Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1904-06-17


The Committee of Inquiry Concern
ing Temperance Legislation" appoint
ed by the Vermont convention of Con-
gregational churches has just made its
report in a pamphlet of As pages
Operating under resolution con-
demning the principle of the present
law. the inquiry has apparently in
tended TO be fair and open-minded,
and its result is interesting because,
under intelligent analysis and with its
figures digested, it marches so far as
II goes, straight to the same conclu-
sions as reached by the more COM
prehensive report of Mr.. Davenport,
concluded In the Reformer last week.
For instance, the committee finds
only 29S United States licenses in
force in Vermont last March. This is
eight less than Mr.. Davenport report
ed. and means that in the few days
between his count and the committees
eight men who had paid the federal
tax under prohibition found them use
less under the new state law and did
not renew when their year expired.
Both counts represent the conditions
at the close of the first year of local
option. The committee, however, re-
port 572 and 1893 ~. S. licenses" for
the two years previous, considerably
more than Mr.. Davenport found. The
latter, in order to be entirely fair,
counted only those in force on the
corresponding dates of the prohibitory
years. not the whole number issued
during the year.
The committee gives tables for three
years of convictions for liquor offenses
from four city courts and of commit
ments to the house of correction and
to nine of the county jails-ipcomplete
figures, where complete ones could
have been obtained at the state treas
of course show much excess in the
early weeks of license, but in IL of the
IA tables where division is made be-
tween the first and second six months
they show a decrease of nearly 43 per
cent in convictions, and in several in
stances less number in the last six
months than in the corresponding
periods of the prohibitory years. The
suggestion that laxity in making ar
rests has been lin evidence this last
year in many places is not borne out
by a single one of the official reports
Mr.. Davenport got from the places
themselves.
The committee has gathered ex-
pressions anonymously from some 300
representative citizens, intended to
represent all shades of opinion. OF
these, 14S have been mo" voters every
time, 4S as regularly Yes" and As
changing back and forth OF the 14S
a large proportion find many things to
commend in the present law and sew
eral unqualifiedly admit that its re-
suits are better than those of prohi-
bition-one, at Newport, because tits
provisions are based on present con-
ditions rather than Utopian dreams
"The overwhelming majority, the
committee says, seem to be looking
thoughtfully toward improvements in
the present law rather than return
to prohibition. A score or more urge
the state store system. On the other
hand, of the As Yes" replies only one
processes to have been converted by
experience to prohibition, while some
20 of those who turned to No last
spring point to this opportunity and
effective corrective power as one of
the merits of the local option system.
Such evidence as this ought to be
decisive for the retention of the law,
but there is too much reason to fear
that it will only redouble the efforts
for repeal or for such amendments as
will surely lead to repeal in two years.
The disguised enemies are the most
dangerous and they are to be found
among the politicians, who. two years
ago so nearly deprived the people of
the promised referendum on local op
ton by attempting to substitute the
famous Battell bill for a state dispen-
sary system. Remembering the chance
this element will have in the process
of amending which all agree the law
must have, perhaps the African Inca
ments may become gradually discern
ibIe in the vicinity of this woodpile.
The simple truth is that there is no |
safety for the local option cause except /
in the hands of its friends, and who
are friends from principle not from
politics.
Giving II "Fair Trial."