Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1909-05-27
The IrrepressibIe Question.

The Randolph Herald and News re-
opens the irrepressible and everlasting
Iiqu0r-law question by arguing that local
option under the present Law is,a mis-
homer. II lays its greatest stress on the
fact that a license town pulls its liquor
trade from all the towns nearby, as we'll
as from itself, and then dumps the VIC
Tins back upon their home towns for the
unpleasant phases OF the drinking habit.
7 he point, while in no sense new in
iiquor-law discussion, is welt made by
the contemporary.
Whatever this fault OF locaI-option leg
islation is worth, by way OF substituting
something else for it, it shows most en-
phaticaily Of all, the futility Of law as an
exclusive treatment for the drinking
habit. That the user Of intoxicants will
buy bis poison where he can do 50 with
the smallest degree of trouble to himself,
goes without saying. II that place is in
the next town. be will go there; II it is at
some Ohio or Kentucky distillery. the U.
). mails and the express companies are st
his service. tie can get all he can pay for
at any sime be desires. Whether he is
blacklisted at home or not, the chances are
that whiskey price list from some mail
order dealer somew here, is about the
house to tell just how be can get the stuff
and, probably, with a few whisSey
glasses thrown in.
As to town pluBdering its neighboF-
ing ones on his line, it is no more than a
town will do on every other tine. let
any town vote to license the sale OF the
various morphine preparations and let the
ten next nearest towns vote not to do so,
and the license town would be doing ne
rrafr frln fg~ ks
iEsetf. The same wcEtd be equally true
with tea, coffee. tobacco, better, cheese.
-four. cloth and the endless list Of com
mereial commodities. Towns are built
that way aud thsy always have been.
The principle is responsible for every city
in the world that is row or ever has been
commercially dominant. II is not what
man earns that makes him rich; it is the
rake-oh he gets on his neighbors' earn
ings.
That there cannot be any such thing as
ideal iocal-option is less a fault of law
than Of human nature. The changing OF
statutes, unfortunately. does not cure the
human weaknesses, avarice, appetite and
subteFfuge. Restrictive law reaches TO q
certain extent, but never, never, never,
dces it strike an evil in its vitals. The
vital thing about the whole liquor ques-
tion is right with the individual, wheth-
er be is master OF himself or whether
Rum is his master. Enough individuals
of either kind make 8 town-make it
yes or "no, +" sswet'' or "dry," and so,
too, they make q home, = county, = state
aud q nation.
The whole kernel Of the matter rests in
whether the boys form the drinking habit
or not. Here the duty OF the state, the
town, the school and the home is the
plsinest thing in the world. Everything
that all can do is none too much. Brck-
en- bottles may line the road from Brain
tree to Randolph and old soaks may stag
ger from Northield to Warren. but the
real question is. "Whst is being done to
prevent recruiting drunkards from the
youth OF Vermont 20 And under this
question come these other questions.-
What is the state doing to encourage
abstinence aud discourage inebriacy {?
What is the school doing to impress the
I lessons Of Temperament In how many Of
Vermont's 100, 900 homes is temperance
exemplified and sanctihed? What is the
Ant5-Saloon league doing for the boys
T What percentage of Vermont girls are re-
I fusipg to receive attentions from young
men wh no are in any stage OF the habit?
I Are these influences working as they
should at the root of the matter2
i In resort to law and to law -tinkering,
sometimes the quiet, personal, silent and
+ yet the most powerful forces of all in
I works of reform are allowed to become
dormant. II that situation regarding the
liquor habit in Vermont has not already
I been reached, we are unpleasantly near
/ it.-Burlington Clipper