The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-07-21
The Prohibition Party.
To the Editor of the Journal.

In your editorial on above subject,
July 2, you ask: rs there any real
need for Prohibition party?" At
ter a discussion, evidently intended
to be fair, you conclude with:
There is no real demand for the ex-
istence of such a party" Your con-
cluson would be beyoud question,
if every voter had no conscientious
convictions against voting the ticket
Of license party Both the Republic
can and Democrat. particles in Yr-
mont and largely II. the Nation, are
surely not for prohibition, and so far
as they have any declared policy it is
for some form of license. Now, as
Lincoln said Of slavery, we can as
justly say of the saloon. The saloon is
right or the saloon Is wrong. If the
saloon is right local option Is right;
if the saloon is wrong local option is
wrong. If the thing is wrong, the
party that sanctions it is wrong and
a Legislature has no moral or con-
stitutional right to establish a wrong,
or permit a majority to establish
wrong in community That the
saloon is right, no party advocates.
That it is wrong is proven by the Re-
publican platform just. adopted. The
only business of the saloon is to sell
alcoholic liquors. The Incorporate
use of which results in the mani
fold and wide spread evils" charged
against it by the platform.
In accordance with well establish
ed principles of law, other evils are
forbidden with penalties, like selling
opium, morphine, cocaine, etc. Lot
teries gambling, prize fighting, bucket
shops, polygamy, etc, but this saloon
evil is made special political ex-
ception, to which the general princi-
pie of the legal prohibition of evils
with penalties is said not to be prac-
ticable The fact however, that "the
manifold and wide spread evils re-
sulting from intemperance in the use
of alcoholic liquors" are more than
double under local option what they
were under prohibition in Vermont,
shows that prohibition law, in the
hands of Republican officials who are
Indifferent or hostile to it, gives bet
ter results, by far, than local option
license in the hands of its friends. The
kind of prohibition advocated by the
prohibition party is not simply a
law on the statute book in the hands
OF enemies, but with a party behind
it pledged to its enforcement. Even
in Republican Kansas, with consti-
tutional prohibition, Governor Hoch
says; The State has wonderful pros
perity." Over 500 per capita in the
banks. Over one half of the 105
counties sent no prisoners to the pen
itentiary last year. One third of
their counties have no prisoners in
their iails or paupals in then poor
houses; and half of their prisoners
come from license States, never hav-
ing been in Kansas long enough to
gain a residence. In a word he said:
Prohibition has been great benefit
to ~ State morally ed1sationally
and financially. Where is the license
local option State with such a record?
Surely its name is not Vermont.
One important reason why there is
{ demand for a Prohibition party in
Vermont is, that without it, it is i'm
possible for a voter to cast a ballot
at the State election in September
for a referendum, for prohibition or
against license, Both old parties are
a unit on the license local option, and
; vote for either party ticket will of
necessity be for local option, most
certainly not against it, for the first
: draft Of the liquor plank declared for
local option, and the amended plank
did not declare against it, nor adyo-
cate a referendum directly The Pro-
hibition platform declares for ref
erendum for prohibition and against
license, and there are voters in YER
mont who insist upon voting directly
for that kind Of a ticket, as it is a
moral inconsistency for a man who
believes in prohibition, to support
the ticket Of a party that permits IL
cense. 1t now becomes evident that
the Prohibition party ticket is a
need" in Vermont, as elsewhere to
enable not only the members of the
Prohibition party but members of
other parties to vote for a referen-
dunn, for prohibition and against the
license policy. If this point can be
brought clearly before the minds of a
few thousand voters in Vermont
that the only possible way to vote for
a referendum as well as for prohibi-
ton and against license is to vote
the prohibition ticket, the issue viii
be elected if the ticket is not. There Is
nothing politician can appreciate so
forcibly as an opposition vote. ana a
few thousand conscience votes for
\ the Prohibition ticket in September
would carry more light to the minds