Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-04-29
A GIGANTIC FRAUD.

we give Lu0 UOUd1S SuOWluS CuC
business done by the liquor agencies
during the past fiscal year as furnish
ed by the st. Albans Messenger. We
are pleased to note that the Messenger
is not afraid to head it's agency article
as CA Gigantic Fraud" for they COM
pose one, always have been one and
ever will be in any town wherever one
| is permitted to exist. We have shown
them to be systematic frauds; other
papers have shown them to be the
same thing, and yet they are permit
ted to exist. Not only are they permit :
ted to exist, but they are upheld and
patronized by the very class of men
who should try and stamp them out,
as they eagerly attempt to stamp out
| other places, more properly conduct
ed than these agencies and which are
sustained aud upheld by as good a
class Of temperance people as those
who bind their names to pledge.
| Who can read the amount of the sales
| of these agencies from beginning to
end, and then cOnscientiously say that
| all of the liquors were used for medic
inal, mechanical or scientific purposes
only. Take our own town for in
| stance, with a population of BIB and
and our agency liquor sale, So, ,369.93
| Take Barton, still smaller town with
a population of only 1850, liquor sale
of 50, 2,343.82. Newport with its liquor
| population has done we'll compared
with Barton, but the sales of both are
large enough to prove that both towns
must be in a very unhealthy state to
need picking 60 such an extent. 1t is
when we see people uphold what they
know to be gigantic frauds that our
faith in their temperance principles
Is reduced to very low ebb."
An error in the above article,
which is copied from the Express and
Standard, places Barton in far more
unfavorable light than the town really
deserves. The population of this town
is given at 1850 while the actual pop
ulation as shown by the last census is
279O. Comparing the figures as given
above and it will be found that the
sale of liquor in Barton during the
year averaged eighty four cents per
capita while the sales in Newport
amounted to seventy-six cents per
| capita. If Newport has been enabled
to make a better showing than this
| town because of its citizens recog-
niZing their moral obligations to assist
in enforcing the law then we congrat-
ulate them, but if it has been made
because of there being many other
places in the town where liquors could
be obtained or because of it's proxim-
ity to the open saloons of the Cana
dian border towns then we would
suggest that they endeavor to shut
off all supplies as far as possible. We
do not wish to argue this point as we
are perfectly willing to admit that
both towns have sold far more LIQUOR
than has been needed for medicinal
purposes, but we can not agree with
Gigantic Fraud" The law if properly
enforced would do away with a large
per cent. of the liquor sales and the
fact that it is not fully enforced should
not characterize it as a "Gigantic
Fraud" any more than the committing
of other statutory offences should
style the laws broken as FRAUDS"
There is no law on our statutes but
that is being constantly broken and
no liquor law has been or can be made
but that will also be broken and what
ever the law may be it's effectiveness
can only be made less by constantly
opposing it. Those in opposition to
the prohibitory law claim to be
working with the sole aim of improv-
ing the present condition of affairs,
but the only alternative they offer is
high license with local option, which
according to the belief of the support
ers of the present law would be
dumping from the frying pan into
the fire."
Our contemporary states that the
town agencies are being "upheld and
patrOnized" by those who profess to
be ardent prohibitionists In this we
think he is wrong. We believe that
large majority of these people would
be glad to do away with the agency
in every town. At the last town
meeting held in this village an at
tempt was made to do away with this
but those in favor were voted down.
However the movement to do away
with the agency and the closeness of
the vote showed that the temperance
people did not "uphold" the sale of
liquor through the agency. In many
of the towns of the state there are no
liquor agencies and some towns which
have been maintaining them are re-
fusing to continue them. The people
who are voting these agencies down
from year to year recognize that the
present law is not fully adequate to
enable them to cope with the question