Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1901-12-27
00lindham q. ountg 4eformrr
BRArrLEBoRo. VT, FRIDAY, DEC 81, 1901


The Tragedy and Some of Its Lessons
The state press is deeply stirred over
the White River junction tragedy.
Brethren who always shout for prohi-
bition are equally loud now in de
nouncing the "dirty business of EN-
ploving spoilers to help enforce it,.
The good people of that burg, who al
ways give a majority for prohibition
of the Republican brand at the polls
were very much inclined according to
the reports. to lynch this man. The
facts as nearly as they can be made
out without legal Sitting. seem to be
that this man was employed by the
states attorney of Windsor county,
with the approval of Gov. Stickney,
and was under prosecution for exhibit
ing obscene pictures in the course of
his work. that he claims to have done
the shooting in self-defense when as
saulted by a crowd of liquor sympa-
thizers. and that he shows some
bruises and cuts as evidence. and eX-
presses confidence that he will be
saved from punishment by the powers
that employed him. On the other
hand the claim is that though the
local feeling was intense against HIM,
there was no assault except in words,
and the bruises and cuts were suffered
afterwards from the enraged crowd;
and the murdered man in his dying
statement declared that he had not
touched" the detective who "deliber-
atelv drew his revolver" and shot,
In law and probably in fact the
shooting was the needless act of a COW
ard But coward the man who Will
act thc part of a spotter must be eX-
pected to be, and when he is employed
it must be with all the chances such a
fact includes.
Nevertheless it is we'll for our pro
hibitory friends to do little clear
and straight thinking on the subject
If prohibition is right, if liquor-sell-
ing is really the crime that our law,
as measured by its punishments
makes it, the employment of spot
ters'' and detectives to enforce it is
right also. No one would dispute that
with reference to murder, arson or
theft. Why then with the crime of
LIQUOR selling which the law treats
with only a degree less severity: The
brethren object that the "spotter' in
the rum business commits crime to
prove crime, emphasized in this case
by the fact that this spotter may have
been a minor. But here again they
lose sight of the necessary beauty
of their own law which makes it right
for any man to buy rum, but among
the worst of crimes to sell 1t to him. .
The spotter, then, can prove wrong
without doing anything but what any
man has a perfect right to do, and yet .
these brethren are rising in a chorus of .
of the authorities for
pursuing this harmless course.
The simple truth is that the use of F..
however lamentable it may
be and however bad the instruments
must usually be to cOnsort successfully
with criminals, is a necessity of So
ciety to cope with crime, and if there
is any crime that requires it, mani
testify it is that of liquor selling that
we all know to be done on every side
in defiance of law and of all the ordi-
nary processes and methods of secur-
ing evidence to enforce it,
1t all reduces itself, therefore, to the
question whether prohibition is right
and reasonable If we concede that,
we have not a shadow of right to OBJ
iect to the "spotter, - however unfor-
innate the occasional consequences as
IN this case.
The plain truth, of course. is that
any law which cannot have a reason
IDLY general enforcement, by means
If and with the support of the moral
sentiment of the people, has some
hing radically wrong in it. Either
hat is true, or as a people we are
Unfit to govern ourselves and would
better at once invoke some higher
power to make our laws and enforce
hem for US.
But plain truth is something that
he prohibitory idea, as it has taken
hape in Vermont. will not tolerate or
onsider That is the reason why it 7
will not permit the people of the state a
o vote on the question whether they +
7ant this law or some other method .
f dealing with complex and difficult a
roblem, but instead insists on hold i
ng the advantage which an unjust +
ystem of representation gives it by .
leans of which a small minority can
lle the state. This position is not
My fundamentally wrong in denying /
ne primary principle of free govern =
lent, but it is foolish practically also, 3
ecause if prohibition is right it ought ri