Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-07-23


mediate generals have fed the country.
But in the extreme East, being the state
or section about Ciudad Bolivar on the
Orinoco, the revolutionists are in charge
of that section and have been collecting
the customs at that port: but indications
arc that there is to be an immediate at
tack upon the revoutionists in that sec
ton by the government forces We live
Just opposite the barracks, and yester-
day we were informed that twelve car
loads of ammunition went out, and this
morning GOO troops left the city. The
destination of both ammunition and men
is supposed ia be that part of the coun
try where this revolution is in prog
ress."
BELLOWS FALLS AND THE IL
CENSE LAW.
(From the Timcs)
There are all sorts of opinions regard
ing the workings Of the license law in
Bellows Falls. There are blind partsans
on both sides. There are friends of the
new law who could stumble over a
drunken man ten times day and still
see nothing unusual in the process.
There are also wcll-meaning prohibition
lists. who rarely saw "A drunken man
under the prohibtory law and when
they did see him said nothing about it,
who cannot now scent a funny breath
sex is stranded on the rocks of intern
pcrance. The merits or demerits of a
law cannot he satisfactorily determined
by partisans of men with an axe to
grind 1t is the sober. better sense Of
the community which must pass on this
question. men whose minds are open to
conviction, whose judgment is not form
cd before the evidence is in
This paper, in common with the great
majority wants the law which will give
the best results, give the greatest de-
gree of temperance, sobrietv and decen-
cy, the Law which will make Bellows Falls
the best place to live in and do bust
ness in. If half the good things which
the advocates of license have promised
materialze it will forever support H.
cense. If on the other hand after fair
test the law proves a greater breeder of
intemperance. corruption and rotten
ness than the prOhibitory law did, it
will he opposed and opposed strenuously.
1t is being constantly affirmed on the
one hand that drunkenness is increasing
and on the other denied. This papers
opinion on this point may not amount to
much but il is given for what ii is
worth, and the opinion is founded on the
observation with exceptional opportuni-
| ties to observe with advantage. Dur
! ing the first month under license there
| was a big increase in drunkenness. but
| during the past month, so far as we
| have been able to observe. conditions
| have not been much different than under
| the old prohibitory law. There has GER
tainlY been big increase in the con-
| sumption of liquors, but increased con-
sumption does not always mean in
| creased incompetence. The lovely things
| promised by license advocates are not
Inateriazing very fast, nor has the dire
calamity predicted by some prohibition
| lists fallen upon the community. The
| police are no more anxious to arrest a
man now than they used To be and tho
! citizens Of the village of all shades of
| beliefs shirll all responsibility for the
| enforcement of law now just as they
always did. Those who kick the longest
| and loudest have no greater ambition to
| come out into the open than they used
| to have 1t is the personal conviction Of
| the publisher of this paper that at the
| present time conditions do not differ ma
terially from what they did under the
| prohibitory law. If there are citizens
who think otherwise and they care to
| give their opinions to the public the
Times will be very glad to publish them
provided they bear the signatures of the
writer's Citizen" zone Who Knows"
| Il Pluribus unum." etc, won't go, be-
cause it might lead to a suspicion that
the articles were written in the office
NEXT YEARS CAMPAIGN.
(From the st. Adams Messenger)
The Messengers good friend. the White
River Junction Landmark. believes
there are signs that the campaign Of
| two years ago 1902 may be surpassed
by that of 1904 in exciting conditions and
fierce struggle for the victory" The
| Messenger does not presently share in
| such apprehension. Perhaps the wish is
father to the thought. but this paper
believes that the campaign of 1904 will
find the Republican party of this State
united in the support of Theodore Roose-
Welt for the presidency with "A distinct
understanding on all sides that Senator
Proctor will go back TO the Senate and
that the local option liquor law will
quietly undergo several necessary
amendments at the hands of the next
| General Assembly to enable it to secure
the fair and thorough test that it de-
serves. More than this, so far as con
Germs any difference of opinion among us
as to the kind of liquor law we should
have, the Messenger believes the old
time probitionists can be eliminated at
| once from all consideration as "A potent
political factor in the future. There has
been a great change of base in this par
ticular in the past few years in Yer
mont and the out-and-out prohibitionists,
the men who would absolutely prohibit
the manufacture and sale for beverage
purposes Of intoxicating liquor, are a
very small minority to-day So far as
| the present difference of the two divis-
ions If public sentiment on the liquor
question can be roughly approXimated
| i'm a few words, il is merely a difference
| ot degree and not of kind. The great
majority of thoughtful men appears to
be in favor of far more liberal liquor
legislation that Vermont had undertaken
for fifty years before the present law
was passed, and the only question now
s, How far shall 1t go? 1t should he
difficult to involve this simple difference
of opinion on "A matter of eXpediency in
the local state government in the per-
sonal political fortunes of Redfeld
Proctor as a United states senator, or
to persuade sensible men that 1t should
be employed to prevent harmony in
other matters upon which 1t has no
more bearing Blu there is no prophe
cying what politicians will do nor ex-
planning how and why the populace
| will unanimously tumble after the
huc-and-crY raised by some partisan
chieftain when all the logic of the
schools can adduce no more reason
for his raising his banner than the de-
sire to crafty personal ambition for
either office gain, or revenge.
ILLEGAL SELLING.
Urom the Brattleboro Phoenix)
We were told that a license law would
selling. It does not seem to have worked
that way In Vergennes. A raid on the
American House one night recently