Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1904-04-08
Com m unica alton.

III. IIUttOf - udNO lOdtu Will d kOOu
deal of pleasure and interest the many
comments published in your paper re-
garding the Eyes and "no" vote on the
license question at our March meeting |
this year, and find many of the articles
seem to be at a loss to account for the |
great change in sentiments of the voters
in one year, and wonder what brought |
about the change. From my standpoint !
going over the State before and since we
have had license, and hearing the differ
ent arguments for and against license,
it is easily explained. | think it is safe
to say without fear of being contra
dcted, that fifty per cent of the voters
of Vermont never had seen license
bar, or a license saloon; did not know
what it meant, nor what such places
carried with it, nor what it was entitled
to, never thought or knew what it
would bring to them, nor what the con-
sequences would be. This has been all
revealed to them in one short year
Disgraced fathers, brothers and friends,
starving widows, desolate children, and
poverty stricken homes, and in many
towns an increased poor tax. When p.
w. Clement and his lieutenants started
out on their rum campaign two years
ago with their campaign singers, they
told everybody in Vermont that Yer
mont had been kept in darkness, and
way back in the background of prosper
1,
fifty years, all on account of our prohibit
ton law, and all Vermont needed was
license law to boom in all branches of
business. A license to sell liquor so any
man could walk up to the bar and buy "A
drink, and drink it, and it would be
respectable, and one would suppose from
their argument if drinking in that way
was respectable if that drink made him
drunk it would be a respectable drunk,
and if he was put into Jail on account
of that respectable drunk, it would be
respectable to be in Jail, for anything
connected with a respectable license was
respectable-one would suppose; and
from the number of DRINKS, and for the
many lockups that we have had, it is
reasonable to suppose that the ones who
bought that respectable drink looked at
it in that same light And he told the
people that there would be a great
increase of money put into circulation,
more than ever before in Vermont, and
in some small towns l have been told
that he informed the people that there
would be $25, 900 go over their bar
every year, and he asked his listeners
, if they realized what an immense boom
that would be for their little town. He
did not tell them where the money was
then, nor where it was coming from,
but one would imagine from what he
said that every man or woman who had
desire to drink had been boarding up
their money, waiting patiently for Ver-
, mont to have bar and license, so they
could walk up to a legalized bar and
F spend money for respectable drink,
and have if necessary respectable
drunk The drinks and the drunks they
r have had for the past year, but the
great boom of business and the great in
crease of money which Mr.. Clement and
his followers has predicted has not
materalized. On the contrary the men
t in business have found their trade to the
; people who indulge in drink has fallen
q off in proportion to the money going
over the bar, and their collections have
! fallen off in the same proportion. They
have learned that person cannot buy
rum, and buy groceries and the neces-
stiles of life with the same money; and
> the landlord has also found that his
. tenants cannot buy rum and pay their
t rent with that same money. 1t is not
only the money spent in drink but when
= =, a man is drunk he neglects his business,
II he neglects his work, therefore his in.
II come has materially decreased And
they have further learned in this short
n space of one year that when man has
y a license to sell liquor and is prospecting,
Is he and his family rolling in luxury, that
Il there are 80 to 100 families living in
h poverty caused by this one mans lux
9 ury; and they have come to believe that
. they had rather see these 80 or l0C
l. families in comfortable circumstances
: by doing legitimate business, than tC
Y see one man rolling in luxury, and these
80 or 100 in poverty. And the self
- thinking and self-respected Vermontel
" spoke ON the first of last March toe
plain and too loud to be misunderstood
that he didn't want any more legalizeC
t. license pigpens in his house.
II w. w. SwINEY.
e Vergennes, VT, March 20.