Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1907-04-29
w. c. u. COLUMN.
A REPLY TO J.F. CROZIER.

was mucn Interested IN MI GRO
zier's article in the April 1st issue of
the MONITOR because it touched upon
a subject in which I have felt inter-
ested for the past forty years, the
subject of temperance and illegal
liquor selling.
Mr.. Crozier seems TO put the burden
entirely upon the liquor saloons in
regard to what he CALLS the unlaw-
full sale, and he iterates and reiterates
over and over again that it is dan
gerous to public health, public NOR
ais and public safety" and is certainly
sinful-a violation of the moral law.
Now l am ready to grant him all he
claims in that respect, but he has not
struck the keynote to what menaces
the public health, public morals and
public safety to a far greater extent
than all the liquor saloons combined;
and that is the ''pocket peddler" who
procures his liquor of the brewers
and wholesale dealers through the
agency of the express companies.
In the small towns in Vermont there
are 10 of these pocket peddlers to one
saloon, and they carry on their
nefarious business unmolested.
In nearly every newspaper and
magazine published will be found
wholesale liquor dealers advertise
ments telling the public how and
where they can procure liquors of
any and all kinds, which they will box
and send by express without any
marks on the box that will indicate
its contents, and they still further
advertise their business by sending
through the mail thousands of circular
letters to individuals giving prices
and methods of shipping their liquors
so that the buyer runs no risk of
detection. Now these facts are we'll
known to the general public and to
all the law officials, and what is being
done to put stop to the traffic?
Just simply nothing. An individual
sends for few gallons of wbiskey or
alcohol, his chums all know when it
arrives and they get together for a
glorious old drunk; and unless they
make a disturbance they are not
molested by any official of the law,
although a majority of them may be
helplessly drunk and have to be
assisted to reach their home (if they
have one), where in many cases the
wife sits desolate, dreading the com
ing of the brute whom she calls
husband, and from whom she re-
ceives curses and threats and posi-.
bly, blows if he is not too helples.
to ipflict them. She and her little
children are made to suffer FOL
want of food and clothing and thu
many things necessary to make then
comfortable because the drunken
husband has spent his money fol
that which makes him lower thar
the brutes of the field. And what i
being done about it? Merely nothing
Mr.. Crozier says that nothing bu
complete and absolute prohibition
will relieve the citizens of response
bility for the evil, but Vermont ha
fifty years of prohibition with bu
little or no lessening of the evi
Neither prohibition nor anti licens
!. will cure the evil unless enforced. A
1 long as the officers of the law neglee
:; or refuse to carry out the provision
of the laws enacted for the suppress
!; sion of the liquor evil, and peopl
who call themselves temperance pee
:. pie look on and only find amusemer
in the acts Of the participants in thes
r drunken carousals and neglect an
refuse to perform the duties of goo
&c citizens in carrying out the Law
which their paid legislators hay
|: enacted, just so long will the ey
IS exist.
A poor woman with drunken hui
N band, who procured his liquor
" wholesalers by express, wrote
5; states attorney that if he would 6
$. to the railroad station and seize
&c box directed TO certain person
would find that it contained intox
5. eating liquor, the purchase and use
" which was running her husband al
a home. Did the states attorney p;
any attention to her letter, did
q look for the box? Not at all! 81
re was a poor woman, she had no 70
to help or hinder his election
X Office, but the Instantaneous t.
u shame of the elective franchise-h
= the privilege of stepping up to t
10 ballot box and depositing vote
H. help elect man who cared more
the emoluments of his Office than
W did for carrying out the law pertai
he ing to his official capacity, or the We
"a fare of poor women and children rul
~. bv a drunken husband and fRtht