The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1915-06-09
Same Old Prohibition.

organized and now seeking additions
TO its membership list announces
that ii proposes to conduct cam
paign of education by way of con-
vincing the people of the state, if
possible, that the present system of
regulating the liquor traffic is a big
improvement over prohibition The
league has forgotten, so far. to dis
criminate between the statewide pro
hibition that so many people desire
and conditions which existed under
the old prohibitory law.-Ludlow
Tribune.
These gentlemen, are undoubtedly
sincere in their opinions that the
present law is better than the propos-
ed state wide prohibition. but we be-
lieve they win find themselves in the
minority next March The temper
ance wave is world wide and the tide
cannot be stopped by the formation
of any league that states in its plat
form that the Vermont local option
law has been a bulwark for temper
ance. The only bulwark for temper
ance is the kind of prohibition that
we are going to have after next
March and that will soon be adopted
in every state in the Union-Spring-
field Reporter.
The faith of the contemporaries in
the new brand of prohibition rep
resented by the Perry referendum
bill is almost pathetic, and the Tri-
bune, at least, is inclined to insist
that it is not the old, discredited law
repealed in 1902 which it proposes to
support, but statewide prohibition
that so many people desire"
The contemporary is more than
right He really UNDERSTANDS the
question. The Perry bill first of all
takes away the local. self-governing
feature which has kept the consci-
ence of the people awake for II years
and absolutely prohibits the manu-.
facture Or sale of alcoholic liquors for
any purposes whatever
n nurse may buy alcohol for bath
ing her patient;
No doctors prescription therefor
may be filed without violating the
law;
No chemist may purchase a solvent
for gums Or preseryatiye for com
pounds
No manufacturer may secure alco-
hol for industrial purposes;
No one may purchase alcoholic liq-
uors in the state of Vermont for any
purpose whatever.
To enforce this law, penalties of ex-
traordinary severity are provided.
The theory of the law is that by put
ting the lid down tight and provid-
ing a whacking penalty, the temper
ance' people may rest complacently
on their oars and watch the law en-
force itself
In fact. a Rutland county local OPP
zionist, who always turns out and
helps to vote his town dry" stated
the situation succinctly:-
THE temperance people are get
ting tired of these yearly fights" he
said. they want to wipe the whole
business ont and then take a rest"
In all sincerity. The Herald would
insist that true temperance is not Sc
cured in that way. 1t is slow, dis
heartening business at best, so that
the record of local option in Vermont,
changing the record of "a license
towns to 10. is almost unparalleled.
True temperance people should not
get tired so easily. Should the same
ratio hold for the next 10 years, every
town in Vermont would be no-license
by virtue of public sentiment as ex-
pressed in the annual local option
vote as the announcement OF the
Vermont local option league says
To take away this annual incentive
means that in very few years, two
or three at the outside, public inter
est in the liquor question dies out.
and the officers of the law are sup
posed TO do what today lies in every
voters hand at March meeting.
The new" brand of prohibition is
the old brand in principle, with two
or three extra threads added, which
the states attorney is supposed to
screw up. With the record of so
years before them, do Vermont vot-
ers believe he will?-Rutland Herald.