The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1904-07-28
GA LITTLE KNOWLEDGE" ETC.

1t is strange what conclusions can
be drawn from few facts when other
facts which should be associated with
the first are either unknown or ig
nored. Writers from without this
State who attempt to discuss the
working of the Vermont local-option
law clutch little information to their
breasts, believe it to be complete and
unoontradicted, and consequently sUme-
times hit very wide Of the mark in
their comments. In recent issue of
the Outlook appeared the following
statement of the working of the law:
Thoughtful men," says Justice
Brewer, "nore and more see that the
wise thing is to cast on each commun-
ity full responsibility for the manage
ment of local affairs" and the cor
rectness of the principle has striking
exemplifcation in the experience of
Vermont in the first year Of her new
local option law, which more fully
than in any other State, adopts the
home rule idea for the regulation of
the liquor traffic. Her new law has,
according to the internal revenue rec
ords, banished that traffic from 50 of
the 144 towns in which it existed in
the last year Of prohibition. 1t has re-
duced the number of liquor sellers in
the State from 57S to 306, and from
SO to % the number of prosecutions
for violation of the law docketed in
nine of the fourteen counties. The
number of sellers not paying the State
licenses appears by the record of fed
eral special taxes paid to be only 70,
and of these all but about a dozen are
in no license towns. 1t is believed,
however, chat even this figure consid-
erably exceeds the number of men
actually selling in the defiance of
State law; this is due to the fact that
a good many OF the old time offenders
against the prohibitory law at first in
the new one, but quickly concluded
that the risk was too great. The sta
tistics of the latter part of the year
certainly Indicate this, and that the
second year will record close ap-
proach to complete extirpation OF lille
gal traffic. This eXtirpation has al
ready been accomplished in license
towns with very few exceptions-not
over four, so far as the internal reve-
nue. shows. Montpelier, the capital of
the State, for instance, now has but
nine sellers, where under prohibition
she had nineteen; Burlington now has
nineteen besides druggists, to sixty
under prohibition; Bennington eight
now to thirty-five under prohibition;
and so on among the cities and larger
towns. Among the small towns Island
Pond, Brandon, Manchester Poultney,
and Putney, as samples, now contain
ten liquor-sellers, where under DrOhi.
ka har tua afu
Circular inquiries of local authorities
regarding the working OF the new law
bring unfavorable replies from only
five out of the whole number of H.
cense towns. All the rest in varying
degree report great improvement in
conditions, especially as regards sales
on Sundays. to minors, and to con-
firmed drunkards, which were almost
without restraint under prohibition.
1t is very easy to see where the Out.
look jumps at conclusions. 1t &C.
cepts the internal revenue records as
conclusive evidence of the extent of
the liquor traffic. All this reasoning
from internal revenue figures is un-
trustworthy. So, too, of circular in
quiries.
The Outlook's comments are folly
in the extreme. 1t takes no note of
many things-of the vast increase in
sales of liquor under license, of the
consequent expenditure of money, par
ticularly by the laboring classes, for
drink. and the resulting diminished
expenditure for bread, clothing, etc.,
tho en- 20 Of foy,, 20
the commonest necessaries of life. and
the losses of merchants through the
on-payment of living bills in conse-
quence of the diversion of wages to
the money drawers of the saloons,-
circumstance chat has converted
many former license advocates into de-
termined opponents. The Outlook
takes no account of the fact that IL
eense in Montpelier, for example,
means license for all she region round
about; that out of the twenty towns
and cities of Washington county,
eighteen may vote no license, but H.
cense in Barre and Montpelier means
practically free rum in the remaining
eighteen; it takes no note of the
''pocket peddler" who plies his traffic
without ceasing, underterred by law,
ana who finds his traffic among the
members of the blacklisted at the sa.
loon counters, among minors and the
prohibited class in general. In the
Outlooks statement of conditions in
Vermont, so far as they make for NOR
ality and temperance or such improved
conditions as should commend license
to God fearing people-among whom
the Ontlook's editorial managers ant
Mwr-y.-uk-v.EMuxnEN