Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1905-03-03

preaching town meeting, is self demolsh-
ing under analysis.
Either it's allegations are true or they
are untrue, or at least not proven.
II true-if it developed that young
men" have been sold rum at our hotels
until they had to be put to bed" where
they were kept over night so that their
parents would not know where they were
or the condition they were in; and If this
has been done not once only but over and
over again-"in this way eight times at
the American House and five at the
Brattleboro-then no severer accusation
could be made against the license board
and against Mr. Fits himself attor-
ney general Of the state than to say, as
his statement does that he made no
formal complaint, did not ask that the
licenses be revoked or the licensees be
prosecuted" but that the offenders were
let off with a reprimand and warning to
sin no more"
Sec "a Of the license law among the
conditions Of every license which shall
be printed upon the face of the licenses
(sec. 22) provides that mo liquor shall
be sold or otherwise furnished to mi
mormon to n person who is known to
the licensee to have been intoxicated
within six months" OF course, after
once putting to bed young man." as
Fitts's statement alleges, every subse-
quent sale, in the two months specified
by him. would have been violation OF
this condition.
Sec. AZ says a license shall he revoked
for breach of any condition of the H.
cense as specified on the face thereof.
The provision is mandatory; the com
/ missioners have no discretion; the law
tells them unqualifedly. they shall re-
woke. not may" as the preceding par
! agraph provides for some other viola tions.
Sec. ST provides that not only shall the
license be revoked, but the guilty seller
or violator OF the law shall be fined $50
| to 5000 or imprisoned three to twelve
months, or both" And sec. - makes II
the duty of the grand juror or states
/ attorney to prosecute in every case; while
! Mr. Fittss oath of Office as attorney
| general makes II his duty to see that the
! law is enforced. and sec. of the very
act that creates his office gives him the
same authority throughout the state"
as the states attorneys have.
| His statement" therefore. II true
| means nothing more or less than that he
and the license board, in disregard Of the
duties plainly imposed by the law,
| have combined to make a farce of It,
Whether true. or a mere political play
ing to the galleries OF local prohibition,
his own statement, able lawyer as he is.
| of his own inaction ought to he decisive.
And whether true or not sufficient APP
pears in fact from the unanimous tes-
timony elsewhere Of the licensees and the
license board as to just what develop
ed" and the whole Of which appears to
be that these two hotels several times
let lodgings to the persons I'm question,
just as their registers show they have done
to 146 other Brattleboro people in the
past ten months. and as II is a hotels
business to do.
| II true. there would be not IA particle
Of excuse, in morals more than in law,
! for permitting these hotels to hold their
licenses a single day beyond the time
necessary to revoke them The one CEN
| trail idea OF the law is that giving the
| seller a chance to do business in n de-
cent way. and within the limits pre-
| scrihed by it, II he won't keep within
these limits he shall not only he de-
prived forever of any chance to do the
| business again i'm Vermont but he shall
be punished with the utmost severity.
with fines several times higher than I'M
der prohibition. with forfeiture of his
bond, and with liability in civil damages.
| besides the loss OF the money invested in
his license. And because these penalties,
deserved by the guilty, are so sweeping,
they should be imposed only on the guilty.
and guilt should not be lightly charged.
| If the people of Brattleboro prefer 10
vote mo" next Tuesday, the opportunity
and the right are secured to them under
the local option principle Of the law,
even though in face of the fact that eX-
cept this distorted and practically base
less one not a single complaint of the
way the business has been done the past
year has reached official authority; even
though confronted by the stubborn fact
that such a change can mean no gain
whatever for temperance but on the con-
trary loss of all the restraint that can be
and has so beneficently been exercised by
Vermont authority-even though besides
the certain moral loss. the whole practical
question is whether 1920 a year equiv
alent to nearly per cent. tax and SIS:
GI.vN
town and state treasures from the IL
censes. shall be simply transferred to the
pockets of the proprietors of the place
across the river. who have moved theil
establishment right up TO the end of tho
bridge to receive it and win have no ad.
ditional license to pay for 1t.
II our good people decide to make then
this present. let 1t be with eyes open
and ON their general NO principle. and
not mised by this Statement" now 81
fully disproved, Of Mr.. Fits, or by other,
equally baseless and vicious that are be
ing circulated by word of mouth to dis.
tract what ought TO be the best-informed
most carefully weighed and most dis.
passionate of public action.
This island license is a fixed fact tina
must be reckoned with. Brattleboro
through license board. selectmen bail
ifs, business and professional men, pu
up the strongest protest in their powe
against its being granted, and their eff
forts awaited no more than the wind tina
blows. If anybody now argues for
mo" vote on the promise or prospec
that that place can be closed you MAJ
safely set it down as only wind also
There is strong reason, however, for be
leving that the New Hampshire com
missoners granted the license only OF
strict conditions, as requested by Brat
tleboro, and especially that sales SHOULD
not be made to persons excluded from
purchasing from our licensees; and 1t 4
only fair to say that many cases ar
known where these persons are excludes
on the island. either voluntarily or be
cause of the conditions. and apparently
the traffic has been conducted there mucl
better than in prohibition times or thai
| expected.
The propretors of these two hotels AM
the other licensees in town assert that o
the 60 arrests (Which is As less than tn
year before) in the past year of drunk
enness or kindred offenses, so far as the
know or can trace, only six were due I
liquor sold by them. The best judgmen
of the police officers who made the ar
rests, from what they could learn at tn
time, is that from a fourth to a hal
were due to liquor from our sellers, an
averaging their judgments, according I
the number of arrests by each, not owe
a third of these DRINKS were attributabl
to our sellers. The records show tina
at least 32 of the So "drunks' wer