Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1902-09-12

as they wish" lie says, they are sure to
debauch not only the body social, but the
body polite also. The saloon forms
the natural club and meeting-place for
the ward leaders and 'heelers'-So much
so that the bar-room politician has become
a recognized factor in local political gov
eminent. The saloonkeepers are always
hand-in-glove with the professional politi-
clans. Their power has been a terror to
all parties.
For any political asprant to talk of
fighting a political machine, real or ina
ginary, by introducing into the State IL
censed saloons is certainly the most ex-
quisite irony.
And then it ought always to be remem-
bered by the man who is thinking whether
1t Is wise to give the saction of the law to
private bar rooms that the more respec-
table we make the saloon the more dam
gerous we make it. The so-caled best
saloons do the worst harm to the best
men. Your habitual drunkard will go any
where-do anything to get his drink. But
the boys from the homes that you love
will not ordinarily do that. The critics of
the Vermont law are never tired of saying,
prohibition merely drives the traffic under
ground, and, wild as the statement is, 1t
points a truth: For it Is precisely the un-
foreground dive that your self-respecting
young men will not resort to. 1t is when
you begin to make the saloons respectable,
plate glass and handsome furnishings, and
lights and music and all pleasant sur
roundings, with social brightness and
treating and good fellowshp---it is then
that the real temptation through drink be-
gins for the boys and men it is within
your power and mine to help to save 1t Is
then that the vote to establish the saloon
is seen to be exactly equivalent to a vote
to gradually tear down our churches: for
the manly character the churches of
Christ are seeking to build up, the saloon
is given the power to destroy; and it can
and will pull down faster than our
churches can build up Then, though one
demonstrate, as a decent man, when a sa-
loon Is not to be licensed nearly always re-
monstrates-against the opening of a sa-
loon abutting his own property or next to
his own home, he finds out too late, that
his vote has helped to open saloons next
to somebody's property, near somebody s
home; and the morals, the safety the COM
fort of the home are already jeopardized
and often the sacred name home" itself
turned into mockery and a life long re-
| gret.
tell you men and friends, we do not al
ways realize, when we talk of trying a
! liquor license law and legalizing saloons
! i'll Vermont, how we should be intrenchine
| in our communities the chief monied pro-
motor of intemperance, with all it's mis-
cries; backed by almost unlimited finan-
]
a source of public revenue which would
| enslave us only less than the appetite en-
slaves the drunkard a public nuisance
! from which our streets are now clean
centres of crime which would quickly be-
gin to crowd our jails; a contempt for Law
| to degree at present quite foreign to oul
| State force in politics which would cor
rupt just when we are struggling to rio
! ourselves of corruption; a law-conferreC
responsibility in the bar room which would
set before our eyes a form of temptation
from which, thank God they are now free
and so, an arch-enemy to our churches
and our homes. l have lived years wher,
the high license system prevailed; l have
! lived where prohibition with a legal agen
cy has prevailed. and think l may say
that / speak of what l know Nothing
could bind the people of Vermont so effec
lively to their present system as a few
years-or a single year-of residence II
the average New England town that is
under the license system.
Now, my friend, that is not all. Those
of you who have followed me with youi
intelligent assent, thus far. must feel i
laid very heavily upon your hearts ant
| conSciences, by these stern facts your
selves, not simply to do what in you lies
toward the retention of our present anti
saloon law upon the statute books. bu
! to see to it that men are put back of thi.
law and of all laws; and then to let then
know that no sentiment, and no policy
takes precedence of this: We demand
obedience to law.
Let us be honest about it, We, some Of
US, believe in w-enforcement--til il
hurts us or our friends. Of this liquor
law, we are prone to say; We believe il
it: have always believe in it; but tao
and discrimination should be used in it: