The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-03-28
MORE SOBER
THAN MAINE.
Outsider Makes a Compare
son Decidedly to the Ad-
vantage of Vermont
EXPLAINS RESULT OF
LOCAL OPTION VOTE
Says It Was Brought About by indie
pendent Thinking More Drunken
ness in Bangor and Brewer Than in
Burlington and Brattleboro.

Before the election, in which Yer
mont rejected prohibition, Vermont was
dryer than prohibition Kansas. There
were in the entire state only twenty
licensed towns and sixty saloons, less
than in the business section of Boston.
1t has always been the experience in
other states that when a sufficient num-
Der of country districts had been made
. dry by local option, then the road
to statewide prohibition has been COM
paratively easy. That has always been
the policy upon which the Anti-Saloon
League laid out its campaigns-local
option first and statewide prohibition
afterward. Vermont is the first state in
recent years to go against this estab
lished order.
In rural districts, in townships and
in village, the hard-headed Vermonter
marched to the poles and voted against
| statewide prohibition whether his town
was already ''dry' or not In fact one
| easily discovered by talking to people
in the various towns, including profess
sional men, bankers, business men and
even lumberjacks, that there was a sort
of tacit understanding that no one
community had the right to tell another
community what was good for it. '.The
vermont spirit, is the way the papers
describe it. Just how far the Vermont
er went in his effort to register his vote
so that it would square with his. idea
of liberty and at the same time with
his belief in temperance is shown sby
the vote in the towns which voted on
the question of license at this same
election.
Grand Isle, the first town to report
. defeated state prohibition 70 TO 30, but
voted for local prohibition, 81 to IS
Shelburne voted 1877 to IS against state
prohibition, while the vote for license
was al to y. In South Burlington OF
state prohibition the vote was, yes 43
no s., while the vote on local licens,
] was, yes %, no 81. Underhill on state
/ prohibition voted, yes Al, no 80 and OF
local license yes 56, no IS. Williston OF
state prohibition voted yes 63, no 76
and on local license, yes 81, no 80. Nil
ton S vote on state prohibition was
| yes LOG, no l62, and on local license
yes 112, no 22S. Riehford S vote ON stat
prohibition was, yes 182, no lis and o.
local license, yes 112, no 228. Ferris
burg's vote on state prohibition wa.
l yes 50, no 105 and on local license. We
| 81, no IA. Jericho, the only other G
] these sixteen towns in addition to Ricf
/ ford to give a majority for the PER-
bill, voted, yes los, no 81, and on l.
cal license, yes %, no 1873. Richmond
vote on state prohibition was, yes s
no 100 and on local license, yes 104, /
125.
- Similar independent thinking was e
= emplifed in the leaders of the anti-pr
hibition fight The president of the We
mont Local Option league was Jam
M. Tyler, former justice of the 5
preme court. Justice Tyler, now pass,
eighty years of age, is a total abstaine
On the other hand, he does not belize
that another is to be forbidden to ha-
wine on the table, vet he is not an a
vocate of even moderate drinking I
believes that each man must decide f
himself whether he shall drink and
what extent. And what applies to t
individual must also apply to the col
munity-each unit of population shou
decide its own liquor regulations
The election was a surprise to DO
sides. The National Anti-Saloon Leag
, had conducted a Whirlwind campai
through its Flying Squadron
speakers and through advertising in /
state papers. The local optionists h
conducted their campaign almost entil
ly through newspapers. 1t is estimat
IhaC less IMAM 9ou,VoO was spent IN
campaign. The Anti-Saloon League h
expected an easy victory because
much of the state was already d
: while the claims of the local opt
MANAGERS before election were exec
ingly moderate. There were three
portant factors that determined the
suit:
Vermont s satisfaction with local
ton.
Vermont s experience with proht
ton over a period of fifty years, al
The ever-present example of Ma
prohibition just across her state line
90. The character of Vermont IS popl
, e ton has changed very little 81
civ Revolutionary times. 1t is over eig
la per cent native and. most of the pee
res