The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-06-18

towns which elected to have legalized
selling of liquor. 1t was predicted
that the State would get some $4,000
additional revenue, but the law has
| failed to work out in practice in &C
cordance with the theory of its spon-
sors. Last year, when half OF the
license fees went t9,stthe State and the
other half to the towns voting yes,
the State received over $4,000. This
year under the new sytem, with the
| State taking all of the fees from vir-
tually the same number of license
towns as in 1908, the receipts figure
only little over $4,000, and in adj
dition the State will be obliged to pay
several thousands of dollars for the
administration of the law in the Ii
| amount the state may suffer an an
nual loss. TIE falling off in receipts
as compared with estimates is due to
the fact that the license commission
ers, seeing that the towns were to
gain nothing, reduced the license fees.
Our long-sighted Legislators instead of
helping the State have helped a small
but not deserving class, as the rum
sellers, through the reduction of the
license fees. are the only gamers by
the change of law. What a pretty
spectacle is this. A change in the
law which puts approximately $4,000
year into the pockets of the rum
sellers in twentyseven towns or less.
The desire to extract money from
the larger centers of population was
not the only motive behind this bit of
liquor legislation by any means An
other argument advanced in support
of the project was that towns would
not be inclined to vote for license for
the sake of the money which would
flow into the town treasury from the
license fees. The result of the vote
on license in the different towns last
March showed that this consideration
cut very little figure with voters.
AS matter of fact the whole diff
ficulty with our sumptuary legislation
is that some people are constantly
acting under the mistaken impression
that the law is responsible for liquor
conditions in Vermont when as mat
ter of fact it is the people themselves.
There has not been time in the
past fifty years when there was not
law enough on the Vermont statutes
to prevent the illegal sale of intoxi-
eating liquors as a beverage, and the
present local option law is a partial
recognition of the fact that the traffic
will be stopped only so far as people
are willing to array themselves on the
side of the strict and impartial en-
forcement of restrictions.
There has never been a time in
Burlington, for example, when any
one citizen could not successfully APP
peal to the law and close up every
liquor place tighter than the tradi-
tional drum, provided he had the
courage of his conyictions-yet this
has not been done since the days of
the late Samuel Huntington.
In tais age a few people get to-
gether and resolved that the liquor
traffic is wrong and the illegal sale
should be stopped, and rest content
with the thought that their duty has
been done. Strange to say violations
of the law do not stop, and the next
idea that suggests itself to them is
that the law must be wrong in some
particular; and another campaign OF
tinkering is resolved upon.
There is law enough on the stat
utes at present. If anybody ever wants
to see that it is enforced strictly and
until that time comes advocates OF
temperance will do better to devote
their time to moral suasion and the
cultivation of public sentiment which
will warrant additional legal restric-
tions.-Burlington Free Press.