Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1900-11-16
BRATTLEBORO, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1e 1900.
The saloon.

III Ihts village, nJteQ up 10 De ATTRACTIVE,
furnished with all kinds Of wines and liz.
uors, perhaps with side rooms where par
ties could sit and sip and spend a social
hour-a place to which all would be invit-
ed except children under certain age and
habitusl drunkards. In cities the saloon
is generally made an attractive place. II
is literally "gilded;" Its walls are adorned
with fine painting and engravings, and the
bar Itself and its paraphernalia are works
of art The whole design is to make 1t a
popular place where friend may meet
friend and enjoy the social glass.
1t is easy to understand why men who
believe In social drinking, though blind to
its inevitable results, should favor the es-
tablishment of such places; indeed they
have long felt the need of them. Manu-
facturers and sellers of intoxicating liquors
always favor the saloon, for it promotes
their industries; but why any man who
believes that drinking is productive of evil,
temperance men and even total abstainers,
should favor high license-and there are
such men in this and other towns-is be-
yond comprehension. They argue that
the result of high license, say of thou
sand dollars for saloon privilege, would
insure a well-regulated traffic, that none
but reliable men would pay for such
licenses and that they would keep respect
able places. But If a majority of the
voters in town favored license law, It
would be in their power to fix the rates so
that several places could obtain licenses
besides, where a seller pays large fee, he
must be diligent in business in order TO
make money. 1t is the experience in
high license states that licensed sellers Sc
cretly maintain branch places in conven-
lie Mt localities by means of which they In.
crease their sales, and statistics have re-
Gently been published in our columns,
drawn, from numerous different states,
showing that there is as much evasion of
the law under high license as under pro-
hibition.
But the principal argument, one some
times used by real friends of temperance,
is that the prohibitory law after all does
not prohibit, and that II the trafi. must
be carried on it may as veil be done under
the sanction of law. This is fallacious
reasoning. 1t might with as much propri.
ETY. be urged that the laws against larceny,
burglary and adultery should be repealed
because they do not wholly suppress those
crimes. Though men always have COM
mitted them and doubtless always will un-
til the millennium comes, despite the law,
1t has never yet been thought best to give
them free rein by statute, nor has refer
endum been proposed.
The prohibltory law when enforced is ef-
ficient to suppress the sale of liquors. 1t
cannot prevent men from drinking any
more than the law can prevent men from
stealing; neither can it prevent their pro-
curing liquors in other states. No Yer
mont law can prevent Hinsdale dealers
from selling liquor to Brattleboro men, nor
prevent our citizens from secretly distribut-
ing it to other persons. The law against
gambling never has and probably never
will prevent that crime being committed in
secret places, but the law will be allowed
to stand.
1t is easily in the power of prosecut-
ing officers entirely to drive the class of
men known as liquor sellers out of the bus
iness, to suppress the sale in hotels and
restaurants, and even the "pocket ped
ding business and other secret distribu-
tion can hardly escape the detection of Wig
liant officers. Many towns in the state
can be instanced where this law is as eff
fectually enforced as any law in the crimi-
nal code. In some counties officers do not
do their duty, and they are sometimes
that they will not enforce this law; but in
such cases the fault is with the people
themselves, and oftentimes with those who
complain that the law is not enforced.
Prosecuting attorneys and sheriffs often
fed themselves handicapped by a public
sentiment that is adverse to the enforce.
ment of the law. In such communities a
license law and good number of licensed
saloons would be welcomed.
One thing is certain: the licensed saloon
pup pulaAl1Co uiihAibS' III bulb tOWu uEInks
ing is disreputable and men drink in sly
places; but In the licensed hotels and sa-
looms in Massachusetts young men and
business men take their drinks as If it were
a proper practice, because the saloon is
made fashionable place of resort.
The fact that manufacturers and sellers
are unanimously in favor of license law
should teach all sincere temperance men
that the repeal of the prohibltory law and
the enactment of a license law means
freer rum and more intemperance. If any
man doubts this, he can assure himself by
visiting towns in other states where the
substitution of a license system for the
prohibitOry law has been tried. In many
such towns, where drinking was almost
unknown, 1t is now fragrant In the streets
The influence of the saloon is opposed
to that of the home, the school and the
church. 1t is temptation to the young
and the weak of will. 1t lie subverslVe of
good morals, of law and order.
In the discussion Of this subject The
Phoenix makes no intimation that very
many men who favor high license theoret-
ically are not friends of temperance. They
are doubtless temperance men in belief and
In practice. But at the present time when
it has become the common thing to ridicule
the prOhibitorV law. we believe that thew