The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1903-02-12
HOW THEY TAKE IT.

The foil owing comments from three
of the leading anti-license papers of
Vermont indicate the .commendable
spirit in which defeat at the referen-
DUN has been received in various
parts of the State:
With the result, we have no dispo-
ition to quarrel. This is a govern
ment of majorties. The trial from
the beginning has been free and
fair one. Mr.. Clement brought the
Indictment of the present system and
obtained an initial verdict last fall
The case was then appealed passed
through the ordeal of the recent
legislative session, and now the court
of last resort has handed down Its
decision, sustaining the former find
ings. He would be presumptuous in
deed who would show contempt now
for the mandate of the highest court
in the State. License has won de-
cisive victory and starts in with the
direct approval of the people. The
iota. but we must abide the outcome
as faithfully as we would expect the
other side to if our side had won.
If the coming experience with
license should be unhappy, other
systems will have to be considered and
tried. In this event. we hope to see
direct State control given chance,
but for the present we await develop
ments, always hoping for whatever
will most promote the State welfare
and happiness Randolph Herald
and News.
We wish the result of Tuesday S
vote had been more decisive, either on
one side or the other, for majority
of 1. 900 votes is very narrow one on
a question of the Importance of the
one thus decided. But the purpose and
disposition of every friend of temper
ance ought, nevertheless, to be that of
accepting the result in good faith and
of giving the license law an absolute
ly fair trial The burden of RESPONSE
lblity is now shifted from the should
ers or the prohibitionists to those of
, the license advocates. We don't mean
by this that any temperance man or
prohibitionist ought to play, or has any
right to play, the part of an obstruc-
ZIONIST. On the contrary, the univer-
sal determination ought to be to give
the new law the fairest trial possible.
If, in the coming two years, its advo-
Gates can show, as they have claimed,
that license law, with local option.
tends to control and restrict the sale
of spirituous liquors, that it tends to
sobriety, that it does away with fraud
and hypocrisy, in Short that such a
law can be honestly and effectively en-
forced to the betterment of the State,
the result will be gladly recognized
and accepted by every true friend Of
temperance. The burden is on the
license people to prove that this can
be done. Let them accept the respon
sibility, and let them have the cordial
and honest support of every friend
of temperance in Vermont. -Brattle-
borosPhoenix.
We are all interested in the promo
ton of Vermont's best interests, and
while some people may be tempted to
give the new law the same kind of
support that the prohibitory law re-
ceived from its critics, it is the duty
of all good citizens to make the best
of the situation and support the en-
forcement of the law SO long as it re-
mains on the statute books, working
faithfully with every means at hand
to promote the cause of sobriety, tenn
perance and good citizenship. Bur
lington Free Press.