The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-03-05
WHY BETTER?

The Montpelier liquor agency re-
straw with Mr.. Barber 1t shows
1923, 719. ~ paid for liquor and sales ag-
gregating some 1928, 900. 1t took 1000
bottles Of lager to supply the Montpel
ierites incidentally through the three
summer months of last year. We in
Brattleboro think our agency sales
pretty steep; but those of Montpelier
are about three times as large rela-
lively to population and even larger
in proportion to the outside territory
to be liquified, which is the regula-
ton excuse. Mr.. Barber is certainly
right in thinking the matter ought to
be searchingly investigated But bet
ter still would it be to wipe the whole
system from our statute books-Brat-
tleboro Reformer.
The foregoing is the conclusion of
an editorial article on the manner in
which some liquor agency accounts,
it is alleged, are kept and the report
that Auditor Barber proposes to in
vestigate these accounts in the inter
est of the State treasury. Under the
law the State should receive the profits
VI dll dSChCg III OASCoo VI bSil PNi SNio
of the gross sales. A suspicion exists
that agents pocket the excess due the
State, or that rents and other charges
are made exorbitantly high so as to
absorb this excess, or that in some
other devious way care is taken that
the State shall derive little revenue, or
none at all, from the town dispense
tories. 1t is a proper subject for Off
cial investigation, and in view of the
charges that are flying about the State
an overhauling ought to be undertake
en- in the interest of official honesty as
well as to recover any revenue with
held from the State.
AS to Montpelier, the contemporary
should remember that the water supply
of the city, last summer, became in
tested with the bacillus COLI and that
it was by reason of this invasion of
their adored store of Adams ale that
from one hundred to two hundred
dozen bottles per week of ale-or its
modifcations-of another brew were
retailed by the local agency. So soon
as analysis showed that the reptiles
had evacuated Berlin pond, Montpe-
lierites returned to their favorite bev-
erage with thirst so burning that the
supply at the source dropped so near
to the famine mark of 1899 that the
users of water for mechanical purposes
were warned that they might have to
suspend till the volume of water in
the pond should be restored.
But the subject to which the inter
rogation at the head of this article re-
lates is the last clause of the quota.
ton from the Reformer; "But better
still would it be to wipe out the whole
system from our statute books. Pre-
sumably the contemporary is not using
the editorial first personal pronoun
but means the States statute books
1t is singular that a certain class o
minds, or that minds of a certain elias
of persons, the instant there is an.
trouble with a liquor agency, or an.
suspicion or charge of fraud pertain
to an agency, or to any other provi
sion of the liquor code, instantly turl
for solution of the trouble or curin
of the evil to the abolition of the lay
under which the agencies are doin
business-when they are not doin
business far outside the law.
The people of Vermont in their wis
dom have undertaken to regulate til
sale of liquor in the State and
keep the traffic within rational lin
its - for mechanical or medicine