The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1915-03-10

OF many men to a prohibitory law.
They say it is an exercise by the leg
islature of arbitrary power This
NAV be unreasonable but it is fact
to be considered. The same men will
willingly abide the result when ques-
ton of license or no license has been
fairly submitted to the voters of tn /,
town.
Local option has the advantage oy-
err a prohibitory law that when d
town has voted no license it has that
towns moral support. No license has
steadily gained ground, and has been
effective in suppressing the liquor
traffic.
"A strong point In favor of local op-
ton is that for weeks before each
March meeting the question of license
or no license is widely discussed by
people in every town in Vermont
The evils of license and intemperance
are portrayed and men are induced to
kO W lile iOllb anu NOtt hO litthct
These discussions tend to make drink
ing unpopular and to advance the
cause of temperance in the state. No
tice the result: according TO Walton
Register in 1903 ninety-two towns and
cities voted license, but the number
so voting decreased year by year until
in 1914 only twenty towns and cities
voted license. With prohibitory Law
this annual canvass of the state
against license and the saloon will be
given up for there will be no field for
II. Temperance will continue to be
taught in the schools and it will be
preached and written about, but as q
living issue before the people it will
no longer exist for the state will then
have taken it out of their hands"
What makes this especially perth,
ent is the fact that Mr.. Perry the rep
resentative from Brattleboro, was the
introducer of the bill for submission
of prohibtory act TO 2 referendum,
which has passed the House and is
now before the Senate The Refor-
mer says that il Mr.. Perry had any in
tentions of Gathering such PROPOSE
tion he successfully concealed them
before his election. Had he announC
ed his position he could not have
been elected. the Reformer AYERS.
This is in line with a good deal OF
the so-called sentiment in favor OF re-
submission. Unquestionably there
does exist throughout the state con-
siderable opposition to the local OPP
tion law Much of it rests upon deep
seated principle that might almost :.
called prejudice-the idea that even
faulty prohibitory law, which ac-
complished less in the direction OF
real temperance than any form OF IL
cense, would be preferable to the lat
ter. This sentiment is irreconcilablt
and can never be dissipated under any
array OF facts. But what very many
people want. regardless of names, is
the system that will give Vermont the
use of intoxicating liquor. Some of
these people stood for state prohi-
bition in the old days because they
believed that with all its weaknesses
it was better than local option would
be- Some of these have watched the
local option law in operation and find
that it is an improvement as q TEN.
perance measure. They see the traffic !
limited and localized TO a degree it |
never was under prohibition They |
see the legitimate wants of the peo- |
pie for acknowledgements entirely un- |
related to beverage uses-supplied in |
a legitimate way. They see an alb |
sence of the friction, the favoritism, |
the graft, the humbue, the hypocrisy, |
the lying, the continuous and con- |
Lemptible farce that attended the So
called enforcement of state prohib !
ton. They see the question put up 20 |
the voters of each community each |
year and settled and carried out ac- |
,ording to the settlement They see |
the number of saloon towns decreas-
ing year by year under q constantly |
local sentiment that means
heir ultimate extinction-means the
end of beverage traffic in Vermont !
jar or friction, and, that much |
sooner than it will ever GOMEZ about |
through a forced process that over
'ides the feeling of the communities. I
These people. many of whom sup
ported prohibition because they knew
nothing better then, will support local
option now if 1t comes to submission.
Judge Tyler represents them fairly in
his lucid statement. They each and
I'll vote mo" every year and will con-
inue to do so in their respective
owns. But they believe local option
Is a system is a better and truer
temperance measure than attempted
statewide prohibition would be, ana
for that reason especially will they
-