St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1907-05-01

tendency to wipe out the dives. 1t has
not wiped them all out and it never will
know about some but it has cleaned out
more than the old prohibitory law ever
did with not SO prolific field to work
in"
!, Ofcourse the Rutland Herald did not
let DR.. Cranes reference to that papers
editor advocating license on the stump
pass by unchallenged, and its editorial
of Thursday is entirely free from per-
sonality and defense Of the present
law. After quoting briefly from DR..
Cranes address the Herald says,
eve are more inclined to the belief that
DR.. Crane is not fully abreast of the
exact conditions in this state and that
his well-meant ardor does not constitute
the grave discourtesy at first apparent
upon it's face, that, in fact, the great
body of Methodists do not indorse it.
The local option law has passed the
experimental stage. 1t has become a
settled state policy. Indeed, one almost
fears for it the same fetich-worship that
once characterized the prohibitory law.
Witness the absolute refusal of the recent
legislature to change its provisions in
any material particular.
1t has been proven to be the most
effective prohibitory law ever engrossed
upon the statutes of the state. 1t is a
temperance measure that practical
temperance workers are not slow to
recognize.
When even large city like Burlington
finds it expedient and possible to close
| the saloons for twelve months or more,
| the effectiveness of the law as a pro-
| hibitory measure cannot be doubted by
any sane and reasoning man.
We believe the reasonable 'Methodists
of the state recognize these conditions.
Certainly they are utilizing them for the
exposition of better citizenship wherever
the power of the ballot and the force of
public sentiment have been properly
taught and specialized
The Herald respectfully invites DR..
Crane to examine Vermont conditions
more thoroughly before he pronounces
upon them, and, as a mere matter of
humor, would ask him what specific re-
suits might have been expected to follow
upon the united protest of 40 Methodist
ministers against the local option cam
paign and their concerted attempt to
"shut up" it's candidate.
Then, as test case, will he ask those
40 men, honest and regenerate priests
and ministers as they must be, if they
will undertake to say whether local
option has increased drunkenness in Yer
mont or whether it has condensed
healthy public sentiment into a most
powerful and active influence against
intemperance.
fgiven according to their best con-
viction and EXCHANGED by anything like
an accurate knowledge of the situation,
the answer will prove the most effective
and final answer to DR.. Cranes reported
speech"
The st. Albans Messenger takes two
columns of editorial space to discuss the
resolutions on temperance adopted bv
the conference and we publish herewith
two paragraphs from their editorial:
"Unless the observation and testimony
of men that know the world thoroughly
is at fault, the drink habit is not increas-
ing in this country. On the contrary, it
is steadily declining, that is to say, there
is not today such a proportion of ex-
cessve and abusive use of intoxcants as
there has been in years past.
The world is growing better. There
is not such popular use of hard liquors
and such deplorable drunkenness in high
places as there was years ago when the
churches were full OF church members on
Sundays. 1t is considered disgrace for
a respectable man to stagger home in
toxicated in the middle of the day or at
any time, for that matter, in this year of
our Lord, 1907. But it was not so con.
sidered by our grandfathers. And they
remembered the Sabbath day to keep it
holy-after fashion. The world is
growing better. That there is wretch
edness and misery, poverty and crime
enough growing out of the abuse of
liquor today, we all know all too well.
But there is not so much as there used to
be and every year men are learning more
and more to understand that they can
not retain their employment, support
their families, or maintain their self
respect by giving themselves up to the
misuse of Intoxicating drinks Our social
life is cleaner and purer than it used to
be and is steadily growing better still"
And the Brattleboro Reformer debated |
the resolutions in the following manner:
1--WE have at hand no statistics to
prove that business in the state has i'm
proved since the advent of local option, |
but we doubt if the makers of the Meth |
odist resolutions are in possession of any |
facts or figures bearing out their claims
in this respect. 1t is generally conceded
however, that Vermont business interests
were never in a better state than at
present. More summer visitors are
coming to Vermont every year; this fact
cannot be fairly disputed. The old town
agency system made more perjurers in a
week than the present law makes in
year. On the question of enforcement
there is no room for doubt. In the old
prohibition days it was never difficult to
procure liquor in Brattleboro. Few peo-
pie were in sympathy with the law and
its enforcement consequently amounted
to very little. The local town agency in
the last years of its existence was worse
than regularly licensed establishment
for distributing liquor by the bottle, and
the pretence which those who conducted
it made of observing the law was farci-
cal in the extreme. Since Brattleboro
voted no three years ago it has been a
dry town in fact as well as in name, and
the same can be said of nearly every
town in the state Thara 90 90 5o,.l4