The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1900-08-29
TIMELY SERMON.

$500 NSN'~S'N'
eth city by iniquity."
He showed how the prohibitory law is at
disadvantage in Vermont, having been
for fifty years a target for hostile criticism;
80 that every boy and girl has heard some
slur upon IT,. While Vermont has had no
such close scrutiny of the evils attending liz
cense laws, aud thus people may he the
more easily nIisled 10y that which appears
on paper to possess the elements of great |
efficiency, but which, when put to the test, |
in actual practice, will prove utterly made
quste.
Laws for checking intemperance are not |
self-entOTcing; End when the enforcement |
OF the restrictive features in license law is |
| tried in Vermont If that day ever comes, |
then we shall find ourselves face TO face |
with the same old obaces that have i'm
pedsd the enforcement of prohibtory laws |
appetite, greed of gain, desire OF popular |
| ity, lust of Office, week -kneed complacencs
the ADVERTISEMENTS Of friendship, kinship
and pecuniary obligations, and the like
aud we shall assuredly hear the taunt, IRE
etrctious do hot restrct," as we now hear
| that prohibition does not prohibit"
The preacher argued that license must
| be failure id restrictive measure, for it
| gives the States endorsement to the DRAM
! shop, II enables the saloon-keeper to call
his business "respectable," and to assert
! that he has the State for his partner IL takes
the rum-atop out from under the ban of the
| law, ana places Ii under the protecting ban
ner Of the law, and entrenches it Ia the GU
pidity OF OF misguided taxpayers.
Mr.. Wright gave as proof that license does
not diminish the amount Of liquor sold, the
statements OF leading wholesale dealers 10
Omaha, Quincy, Ill. Chicago etc, one OF
whom said: High license has not hurt our
business, but on the contrary has been
| great benefit to it," Another advocates a
$500 license, as barring out prohibition, and
giving the business legal standing.
Another says "In our opinion high license
does not lessen the consumption of liquor
Ii our state we think 1t bars out
prohibition" Another says; High license
gives us a longer lease, and pactes a great
many who are un!riendly to the business"
And still another writes, I'VE cannot see
that high license lessons the consum Jtion
OF liquor, and it strengthens the legal
standing Of the business"
The preacher urged further, that the orig
inal demand for prohibition itself WAS an
evidence that large numbers OF temperance
men we're driven reluc antly to the conclu-
sion that license was failure, after seeing
its workings during trial OF over two hum
dred years in this country and nearly four
hundred years in England. And,as further
proof of actual failure in our own day, he
adduced testimony concerning the condi'
ton of things in various places where Ii
cense has sway. AS to Chicago he quoted
the Daily Ne,Cs of that city: 1--WE have had
high license In Illinois five years, and while
, 1t IL success as revenue measure, 1t Is an
undisguised failure as temperance mea-
of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, nor
does it in any degree lessen the evils or
crime for such use. The dives and dens, the
barrel houses and thieves resorts, are as
bad and as frequent In this city today
as they ever were. Call high Ii
, cense what it Is, an easy way to raise a rev.
enue from vice, but let there be an end of
: endorsing it as temperance or reform
, measure"
| AS to st. Paul, he drew from a report of
the grand jury in 1891 the statements that
men who had broken the law within twelve
: months were licensed in spite Of the law,
that the midnight closing and Sunday clos
ing Of the saloons was generally ignored;
, and that every official Of st. Paul, with
the probable exception of the city treas
, urer, who has any part in the issue OF liquor
, licenses, and the enforcement OF the laws
governing the business of selling intoxicat-
ing liquors, could be indicted" AS to
Minneapolis, he presented as results of a
; recent Investigation that liquors are sold
without license, are sold to minors and in
? toxicated persons, are sold openly on Sum
day; that gambling is frequent in saloons;
: that women of ill-repute frequent them;
that they do not close at midnight; that
they exist close by theatres,-all contrary
to the provisions of their $1,000 license
law; and that the police know these things,
and wink at them.
Practically the same condition was re.
ported to exist last March in St. Louis, with
, reporter affirmed in 1890, I'm only one
particular is the high license law enforced
in Omaha, the payment OF the $1,000 fee.
, EVERY licensed saloon in this city has a
screen in front of the door or window, in
plain violation of the statutes. Mi
: nors and drunkards are regular customers
at many OF the saloons. Inc sun
day law is universally ignored" AS to
> Nebraska as whole John B. Finch, a sim
cere and ardent friend of temperance, who
had advocated its high license law, said,
after two years trial Of the law: The drunk
ard maker complies with the law far
enough to get his license, and then violates
: all other provisions" and he openly la
mented his own share in securing the law,
as the greatest mistake Of his life. AS TO
Kansas City, Mr.. Wright cited the Herald
of that place as saying in 1888, after that
city had had about five years experience OF
= high license, 1.-THE saloons of this S845
high license city pay no attention at all to
the Sunday laws, and The law against SELL
> ing to minors. In fact the saloons run the
, town, elect the officials, defy the laws, and
do precisely as they please with the law"
. AS to Syracuse, n. Y, under the much
Wanted "Rsines Law" an investigator
reported last March, "To publish a list OF
the violators [of the Sunday closing clauseI
would be to print a directory OF Syracuse
: liquor Dealers" among whom are several Of
its aldermen.
3 Further, gentleman reported just about
A year ago from an examination of the court
: docket of Onondsga county, in which SYRIA
j cuse lies, that since May 1896, the grand
! Jury had found eighty-six indictments for
violations of the excise 1.-THE "Ranes") law,
D against forty-nine persons. OF these only
h fourteen OF the forty'nine had ever been
called upon TO plead, four OF whom pleaded
l guilty" One of these WAS fined $500, and
r the sentence pGs suspended, Two were en-
tered as dismissed; and no disposition had
8 been made of the other. or the whole
;. eighty-six only one had ever been tried, and
that had resulted in acquittali
In regard to the prevention OF Illicit sales
q by license, Mr.. Wright pointed to the more
8 than 5000 unlicensed saloons in Philadel-
u phia, in 1890, under the much Landed Brooks
q law, according to Bonfort's Wine and Spirit
CSrcular, to the 800 "speak. easies'' in Pitts
: burg in the same year, as stated by the
n Chief Of the Department of Public Safety
=, and to Chicago, where there were, in 1890,
In addition to 6,43l licensed places, 2,071
i persons paying United States revenue tax,
as liquor sellers, i. o., in the one city OF Chi
cago there were held almost twice as many