Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1911-01-11
An Opinion of Meal.

!
is working for what is best for the
state. His appointments on the
whole have been good. and he has the
happy knack of working with and
through the legislature. The members
of that body, regardless of party,
seem to respect the executive and to
desire to cooperate with him in pro-
gressivn legislation. There has been
no pulling and hauling, with the re-
suit that much has already been &C
complished. If the governor keeps on
as he has begun he will compel the
commentator Of his bitterest critics.
Bellows Falls Times.
The Limit Of Inconsistency.
House bill 1873. which would grant
the suffrage to women on the liquor
question. seems to have aroused the
familiar violent opposition against the
enactment of any legislation, amend
ing the present local option law.
whose object is to increase the inHu-
ence Of prohibition by extending the
no-license territory in Vermont.
AS usual, whenever the question is
under discussion. those pap RS, which
consider themselves the special cham
piOns of the present law. in order to
reassure the public of their disin,
terested patriotism and their deep
and increasing interest in true
temperance proceed to bring the
charge Of '.unfair and sub
terranean Methods against those
the present law has been committed
to the hands of select few, to alter
or amend, and to no one else.
! w VIII IL
cal option bill was being considered,
! it was claimed by its opponents that
! it violated the party platform, county
! option not being endorsed by the re-
| publican state convention. This year
| the changes are being rung on "p o.
hibition by stealth" In each case
the arguments advanced. either direct
or by Inference, are to the effect that
the advocates Of these measures are
not employing fair methods and that
the principle Of a square deal" is
being ignored.
An analysis of the situation disclos-
es the significant fact that the papers
which are so insistent in regard to
the ethics governing those who would
make Vermont prohibition under the
present law, are totally oblivious to-,
or in any event remarkably silent in
the face Of, the demands of the LIQUOR
interests.
For Instance, will those journals
that are ever insisting that they are
temperance papers, yet are always
criticlslng measures calculated to ex-
tend temperance territory, tell us
where and how the republican state
convention two years ago or this past
year declared for an inn-keepers' IL
cense bill? If county local option or
House bill 1873 violate the, republican
platform, what about the nn-keepers
license measure pending in the pres
ent legis lature? If House bill 1873 is
''prOhibition by STEALTH" what about
the inn-keepers' license bill being Ii
Quor Legislation by strategy?
The fact is that all this talk about
the movement for House bill 1873 being
an attempt to enthrone prohibition by
stealth, and violation of the party
pledge as set forth in the republican
state platform, is the rankest kind OF
nonsense: County option and House
bill 1873, to give women suffrage on
the question Of license, are temper,
ance measures and their purpose is tc
drive as many saloons out of business
as possible. On the other hand the
inn keepers license bill is a liquol
dealers bill, pure and simple, de.
signed to put rum selling into as
many towns as possible.
And yet, how many editorials have
appeared in these self-styled temper
ance papers arraigning the LIQUOR
dealers or MOTEL prOprietors in this
state as traitors to the party and VIC
latOrs Of the party platform seeking
! by unfair and undermined methods tC
: put on the statute books one of the
) most pernicious and in our opinion I'M
, justihabIe laws ever conceived. The
standard does not know of one.
. Again there was law passed moi
! long since for the express purpose OF
preventing the shiftless, disreputable
buns in the larger towns from voting
upon the liquor question unless theil
taxes were paid. A good law. Ant
t yet. And yet! 1t is a notorious faci
: known of all men that the main pur
] pose of that law has been defeated ant
= its spirit violated by liquor dealers
paying these delinquent taxes openly
5 In st. Adams, Burlington, Rutland
Bennington, Montpelier and Barre
$ large number of these buns, through
t the eleventh hour payment of thei
1 taxes by the liquor dealers, vote yes
every recurring March and throw
d more than. one Of these cities into the
e. license column. When and 'wher
y have the newspapers that so strenuous
n ly criticise the so-called prohibitio
t element ever made protest agains
e this increasing of the yes" vote b
e stealth? Consistency. thou art indee
d a jewel. Enosburg Standard.
6 Look for the Bee Hive