Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1904-01-21

upon grocer, or an oil dealer or even
a man who sells maple syrup.
No plan for tho regulation or restriction
OF the traffic In Intoxicating liquors has
yet been formulated which did not have
at least some merit. and inasmuch as
no system or legislative measure dealing
with the subject has proved entirely salts
factory In every respect 1t follows that
the choice of any one method of restric-
ton above all others is one of compare
tive merit. as Judged from the standpoint
of those making the choice.
Under these circumstances It is not
strange that people should go to ex-
tremes in one direction or the other in the
endeavor to devise some system of re-
striction Of the rum traffic, that would
be more effective than the method pre-
viously in force; but If one arraigns any
system because the prohibitions or the
mild restrictions 1t involves are violated
the discovery is speedily made that no
law can be formulated which will not be
violated.
The people Of Vermont are keenly alive
to the subject Of restriction Of the IL
quor trafYic, for In a little over n month
the people Of each town will be called
upon to determine at the ballot box
whether or not Intoxicating liquor Is to
DO sold as q beverage in their respective
communities, and II so to what extent
and in what form. They know what their
experience has been during the past year,
and II will be interesting, and perhaps
profitable to consider the experience Of
people in other lands. under a still differ
ent form of license from that tried in
various towns In Vermont
1t will be remembered that about a year
ago elaborate devices for the restraint Of
inebriety were put into operation in Lon
don In connection with a license system.
This system was hailed with acclaim by
out the ideas Of those who hold that the
drunkard should be punished instead Of
the man who makes him drunk. Harper g
Weekly. which can hardly be charged
with being a prohibition journal, sums up
the years experiments In a striking man
ner as follows:
The licensing act, which made great
stir, provided for a blacklist for habitual
drunkards. Persons twice convicted of
drunkenness forfeited for three years
the privilege of buying drinks in the dis
trict where they lived. Photographs OF
them were furnished to the barkeepcrs
of the district, who were forbidden to sell
L., tx.l.- III, III
penalty of FORGETTING their licenses. An
other section Of the act provided for or
dering drunkards to homes for inebriates,
| but this section the lord chief justice
found to be bad law. Tho blacklis,
scheme broke down OF its own weight.
More delinquents were blacklisted in
| London than the barkeepers could pos
sibly remember. and eXceeders who were
blacklisted in one district found no trou-
BILE in getting drinks in another. One
saloonkeeper in the Strand reported that
the police had furnished him with photo
| forbidden TO sell liquor. The lists grew
so long that the police stopped adding
| to them. This failure of a scheme from
which much good was hoped for Is dis
appointing. but we hope the British law
makers will keep on trying. To restrain
or even regulate drinking by Legislation
is one of the hardest things there is tc
do. Every new law is an experiment, and
it is only as the result of such expert
ments that progress is possible.
There are not few people in Vermont
who are recovering from the idea thai
the provision of places where liquor car
be legally bought by the inebriate results
either in a decrease in the quantity o.
liquor consumed OF in a decrease in the
number Of drunkards, and comparatively
few individuals in the State after the ex
perience of the past year are hailing tbs
liquor saloon as an agency for the pro
motion of temperance. Under the cir
cumstances the chances are that Their,
will be material reduction in the mum
Der of towns voting to legalize the sal,
of Intoxicating liquor as beverage.