Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1912-01-10

cannot fail to waken a healthy public
sentiment that eventually will force
action.
There are three matters that
deserve careful thought and intelll-
gent legislative action at this time.
The care of the drunkard, the care OF
morally and mentally deficient adults
and children and a more prompt and
efficient method of detecting and pun
ishing crime. To treat all these sub
jects in one article would make it SO
long few could read it. So we Will
give attention to only the first at this
time.
Vermont's law making the drunk
ard a criminal and attempting to
punish him as such has proven a fail
ure because the offence of in~toxication
is not serious enough to merit suffi-
cient punishment to effect any moral
reform in the criminal. Perhaps it
would be difficult to find a better
method for the punishment Of most
first offenders than the present public
trial and imposition of a small fine,
because these first offences should be
treated early enough so the offender
could reform of his own free will and
the disgrace of ia public conviction
should spur him to make such a re-
form. But for the man who has be-
come so confirmed in the habit of US
ing Intoxicating liquor to excess that
legal punishment is no deterrent, the
fine and short terms of imprisonment
are generally harmful. In the first
place the imprisonment is SO short
that he cannot gain the moral
strength necessary to reform himself
md it also brands him as a criminal
and handicaps him in an effort to Sc
cure a respectable living after he is
released. Thirdly it oftens leaves his
family without mean of support and
abets pauperism.
The state should cease it's attempt
to make the convicted drunkard pay
the cost of his trial and punishment
and then make the penalty of his
offence simply enough to care fol-
those expenses. It shorld make the
confinement of the victim long enough
to be of real assistance in breaking
him of the habit. It should allow
him a fair compensation above the eX
pense of his board and restraint. IL
the case of a married nan this com
pensation should go to the support O.
his family and be expended by tn,
overseer Of the poor if the family i
IOG COI1lpCICLb " use y JuuICIOuoly
In the case of an unmarried man i
r should be deposited in d bank subjec
\ to his call when he has been released
. Confinement under these condition
would work little hardship on the ma
/ himself and would certainly be NOR
l beneficial to his family than to hav'
g him at liberty and spending his none
for liquor and subjecting them to tn
abuse of an intoxicated brute. tn
: amelioration of the conditions of hi
S confinement would justify the longe
4 term. It might transform the cor
firmed drunkard from a worthless an
irresponsible person into a self-sur
8 porting and self-respe"ting man. ]
e certainly should be continued until
had accomplished these ends.
This work could probably be hes
5 done in a state reformatory rathe
e than a state penal institution. But q
Vermont has only penal institutions
might first be undertaken in them
Z an effort to reform. If it shout
: prove successful it would be but
S short time before another institutio
q would be necessary. Release fro
such confinement should always be O
probation for a term locg enough
establish a mans mastery over his al
petite. and violation Of his parole sui
iect him to another raformatory per
cd of confinement. In using the wor
v confinement we do not mean absolut
q confinement. This class OF prisoner
Y would be one in which the honor syt
tenn might be tried with most BEN
= fetal results and it might even
u carried so far as to allow them to
housed in buildings separate from tt
penal institutions. If our statemer
arouse thought on this matter it wi
be an aid to what We believe
worthy cause.-St. Johnsbury Cal,
DOMAIN.