Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1902-12-29

perance supporters, which Is ready TO
question the honesty of anyone who
looks al this matter in different way
than they do. The spirit of Pharisa-
ism is as much opposed to the cause
of Christ as is intemperance and is
certainly as productive of evil as the
habit of drinking itself. But while
there are many who are honestly
opposed to prohibition yet the larger
part of the supporters of license
system, are not inspired by any desire
of helping ones neighbor, of doing
good to others, but rather of that
which will crafty their own selfish !
desires. The great majority of the
most intelligent, conscientious, help
full citizens, are found to-day in favor
of prohibition. In our town the !
majority of the votes cast in favor of
license at the last election were cast
by men who had to be helped in max
ing out their tickets. Every man who
is more interested in satisfying his
selfish appetite for liquor than he is
in seeking the public welfare will be
found opposed to prohibition and
working and voting for license.
Every man who wants to make money
out of the liquor traffic regardless of
the effect on others will be found in
favor of change. It is rather sig
nificant fact that while there is so
much frothing about the failure of the
present law in Vermont, yet the liquor
trade is doing all in it's power to over
throw the law. L challenge any friend
of license to tell me why, if the law is
such failure, the liquor men are will
| ling to spend hundreds of thousands
of dollars to secure another system.
A few weeks ago in Boston [ saw this
sign in street car, "Prohibition has
always been failure. District Option
means prohibition. Therefore vote,
NO." The very men who were thus
proclaiming so loudly that prohibition
is failure were spending their money
to pay for that sign, as we'll as hun
dreds of similar ones in that city.
And when district option was defeated
the largest meeting held to celebrate
its defeat was presided over by lead
ing liquor dealer of the city. If pro-
hibition is such a great failure, why
do the liquor dealers spend so much
money to overthrow it? The only
explanation that will satisfy any
thoughtful man is that they know
that they cannot sell as much liquor
as under some other system. If they
could, they would want to keep it.
But we must meet fairly the claims
that the present law is failure. Now
one respect in which it is claimed to
be such failure is that under the
present system there are as many
places selling liquor as there would be
under the license system. Mr.. Rowley
of Richford in speaking in our court
house hall in favor of license and Local
option made the statement that al
present in Vermont "there are as
many, even more places selling liquor
in proportion to the population, thar
in Massachusetts under a practica
license local option system" Where
he obtained his Information l do no
r know. But the United States govern
ment gives the following statistics
2 Population of Vermont, census of 1900
343, 641; population of Massachusett
: by same census 2,SO5, SAG. Number o
, retail places selling liquor which hav'
. a government license: Vermont 326
I Massachusetts, 4,766. This gives on
. place selling liquor in Vermont by re
f tail to every 1854 persons; one sue
a place in Massachusetts to every 5S
I persons. In other words in Vernon
a there were in 1901 very little owe
r one-half as many such places as i
: Massachusetts. But this statemer
v makes no account of the fact that i
Y Massachusetts there are 220 wholesal
! houses, and none in Vermont. An
It everyone who knows of wholesal
). liquor houses is aware that very ofte
: they sell more by retail than do tn
70 regular retail houses. Farther, this
1 putting the open saloon of Msssacht
If sets on level with the town agenc
ts of Vermont, which even at its wor
st is not nearly as bad as the averas
% open saloon. Hence Mr.. Rowle
" either did not take the trouble to loo
up the United States government St
< tistics, or else he deliberately tried
D. deceive the people of Vermont. II
lit cause that will send man that will
a. either of these things before an intel
tie gent Vermont audience, must be ha
he pressed for reliable information Wi
as which to support its claims that the
as are more places selling liquor und