Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1903-10-09
Mr.. DAVENPORT'S VIEWS
HIS RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE
LICENSE BOARD.
Advised Revocation of Valley Bottling
Co.'s License With Suspension Of
Sentence in Other Cases-A Few
Corrections.

Co.'s License With Suspension Of
Sentence in Other cases-A Few
Corrections.
To the Editor of the Reformer:-
Sir Your report of the license
cases last week contains several errors,
unintentional, of course, but whose
correction / ask because, from the con-
text they may be construed to have
been made on my authority" 1t is
not true that my brief and suggestions
to the board We're too late" They
were delivered to the board at 1875
Sept. 29, whereas the time fixed was
half an hour later, or noon. Nor is 1t
true that / was the sole and original
complainant" I was one of three
complainants, but appeared publicly as
such at the request of the counsel for
the board and should have despised
myself, after all my years Of "hollerin' j"
at the way men could complain and
then skulk out of sight under prohibit
ton, If had been capable of declining
the request Moreover, my complaint
was only against the Valley Bottling
Co., which / believed and still believe,
from an increasing volume Of evidence,
to have been the chief source Of the
flood of drunkenness that has so dis
graced our village and discredited the
local option license cause the past few
months.
This complaint was made only after
repeated efforts to avoid its necessity,
first through their counsel. on June 16,
and again July g. in writing. through a
member of the license board, giving
warning that unless the law was obey
ed, the business properly done,-as Mr..
Ellis knew how to do it, If he chose.
better than any man in this section
and decent conditions of sobriety re-
turned to the village demand would
be made for a revocation of that Ii
cense. The average experience under
license in every state where the statis-
| tics have been collected and compared
is decrease of drunkenness from that
under prohibition, and the fact that
there has been several times more of IL
here since the licenses were issued than
ever known before is conclusive proof
that something was wrong. The only
thing to be ashamed of is that action
was so long delayed In the vain hope
of securing an honest obedience of the
| law without 1t.
! But even in spite Of the failure of
these two efforts and the practical de-
fiance they brought a third was made
on the first day after Chairman Put
MANS return from the west, when told
him the situation as understood il and
asked him to make one more effort by
seeing Mr.. Eels and trying TO get him
to control the thing rightly. This Mr.
Putnam proposed to do, saying he
would put IL to him straight" and If
that didn't do any good the board
would hear petition for revoca-
ton: but the complaints, formally
made, of sales to minors interviewed
before he could carry out this purpose
and compelled a hearing.
My recommendations to the board
are also somewhat misstated in your
article and perhaps. as bearing upon
a difficult matter OF public action, 1t
may be worth while to state exactly
what they were After reviewing the
decisions in the different states to show
what the law is, my brief concluded
las TO the Flat street concern there
cannot be a shadow of doubt They
knew the law and by their own admission
knowingly violated it in the employ
ment of a minor, who is also proved to
have done some of the selling of liquor.
And in not a single case, except by
their own testimony, was there even an
inquiry as to the age of the boys TO
whom they sold liquor (Since the
hearing information has come OF much
more and worse selling of this kind. !
even to a girl and to one boy of a. |
One of the boys before the board has
since remarked that III all the other |
boy purchasers had been pulled up the
opera house would have been filled"
The law gives you no discretion. 1t |
says the license shall be revoked for |
either of these offenses.
This is true also OF other cases II |
you are equally well satisfied of the |
facts about sales to minors. But in
view of the fact that the evidence is
weaker, though in varying degree. re-
garding them; in view of the fact that |
they can hardly have been expected to
to have known of the special degree
of diligence required of them as the
law has been developed on the subject:
in view of the utter lawlessness with
which the Flat street business appears
to have been conducted. which made 1t
of little use for any one else to try TO
obey the law and naturally led to in
creasng decentralization; and in view
ton of all the licenses would leave the
town, l suggest it for your considera
ton whether a suspension of sentence
for those who appear the least guilty
would not be the very best way.
Your legal power to take this
course, though a matter of inference
/ think is clear. Speaking generally.
the law places large power in your
hands to meet unforeseen contingent
elements of doubt or mercy. Though
your functions are of mixed judicial
and administrative character, you have
specially conferred on you the powers I
of a justice court, and as we all know,
such court has the power to suspend
sentence. as every court has, and as We
see them often do where good is likely
TO be subserved thereby.
IF you are satisfied that you have
such power, here may be case for its
wise exercise, but only on the most
rigid conditions. such as that here
after there must be no sale to anybody
that they are not. certain to be of full
age, that there must be no illegal SELL
ing on Sunday, which report now ac-
cuses, no selling. in short. in any of
the prohibited lines. and that the prac
teal application of this is that the bur-
den is on them to protect the village
from the drunkenness that has so dis
graced it in the past few weeks. They
can do it if they try, and if these
trunks continue and they cannot show