St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1902-12-17

anu SAFE Oh INTOXICATING lquOT rs pCN
erage, from prohibition to high license
and local option?
This is the question which the legSla
ture submits to the qualified voters OF
the state Tor an expression of their views
and gives them a very short time to
determine how they ought to vote upon
it. 1t is a most important question
Their determination of 1t NAV effect the
interests and welfare OF the inhabitants
of the state very materially in many
ways. The prohibitory law has been in
force nearly fifty years. The state has
prospered under it. The use of intoxi-
eating liquor Tor a beverage has very
materially diminished. The people have
become more sober aud temperate.
Many of the voters do not know the Goa
ditiOns which existed under the license
and local option law VIII ch preceded it.
have been Conversant with the discus
sions of the temperance question, and
with the working OF the temperance laws
from 1910 to the present time. From
1917 to 1852 l was voter and some
what active in those discussions. Then
more than nine-tenths OF the farmers fur
nished Intoxicating liquors to hired help
in haying, when raising frames of build
ings, and on other special occasions As
large a proportion OF the LAWYERS and
doctors used it, and nearly all CONNER
cial travellers. Groceries, stores and
taverns generally, sold it. AT June train
ings, musters, and cattle fairs more
drunken persons could be seen in one day
than are now seen IN several years. Now
not one in a hundred of the farmers fur
nish hirei help with Intoxicating liquor.
Then the attorneys at court, of an even
ing at the hotel, would be found gath
cred in a room playing some game, with
a bottle OF Intoxicating liquor, from
which all drank freely. This continued,
generally, until after midnight. Their
condition when they separated need not
be described Then it was quite gener-
ally claimed that an attorney could not
make good argument to the jury unless
he had taken one or more drinks OF intoxi.
eating liquor to sharpen his wits. Few,
If any, such scenes have been witnessed,
nor such claims heard, within the last
twenty years. Attorneys and doctors,
who are ensaved by the drink habit. are
few in numbers. Many who had con.
tracted it have abandoned it to hold and
obtain business. Men generally will not
employ an attorney nor a doctor who is
known to be addicted to the use of intoxi.
eating liquor. The same is true ofcommer.
cial statesmen. Wholesale me- chants will
not employ them if they know they are
given toits use. There is hardly calling
in the state IN which young man who is
known to have the drink habit can find
steady employment, or in which he can
expect to succeed. The farmer, the man.
ayers OF steam and electric railroads of
manufactures, the business man, none Of
them want him, and most of them will
not have HIM if they know of his habit.
Even those who violate the law bv Sc
cretly selling or furnishing Intoxicating
liquor seek only strictly sober, tenn
perate young men to do their unla wful
work. think it is a safe statement that
there are not one third as many men in
the state who habitually drink lntoxicat-
ing liquor as there were when the prohlbi-
tory law Wentlnto operation. But yet one
OF the principal arguments for change
is that the prohlbit0ry law does not pro.
hiblt. No criminal law prohibits, in the
sense that 1t stops The commission of the
crime it Furnishes. The law against steal.
ing or murder or adultery or gambling
does not stop the commission OF either
these crlm,s They res rain, to a greater
or less extent, their commission. Per
sonal gam is the motive which leads to
the violation OF the law against stealing.
The SANE III 1tve leads to the violation
OF the promlbltory law, iorbldding the
manufacture and sale of Intoxicating
liquor tor beverage. The fact that the
prohbitory law is violated is no reason
why 1t should be SUPERSEDED bv high
license, local option law The proposed
high license, local option law bristles
with penalties Personal gain will urge
as sharply to its violation as TO the viO.
lation OF the prohbitorv law, and more
strongly, BY the prohibitorv law tral-
nc III intoxicating liquor for drinking
purpos is outlawed. No one can law.
fully engage in the traffic. The penal
ties fail aike on all who engage in It.
The hgh license law legahzes such tral.
nc and cohlers on certain persons the
right TO cure the gain to be derived
from It, Why should favored few tor
consideration even, be given this risht
TO the exclusion Of all others? The 9th
ers Will nee ssaiily reason: 1T he trat.
tic is lawful for the licensed it ought to
be for US. Ghe licensed ought not to be
allowed to profit rom he traffic and we
be punished or engaging in it," History
shows that Vi lauons of high license
laws excel in frequency. No p4ymen S
Tor intoxicating liquor Illegally sod can
be enforced under the pruhlbltory law,
and pawn ms made can be recovered
back. Ihe high license law makes intoxl.
eating quor d commodity of traffic. and
eniorces payments for all sales otlt, even
to taking mans farm or other attacha
able property. No open saloons nor
dives can lawfully exist under the pro.
hibitory law. Under the high license law
places OF sales are kept open to the obser.
walton OF all passers BY. The boy NAV
see his father or Others at the bar uar-
taking OF the intoxicating LIQUID and
have his desire excited to be an imitator
OF them.
Contemporaneously with the prohibi
tory law savings banks sprang up all
over he stat. In the amount of these
deposits per capita OF the popu alton. the
state surpasses all other states. In intel
ligence, in thrift, in sobrietv, in freedom
from crime the state NAV well CHALLENGE
comparison with any high license. loca
option state. Why change from the pro
hibltory to the high license local option
policy Why not let well enough alone;
Certainly 1t is incumbent on those who
urge the change to establish that thereby