Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1904-02-04

of the saloon keepers by revokng some
of the licenses and issuing new ones to
other men. 1t was very forcibly i'm
pressed upon the license holders that
there are two sides to the liquor selling
proposition and evidently the lesson,
though a harsh one. was we'll learned
short time ago Newport. a no-licensc
town, furnished the State some interest
ing news in connection with sales by
druggists and the prescriptions upon
which sales were made. In eight months
in that town there were 3,006 sales by
druggists upon prescription, two doctors
having given over thousand prescrip-
tons each. Since then one of the doctors
has been arrested and fined 500, for
violating the law.
c. II. Davenport, the we'll known license
advocate in communication to the Brat
tleboro Phoenix, discusses at some length
the record of license in the towns msn.
toned above. After going into the fig
ures, to some extent, of sales at the
Newport agency under prohibition and
comparing them with the sales by the
druggists under license he goes on as
follows:
The one argument against the local
option system has always been that its
restrictions are as much disregarded as
those of state prohibition and go that
to the extent that license prevails it
means so much to the loss of temperance.
While not true. and demonstrated not to
be true IN every State where the two
systems have been fully compared, it has
been too nearly true. and the one purpose
of the Vermont law. and especially by
means of this druggist feature and the
requirements of quarterly reports. under
oath from police otiicers-which was pre-
cisely what brought the twist of the
screws for sales to minors in Brattle-
bOro-to make it less true than anywhere
80 before
that will be measurcably obeyed, that
won't be turned into farce
Newport as n no-license town and
Bratteboro as n license town, since the
law. in JeffcrsoE's words. have shown
their teeth" have alike learned whether
this is practicable. In the latter town,
since the new licenses were issued.
drunkenness, as measured by arrests and
prosecutions. has been less than half
the average of the later years of prohi-
bition and less than one-eighth the aver
age while the law was being disregardcd
and defied somewhere under the first Ii
Censes.
The now law needs strengthening
at some PORTS as was pointed out when
it was passed. to make 1t as entirely just
and etf.cacious any law can be that
is administered by human hands: but with
some minor changes, it is sure, | am
confident. on fair trial, to vindicate itself
as the best measure for real temperance.
the best solution of the difficult problem
of liquor legislation, yet enacted any
where
There are towns in Vermont not so
far away from the capital as Brattle-
hOro and Newport where a good large
dose of medicine such as was dealt out
in those towns might be administered
to good advantage. 1t behooVes such Ii
censc men rs believe in the new law
a a temperance measure-and Mr.. Daven-
port is such a one--to get together and
see to It that the law is enforced if they
desire to see ii retain its place on the
statute book. No law dealing with the
liquor question is solf-acting. Somebody
must make some effort to get il enforced
or it will become Il farce.