The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1900-12-05
saattSman 4 gUurnal
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8. 400.
ARTHUR ROPES. General Editor
As to Pledges and Duplicity.

no Saving bIneuunBnb COulu Cuio iVo y.
ganic and inherent wickedness. No amenu
ment could disguise the main intent ano
object OF the bill, which would remain
wholly unchanged Montpelier journal.
The Journal has this to say in JUST
6cation of the prohibitory majority il
the lower branch of the Legislature
which refused to consider amendments
to the referendum bill pending before
that body. And this is the same Jour
nal which took the Herald 10 task
earlier in the season for intimating that
it was not in favor of referendum.
We accepted its statement at the time
that it believed in the wisdom of re-
ferring the question to the people.
When the issue came the Journal
threw its pledges out of the window
and defended the course of the prohib
majority in even refusing to give the
local optionists chance to make Ger.
tain amendments to the bill which they
considered proper. If the Journal
draws dividend on its duplicity it will
be in luck.-Rutland Herald.
The iron of defeat has, indeed, en-
tered deep into the souls of the free
rum editors. The contemporary speaks
of ga referendum bill pending" before
the Legislature, and intimates that the
JOURNAL had made "pledges" re-
specting that measure and had thrown
them out of the window. A referen-
dunn bill, pure and simple, was pend
ing in the Senate. 1t proposed to sub
NIT to the voters of Vermont for an ex-
preston of their preference the ques-
ton of a choice between the existing
system-commonly called prohibition
of regulating the liquor traffic aud the
license system.
There was pending before both
houses of the General Assembly bill
which proposed to set upa dram shop
in every town, city or village of the
State for every thousand, or fractional
part of thousand, of its inhabitants.
This monstrous proposition was slyly
baited with a provision for submitting
it to the voters of the State. Over this
feature of an entirely one-sided meas
ure was a great blare of trumpets by
the supporters of license and their
newspaper organs, chief among them
the Herald, the personal representative
of the chief patron of license in the
Senate, and his alter ego in the House.
1t was as il there were some question
whether or not the people preferred a
fish or serpent for diet, and to test the
matter the promoters of a serpent
menu had fastened to present to them
a scorpion deliberately disguised as a
fish and seasoned with begulIing prep
arations. That was the sort of "refer-
endum" of the question the license
men, in separate and secret conclave,
had contrived. There was only one
answer to be made by men of civilized
instincts and appetites to question of
this kind, and that answer conclusively
came. That is what troubles the disin-
genuous contemporary.
The result was such that, after this
performance and the development of
the real purpose of the license people, a
proposition to make an honest refer
ence of the simple question of prohib-
ition or license had no chance what
ever, was rejected by the body which
two years ago voted affirmatively on
the question and was not even propos-
ed in the House. The duplicity of the
license managers brought them to grief.
Even the referendum proposed by
Senate bill No. could not be regarded
with favor by men honestly believing in
this manner of consulting public opinion.
1t proposed to submit the question to a
vote at March meeting, a time unfa-
vorable in season and occasion for a
full and fair expression of public opin-
ion. A simple reference of the ques-
ton of systems to be voted on at the
September election in an off year ia
what the JOURNAL has advocated. If
then the Legislature had mandate
from the people to reverse the policy OF
the State for half century in respect
of the regulation of the trade in intoxi-
eating liquors, it would be the duty Of
prohibitionists as well as license mer
to participate in framing the measure
which should supplant the law against
which the people had declared-anc
that bill wouldn't be second cousin tC
the lop-sided device recently condemns
ed so decisiVely by the Representatives
of the people.
So much for the JOURNAL
"piedges" or "duplicity" in regard tC
license or referendum. The Herald
plot and labors for forestalling public
preference failed ignominiouslY, a.
they were predestined to do, and all thu
people said, Amen.