The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-02-21
Advocates Prohibition for
Vermont i'm Talk i'm
Baptist Church
IN CRIME
UNDER LOCAL OPTION
Cleaning Out of Brewery and Two Hotel
Barrooms Due to Business Growth,
He Says, Rather than Local Option
Sentiment.

Attorney Clarke G. Fits made
strong argument In behalf Of state pro-
hibition in a talk 10 men in the First
Baptist Bible school yesterday forenoon
In the Baptist church. BY invitation he
went with his class of young men Of
the Congregational Sunday school aud
spoke at a union meeting of the men ;
classes.
Mr.. Fits said that he did not make
up has own mind as 10 whether TO sup
port the Perry bin until he had made
careful study of what the actual fie-
ures showed had been the working of
the local option law. That study had
demonstrated TO him that Vermont can
not afford 10 continue under local op-
tlon. The cost Is too much and the
peril IS too great
lie said that any man who believed
that licensed saloons were n good thing
for Brattleboro should vote against the
Perry bill. But the voters Of Brattle-
boro had year after year for the last 10
years expressed their view with en-
phasis that licensed saloons are not
wanted here. Ii is fair to assume then
that the question to a large majority
OF voters Is simply and only whether II
IS better TO close the door permanently
10 license or to continue TO vote every
year locally AID take the chance that
this town and the other towns about
US will continue to vote "no.v
No right-minded man can wish for 4
return of the conditions which existed
II Brattlehoro during the two wears
that we had license. II was a 5ebaueb
OF rum selling and intoxieation and
things got 50 bad that the licenses were
cancelled during the last year.
lie said the difficulty was that there
Is no real local option. Guilford voted.
not on the question whether Hauor
should be sold in Guilford 10 Guilford
people, but really whether there shorlld
be a saloon at Algiers. whose principal
business would be selling LIQUOR TO Brat
tleboro people. Vernon votes. not for
Vernon. but whether there shall be n
saloon located at the borders Of North
held, Mass. BrattlebOro votes. not for
itself alone, but for the whole surround
ing country. Licensed saloons in Brat
tleboro spread their baneful influence
all over the adjoining towns and tho
whole extent of the West River valley.
Townshend aud Newfane and Dunn
merston have a vital interest IN the
question whether there shall be licensed
saloons in Brattleboro because thev snf-
fer If we 20 license.
Then again the burden Of the inereaS-
ed cost OF government j. put upon the
taxpayers Of the whole state. Town
lines mean but little. Town lines were
established by the secretary in the Office
OF Governor Wentworth in old Colonial
times, without any regard to the natural
location of population, so there's no
logic at all in the idea Of town local
option. The local option law passed IN
l9O5 has caused a tremendous increase
IN crime in Vermont
For the last i years under prohibi
tlon there were total number of com
mltments to the Vermont state prison
OF sl2. For the first II wears under
local option the total Commitments
were ,l73, an increase of IL per cent.
For the last u wears of prohibition
the number of commitments to the
house OF correction for intoxieation was
l,25i. For the first u years under local
option 1T was 1902, an increase of 1qI
per cent. Commitments TO the house az
correction for breach OF the peace for
the last four years under prohibitio,
were 251, the first four years under local
option 552, an increase of II9 per cent
The whole state has TO pay the bill.
Under the local option law the cost of
administering our penal institutions has
jumped tremendously. II is safe to saw
the cost of administering criminal las.
IN Windham county for minor offence
has more than doubled under tho Ioe.I
option law. The taxpayers in Brattle-
boro have to help paw these bills. %
when Rutland, Burlington aad Benning-
ton vote for license they are adding the