Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-02-12

article from an Ohio paper. which has
been widely copied in the South. whose
author asserted and undertook to
prove by false quotations, manu-
featured statistics, and lying state
ments, that Vermont was an UNI
patriotic State in the War of the Revolu-
ton, having never furnished a man to
the Revolutionary army; that the YER
mont troops were deficient in courage and
lighting qualities in the Civil War; that
Vermont was the last, instead of the first,
New England State to abolish slavery;
that In illiteracy and In the percentage Of
insane, idiots and paupers Vermont ex-
ceeds every Northern State but one: with
other like wickcdly false charges. Those
who like to believe such ISLANDERS OF Yer
mont have derived much comfort from
the way. In which tho license campaign
in Vermont has been conducted for the
past three years. There are Vermont
orators and papers which, in their war
fare on the prohibitory law. have libellcd
their State by asserting that 1t has be-
come the opposite Of law-abiding as a
community; hat its courts and officers
are vcnal; that its best young men flee
from it as from a ~pcst-house; that 1t is
absolutely sodden with bad liquor; that
Of a wholly bad and idiotic statute the
majority of its voters have proved them
selves to be idiots or worse; and that its
population consists, by n considerable
majority, of hypocrites, perjurors. drunk
ards on the sly. opium fiends and fools.
If these ISLANDERS were confined to the
columns of the organs of the traffic it
would he of less consequence; but they
havc been believed and caught UP and
copied by journals of wide circulation In
other States.
Those who know Vermont know tho
falsitv of such statements. They know
that it would not be easy to find on the
planet a community of equal numbers
which for the past fifty years has cX-
coedod Vermont in good order, integrity.
respect for law, thrift. temperance and
intelligence. In how many States Of the
Union. for instance, could the gathering
which assembled at Montpelier on Dew
cy Day been parallcled-thirty thousand
Ncrmontcrs rushed into the village by
trains for u festive day; and the ~throrgod
streets 50 orderly that a sensitive woman
could. as many did, pass through them
without escort and without shrinking or
shock from any sign of disorder; no ar
rests for irtoXication, no tipsy mon to
be seen? And these orderly qualities are
characteristic of Vermont throngs. But
most of the readers Of the outside journals
which have copied the ISLANDERS, know
nothing to the contrary; and our State
has received a black eye, in the cstima-
ton of many hundreds Of thousands of
residents Of other States, which it may not
recover from in n generation,
The license-local option law has been
established by a slender majority Of the
vote cast, though not supported. and as
we believe not favored, by n majority
Of the voters in the State; but it is to
be the law for at least two years, and is
to be obeycd and respected as such. For
this city and three or four other cities. II
option feature was attached to it. If in
these cities only men of the highest stand
ing are selected for liccnse commission
era; If the opening of saloons and bars
proves to be n promoter of temperance
and good order; if every officer and every
dealer obeys its prohibitory clauses: If H.
Censo lessons tho consumption OF intoxi.
cants and o~icVatcs the character of this
communities. We shall bc quick to discover
and recognize the fact, If for the rest OF
the towns. in which it may be Of some
use to vote no OF the question of license
and in many of which the traffic will
doubtless he prohibited in tho future as IL
the past, the local option feature prove.
to work well in practice, we shall DO glat
that for them any benefit results from
the change. What We care for is good re
suits, rather than particular meth
DDS. Tho new law will be on IT.
trial here in Vermont and not in the of
, fees OF outside editors; and for the re
suits. of good or evil, We must avail Thu
verdict of time and actual experience.
Mr.. Choatc. the United States ambsssa
dor to London, has left Cairo, Egypt