Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1902-05-16
PROHIBITION VS.. LICENSE.
Correspondent Contrasts Temperance
Conditions in Vermont and New York.

discussion throughout the state regard
ing the liquor question, | would like to
say word on that subject. While liv-
ing in Middebury | was with the police
force of that village, and saw quite lit
tie of what was going on In the liquor
traffic; and from my standpoint, at that
time, was somewhat preiudiced against
our present prohibitory law. | have Of
ten heard said since, that it made perjur-
ers of the young men and that there was
as much liquor drunk, as much drunken
ness, as In states where they had license.
had travelled in states quite little
where they had license, but | had not
Investigated the matter as | have since.
For the past twenty years [ have trav-
elled IN twelve states, and for eleven
months in each year, and | get over New
York state and the New England states,
including Vermont, every three months,
or four times year, aud ] have investi-
gated carefully the workings of the IL
cense laws and the prohibition laws.
From thorough investigation of this
matter | cannot see how any person that
is posted and has the good of the rising
generation at heart, can speak for license.
The prohibitory law was made to govern
people that can't govern themselves, and
it does its work as eflectually as. the law
against thieves, and the law against
breaking the peace, or any other criminal
law. l cannot see how any state can af-
ford to bring up its young men under
the influences that the licensed rum. shop
carries with 1t.
fNbo hove Of Vermont
do not have the dazzling signs, the hand
somely decorated windows, that the Ii
censed saloon displays to advertise its
goods, and the pranks of thel half-drunk-
en- men that sit IN and around these
saloons. heard man in GRANVILLE, n.
Y, tell merchant last September, who
asked him to pay for bill of goods
which he owed him, that he couldn't do
it. He said that he came from West
Rutland the spring before to work for
S1.75 per day, and he thought it was bet
ter than Sl.5O that he was getting at
West Rutland; "but," he added, 81 have
been drunk nearly half the time since |
have been here. | can't stand the tempt
alton put out before me here in Granville,
the flashing signs, the foaming beer
glasses, the drunken songs; so am GO
ing back to work at my old Job for SD
per day. | can support my family there
comfortably and save little money, and
here my family is starving and | am in
debt. | will send your money as fast as
earn it, which will be in but a few
weeks
When Vermont passed the prohbitory
10, cI,A do III Of han
twenty years in the elevation of her citi-
zens that cannot govern themselves.
Mr. Clement says there is as much liquor
drunk in Vermont according to her pop
ulation as there Is in a state where they
have license. | differ with him very
much; for in twenty years of Investigate
| ing the matter can say there isn't half
as much liquor drunk according to pOpu
| latiOn as where there Is a license, and |
think you will find more drunkenness in a
town where there is license than you
will find in all the towns in Vermont put
| together. Again Mr.. Clement says there
| is as much adulterated liquor sold in
Vermont as there is in other states accor-
ding to population that have license. On
this point differ with him; for the town
agents in Vermont are supplied with as
good liquor as the towns can buy, and in
states where they have a license, the
men who pay from 5000 to $500 year
for license cannot afford to buy good
liquor. | have made careful inquiry of
the proprietors and keepers of these sa-
looms regarding the purity and they in
variably have told me they couldn't af-
ford to sell good liquor and pay the IL
cense. One gentleman showed me five
barrels of liquor in his cellar recently
and said he made four of them, at cost
Of about 80 cents a gallon. The one he
bought cost him So 80 a gallon. He
thought that about so per cent of the
liquor ia New York state was adulterated
the same as his, and very large major
ity of his customers liked his liquor bet
ter than that which he bought at $3.50 a
gallon. Again you will hear that license
regulates the sales. 1t does nothing of
the kind; it merely gives few preferred
ones legal right to sell, and they sell
to all who have money to buy, regardless
of law. There is just as much violation
of the license law as there is of the pro-
hibitory law, and there Is equally as
much perjury in states where they have
a license as in Vermont; for when man
has a license and breaks law and Is
brought up for doing so, you will find all
his heelers there to swear to anything he
wants them to swear to. Again you will
hear that there is no liquor sold illegally
where there is a license. That is for the
plea that licensed man will not let a
man sell without license. Now there
is great deal of liquor sold illegally
for there are hardly any of these who
have a license but what breaks a law
every day by selling to minors and
drunkards; so they dare not prosecute
the illegal sellers or complain of them,
and so they compromise the matter. The
illegal sellers buy the liquor of the license
places and share the profits. The law
reads they shall not sell to minors or
drunkards. have seen them many and
many times sell to boys not over II years
old and men so drunk that their liquor
had to be carried to them, as they could
not get up to get it. The worst feature
about the license law is the men who
cannot govern themselves and sit around
these places idling away their time and
their families suffering. | have been TO
| tnasa mans bouspc m oSpprtain rho aon.