The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-11-26
THE 400 FEET ZONE.

Inc 1CenSe law peHuluB Ill ulie Ooh-
eral Assembly draws around the local
ity of church and schoolhouse a
circle with,a four hundred feet radius.
Within these sacred precincts no sa-
loon shall be permitted to deal out
"liquid damnation."
Applying this restriction to Montpel-
Ter: The straight line is the direc-
ton of measurement, not around
street corners. An estimate of dis
tances only less accurate than meas
urement by the surveyors chain, in
dicates that only two or three sites
within the business part of the town
are outside the prescribed limits.
These points are on South Main street,
and the buildings, with perhaps one
or two exceptions, could never be used
for saloons-not under existing Cir
cumstances.
In respect of this four hundred feet
limit: Its effect in this city, and
probably III the great majority of
communities in the State, will be to
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way places, into the highways and by
WAYS, into the side streets, the pur-
lieus of cities and villages, away
form the public gaze. Publicity of
the traffic is sought in the require
ment that the business must be car
ried on in rooms on the ground floor,
fronting on the street, with neither
rear nor side entrance, without shut
tiers outside or screens inside; thus,
by this four hundred feet limit, the
traffic is driven outside the regions of
the publicity that might have con-
serving, salutary influence.
Clearly this four hundred feet limit
is u nistake-in more ways than one.
1t is in imitation of the Massachusetts,
law, we understand, and like some
other limitations or attempted imita-
ton of Massachusetts, law, in its ap.
pllcation to conditions existing in
Vermont, it is misfit. The pending
measure should be amended to bring
all saloons within a radius of four
lOCu VI NilulSI VI SNiiOOl
house that the traffic may thereby
come directly under the moral and
other wholesome influences radiating
from these places where instruction is
impaired, morality enforced, and
Christianity expounded The closer
the saloon is joined to the church the
better. The opposite theory, the
theory of the pending license bill, is
liquor traffic ought to be brought di-
rectly under the eye of the church
and if it is so moral and uplifting re-
form, the business of its eXemplifica-
ton ought to be carried on directly
under the eye of the public instructors
of youth, and in places where the
future citizens of the State, as they
pass to and from school, can take
note of the business without going out
into the environs of a community to
watch the operation. Does preacher
of the gospel insist that the sinner
shall not defile the sacred precints of
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full distance of four hundred feet from
the pulpit where salvation is offered
and catch it on the fly beyond the bar
rier?
This requirement-is it not-is the
most scathing indictment of the liquor
traffic and the most humiliating con-
fession. by its promoters, of the un-
holy character of the business this Ii
cense measure sets out to leaglize.
Too black in it's enormity to be
tolerated within long radius of
school or church, lest it's contamiha-
ton shall subvert the school, subvert
the church, the prime instruments of
good for these thousands of years
convert the school children into
drunkards, neutralize the influences
of religion and convert the members
of the institutions of Christianity into
sots There is no escape from these con-
illusions. The four hundred feet linn
It is fatal admission. Like leper,
like small pox victim, to humanity
in general, the saloon like pest
house must be kept beyond the reach
of communicating the fountain heads
of civilization.
There are seven churches in Mont
pelier; the proposed law would set
up seven saloons. Bring the churches
and the saloons into close order of
battle and let them eight it out, " if
the contest must be joined as the law
makers are ordaining