. at an age nj
len they ought hardly TO be away III
IN their mothers arms. been We
lined up not only to bel violators of
law, but deep-dyed criminals IN ds
: eyes of the Vermont statutes and, vi
the law was enforced against them en-
)jects of imprisonment. 1t has been 81,
ne reGularl y, Systematically and :con- an
uously. not only at the Van Ness to
Use. but at many others in the ia'
tie that have been run on a similar RI
lis, and with the honest intention, res
first. as was doubtless the fact with ent
odhury to RIM q .+or,,,o,.,, rio
Use. VI
Practically this is where that "in- inc
ton will end 800 times out of civ
No unless the hotel man is ready:Sto pa
his house as a benevolent institu- &;
!. And the practical question is ~
'ther it better be done in this,way tho
~ men in man-fashion. f;rn
he case leaves Gov. Woodbury. in n,
,rry plight, not because as an indi- m "a,
nal he has done any worse-rather had
5cr-than most men would do in Kin
place, but because as governor and
| of his marty and annstle of nrnhi -