Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1903-01-02
sRArTIEBoRo, W., FRIDAY, JANUARY 2
The Confusion That Prohibition Politicians
Have Put Into It.

Have Put Into It.
Ex-Gov. j. L. Barstow has written
letter to the Burlington Free Press
raising the question of how section LOO
of the referendum act, which says that
sections 1O1, 1O2 and 103 (which pro-
vide for referendum) shall take ef-
feet from passage could not put other
sections in immediate effect when sec
ton 100 itself, as he thinks, does not
take effect until March B.
The question has been submitted to
verallawyers, some of whom profess to
think there is grave omission, endan-
gering the referendum. Others think
that if the matter were serious, the court
would probably hold the law in effect
according to the intent of the legisla-
ture. 1t is suggested that the govern
or at once ask the supreme court to in
terpret the law.
Section 100 states that the act shall
90 into effect the first Tuesday OF
March, 1903, or first Monday of De-
cember, 1906; and then says that the
three referendum sections shall take
effect from passage. Gov. Barstow's
point is that there is nothing to show
when section 100 shall take effect and
SO the three sections depending on it
cannot be carried into effect by it.
Il, s, Grct fhof
if there were any special need Of
section 100 going into effect, it is
done by the general provision OF law
which makes all acts 60 into effect
Feb. l, unless otherwise provided in
the acts themselves.
Z Second: 1t is not necessary to as
sumo even that, for there is nothing
in section 100 that is legislation, ex-
cept the specifying of the times when
the other parts of the act shall 60 into
effect. 1t is simply an expression of
the legislatures will on those points
and it does not need any more spe-
cific legislation to buttress it than any
other act of legislation. To assume
that such an expression needs further
authorization would mean that the
legislature could do nothing without a
specific act to give it power to do so.
As Lawyer F. W. McGettrick, late
Democratic candidate for governor,
we'll says, any such requirement, gen.
orally or about Sec. 100, would be
"senseless superfuity."
The utmost of this point, if it be a
point at all, would be to leave the act
as though Sec. 100 we're not in it at all
and the utmost that it could mean would
be straight referendum such as pro-
hibitionists profess to want and fought
for in. legislature. Ia this view there
is bare possibility of unconstitution-
ality from the peculiar wording of Sec.
10l, which provides for getting the
Judgment and choice upon This aer'
of the voters. II ibis -.0.r be- Lej6
to amount to ii reference NJ IT." We
self for its val!5-s
would make irur.
ing to the deer . ...... .....
on the prohihuyu lass. after III had
gone into effect on a referendum merely
Of dates. But this Interpretation would
necessitate the elimination of part of
Sec. lob as we'll as Sec. 100 and would be
so obviously contrary to the intent of
the legislature as to be most unlikely.
But it may not be an unfair suspicion,
Judging from all the other tricks they |
resorted to, that this peculiar wording
was stuck into the act by the prohib-
itory lawyer politicians in the hope
that it might trip it.
Mr.. McGettrick makes another point
which is the most serious of all, name
ly that as none of the act except the
referendum sections goes into effect I'm
til March there is no authority of law
to compel the secretary of state to fur
nish blank ballots for the vote in Feb
ruary or for selectmen to put the arti-
Gle in the warrants for town meetings
as required by sections two and five of
the bill: and the secretary of state
and selectmen can refuse to do so il
they choose. This may possibly mean,
If there is disposition to continue
The trickery of the politicians, that
there can be no complete and legal
vote in March on the question OF issu-
ing licenses And he we'll says, "All
this confusion shows the wisdom of the
Democratic insistence Of no referen-
dunn
This is only chance, to be sure, for
courts go as far as they properly can
TO construe laws according to the in
tent of the legislature. But in the
chance is even greater danger than
Mr.. McGettrick mentions; for if towns
cannot or do not vote on the question
IF licenses until March 1904 and the
Jaw goes into effect on "yes'' vote at
,he referendum in March 1903 there ]
would be no legal liquor traffic of any :
Kind in the year intervening. The leg :
slature's omission to provide for the !
difficulty is simply inexcusable and all j
he more so because an amendment was
lrawn and given to the Temperance !
Committee covering it.
a
A Good Old Year. a
The cuparf,pia1 racord of +b;s ola