Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1903-01-23

] HANAe N'AsIA - w AtfAAAus anu WHICH
in every ease showed from twice TO -four
times as MANY arrests for iuioxioation in
the same cities and towns, during the
yeans when licenses were granted. II
must be borne in mind that these Massa
ehusetts towns aud cities correspond in
their conditions very nearly 10 half
dozen OF more Of our large towss and
cities, viz: Burlington. Rutland, Barre
81. Adams, Bennington, Brattleboro,
Bellows Falls, etc, and these towns are
the storm centres of the high license
sentiment. Prohibition il is claimed
has been an absolute failure in these
towns, aud high license is the antidote,
and yet in towns of the same type and
rank in Massachusetts impartial statis-
tics show far less drunkenness aud
pauperism under no license. II high
license is boon aud a regulator any.
where it must be in these industrial
centers with their considerable foreign
population, but statistics under like con.
ditions entirely disprove this theory.
But some one says that this increase in
drunkenness during license years was
due TO the sale of liquor TO men from
surrounding towns that voted no license.
Grant this fact for the sake of the argu-
ment, aud what becomes of the fine
theory of local f-government embod-
led in local optionP What is the use of
town voting for no license if its drink
ers can fill up and run over in the open
saloon of an adjoining town?
One of the discouraging signs of the
times in Vermont is the decadence of the
small towns and the tendency to CEN
tralization. Admit high license and you
tremendously aggravate this evil, for if
open saloon drinking becomes popular
with smart business men in the large
towns the contagion will spread, and the
foot and mouth disease will cost the
state thousand times more than the
bovine. The man who spends his cash
for drink in the high license large vii
lage will feel so rich that he will want
to buy up the town, and his home mer-
chant will be asked to carry his account
when he is in need of necessa ries. The
truth is that town that votes for no
license under the proposed law is practi-
cally under high license without its fees,
if its neighbors adopt it.
1t has become the fashion to mag
nifty the evils of intemperance as they
are alleged to exist in Vermont today in
order to show the inefficency of the
prohibitory law. The law has some
very serious defects which have not in
creased its popularity or its efficiency,
and which have been tackled on in recent
years by its over-zealous friends. 1t
should be placed on the same basis of
equity as other laws, but the republican
boilers and the democrats with some ex-
ceptions in the last legislature persist
entity voted against the repeal of the
very sections of the law which they have
long and loudly denounced as useless,
unjust, and even unconstitutional. We
contend for the principle of prohibition,
but no one contends that the present |
law is perfect In spite of its defects
candid examination of the facts will |
demonstrate that it has been tremen-
dous factor in securing temperance,
thrift and prosperity in Vermont. Bv
outawing the trade in liquor it has been
a powerful factor, but not the only one,
i'll making the drinking habit not only
unpopular, but disreputable. Nine
tenths OF the farmers drank forty years
ago, and many of them were drunkards, |
and raisings, trainings, dances, and all |
rural assemblies, were the occasions of
the free delivery and wholesale consump-
ton OF rum, as the records show. Get
ting drunk was considered 10 Ike, not q
misdemeanor. Compare the proportion
of hard drinkers among the members of |
the legal and medical professions, the
commercial salesman, the employees in
manufactures, even, of the earlier times
with these classes at the present and the
astonishing decrease is perfectly evident.
Observe the excellent and greatly i'm
proved service and fare at our modern
hotels in Vermont and compare it with
former times, or the service of hotels in
places of equal size in license states, and
note the difference. Is there any better
criterion of thrift than increased depos
its in savings banks, and the average per
capita deposit in Vermont of $ll5 for
each man, woman and child leads that of
all the other states, and is the result of
thrift contemporaneous with prohibi-
ton. At the same time a much higher
standard of health, education, of style
of living and equipage has obtained.
Hon. O. M. Barber contends that I'M
der the prohibitory law the traffic has
not been well regulated and governed.