The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1916-01-31
PRO AND CON
OVER LIQUOR
Continued from first page.l

formed saloon and a decent liquor traf
fc.
Finally the people took the problem
out of the hands of politicians and es-
tablished local option by precincts, towns
or districts. Here the speaker paused to
give his audience his own intimate
knowledge of local option by precincts in
Delaware, Somerset county, where pro-
hibition one side of a city or town street
meant that across the road a saloon
flourished. Local option is too local for
national wrong and .eo optional for a
moral issue, said DIR. Wilson. 1t undoes
the work of church and home and school.
The liquor traffic is a national wrong
and its only remedy is national prohibit
ton, he went on At this point DIR. Will
son briefly reviewed the rapid strides
which prohibition has made among the
states, Local option, he declared, is too
temporary to settle the most absorbing
issue of the day. If the traffic is wrong
it ought to be settled permanently, even
as the cases against slavery, piracy, lot
terry, etc, were settled for all time in
America. Again, local option has been
given fair trial; it is good. maybe, but
not satisfactory; it is sufficient, perhaps,
but not efficient.
He went on to contend that some
states tried prohibition when scientists
didn't know what alcohol is. The laws
under which prohibition was tried in
other years would create only amuse-
ment if subjected to the scrutiny Of mod
ern advocates Of prohibition Half baked
Temperance agtators, he said, were re-
sponsible for ill.advised, inadequate pro
hibition laws that are no more like the
prohibition laws enforced to-day than
bean and an apple. They-th laws OF
old-tme prolibitory regimes leaky. |
| The drug stores leaked, the kitchen bars
leaked and so did the blind tigers leak
whiskey The old Vermont law was
joke. The Maine law is obsolete.
DIR. Wilson paid particular attention
to Kansas, bleeding Kansas, where the /
governor has a standing offer of $4,000 /
any man who will show him where he
can purchase a drink. OF all persons
who took advantage Of a restricted priv
ilege of having whiskey shipped in to
them from other states, only two were
Americans, the speaker said, and even
the foreign element, as he called it. is
slackening its efforts to get booze. The
speaker referred to the prohibitory steps
tsken in other countries, mentioning
Sweden, China, Iceland. without its jail,
Norway with a model prohibition law,
Germany, where the kaiser is bound to
have a sober army, France with its re-
strictions on absinthe, Russia with its
Of the traffic in vodka swift
erland Belgium and Holland Mr.. Will \
son related Interestingly his appearance
before the congressional committee
which has in its hands the bill for con
stitutional prohibition IN the nation. He
stated that 10 Of the II members are
favoring the bill and that one of the -
number informed him only recently of I
the Importance attached to Vermont's !
action on the referendum in March, He
quoted a congressman as saying that the S
effect of Vermont's stand I
n March win be felt throughout the (
country, especially in Washington.
In conclusion to one Of his most tell 4
ng arguments, Dr. Wilson said. OYER. 1
mont is the only state TO vote on prohi- v
ion in March. Six are to follow on
in the fall and they are y
ooking toward Vermont. Give the good p
ause the benefit of the doubt and vote T
ight" n
Editor Hanson's Reply v
Editor Hanson, while sitting the evil 4
enee OF his opponent carefully, and So
erly addressing himself at all times to
rguing for local option, managed to in 4
eet a good bit of humor into his speak r,
~. He was very happy in relating uu- 7
ierous anecdotes Of his own experiences
18th prohibition in the Pine Tree state.
n the beginning he said; Il am opposed
o prohibition as factor in promoting
amperanee I believe in temperance. L
ersonally, and practice it, not by proxy
) do some who vote prohibition for the
enefit of their neighbors. l hold no
REF for the brewer or for the saloon
eeper. But years and years of obserya-
on and experience have convinced me
loroughly that prohibition and temper
ace are not even second cousins"
Seventy years of prohibition in Maine
ere described UNANIMOUSLY by the news
sper man from Belfast. Prohibition,
, said, has lived desultory existence
Maine since ls47. but il hasn't vet
we'd long enough to shake its swaddling 8
othes. II has never cut a tooth despite
Imerous attempts to give Names pro-
bitory law the very things il has al
avs lacked, teeth In REPUTATION of the I
aim that Names law is obsolete and I
like other laws that are designed for
common purpose, Mr.. Hanson traced, l
ep by step, the tinkering that the
aine law has undergone.
The hard cider clause was inserted
iginally 70 please the farmers. be said,
I without the privilege Of making hard
Ter, the rural electorate would have
en- IN arms against the law. IN pass
2 the local optionist expressed his
inion that there il more bell in a pint
hard cider than IN q barrel Of lager
-. He said that murder has been
and in Maine hard cider. Amendments
re passed IN lsss and in ls62 the fact 4
4 $4,000 representJ@ the profits Of