Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1915-09-23
REVIEWS AAT|-sAL0O! !. WORK
Superintendent Smith Has the
League Out of Debt.
Continuous Campaign Of Education q
Helpful Factor in Securing Steady
Decline in the License Vote
Throughout Vermont.

Four years work Of the Vermont Anti
Saloon League is reviewed by its super
intendent, the Rev. Clifford II. Smith OF
this city, In the Vermont edition OF the
American Issue as follows:
Persons invited to contribute for the
support of the Vermont Anti-Saloon
League sometimes ask what we are doing
and what results we have to show for
our work. The present executive head
OF tho league has now completed four
years Of service. and in answer to this
very proper question 1t may not be out
OF place to recall some of the things &C
complished during these years.
To begin with things of least impor-
lance, the league has adopted a new con-
stitution and bylaws under which its
board of trustees more truly represents
the churches and other temperance forces
of the State than before, and through
which It works in close harmony with
the Anti-Saloon League of America of
which 1t Is n vital part.
1t has also been Incorporated under the
laws of Vermont. and conducts its af-
fairs in accordance with the State laws
regulating corporations. It's business Is
done In businesslike way. all moneys
received and disbursed are carefully ac-
counted for. and complete financial
statement Is Issued each year.
EDUCATIONAL WORK.
The league carries on a continuous
campaign of education concerning the
nature and effects Of alcohol, the evils
of ntemperance and the progress Of the
temperance cause. This Is accomplished
through tho publication OF the Vermont
edition Of the American Issue. of which
from $500 to 1000 copies are circulated
each month. through the distribution OF
many thousand pages of printed matter
Of various kinds---for example 1900
copies Of DR.. Marvin's leaflet. alcohol
Not n Stimulant. But Narcotic Poison"
through the material furnished for Sum
day school temperance instruction and
through several hundred public address,
es and lectures each year.
An illustrated lecture called Facts and
Fancies about a Famous Fraud" has
been given by our field secretary. Albert
Y. LANG, more than n hundred times
to audiences argregnting more than 5000
people. Often those who have listened to
1t have said 1t was the most effective
temperance address they had ever heard.
The league office serves as n bureau
of information on all questions rela ting
to the temperance cause The questions
referred to us run into hundreds each
year. Ministers ask for facts for tenn
perance sermons. newspapers use our
material. leaders of temperance meetings
call for programs college and high
| school students get arguments to be used
in essa;s and debates. public speakers
and lecturers touring the State for other
temperance organizations look to us for
needed information about our laws and
conditions.
This part Of the work is especially use
full and important. and we have taken
| pains to develop 1t, but It is not work
| that can be reported in detail or used for
| public display.
| LOCAL OPTION CAMPAIGNS.
At the outset the present administration
| Of the league recognized the fact that
| the local option, high license law now
! on the statute books represents the States
present policy for the control Of the liquor
traffic and should be accepted as such
in good faith until It Is changed. Ac-
cordingly the league has given all the
| cense victories IN the several towns of
the State. The following table will show
| the results of the local option elections
| In each of the last five years, the first
! one, before the present administration
| began being given for the sake of COM
parison.