The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-03-22
The Referendums.
(Randolph Herald and News

RdnOOlpn herald ana News
When the legislature of 1915 voted |
to submit the Perry statewide prohibit
tory act, we felt-~and said at the time
that the step was unwarranted. There
had been no unmistakable demand for
submission. Though there was undoubt |
ed opposition to the local option sys |
tenn by those who through principle OPP |
posed it, the public generally appeared |
measurably well satisfied. Especially |
was this true of a large number of |
voters who received local option in
1908 unwillingly, but from later OBJ
servation saw its superiority as sys-
tenn over statewide prohibition. There
had been in 1915 no special agitation
Tor return to prohibition. No leading
| political party had demanded it. The
| platform of the dominant party had
for two campaigns ignored it as a de-
this, answering the pressure exerted
from an organized quarter, the legisIa-
ture voted for submission
The result of last week must be ex-
tremely disappointing to the proponents
of statewide prohibition. The nearly
/ two to-one majority for local option has
postponed indefinitely the hope of add
ing Vermont to the column of dry states
!; In the national movement for prohibi-
ton. 1t has committed Vermont to a
further experience with local option,
; and has settled the question conclusive
! ly for the near future. From the
standpoint of those who urged the trial
of strength it must now be conceded
that nothing was gained and much lost.
And Vermont s verdict will count,
for special reasons, more than that of
: states that have shifted their position
recently. First, because Vermont is
commonly regarded as the land of sober
: thinking and common sense, where vot-
ers are not apt to act unadvisedly. See
ondly because Vermont has lately made
trial of both systems, which no other
9 state in the Union has done within sc
t short a time. Practically the same vot
n ing element that in 1908, after fifty
!. years of statewide prohibition, adopt
ed local option by fewer than 900
: plurality, in 1916 endorsed its former
} verdict by almost 1900. This result
l. carries more weight by far than tn,
; action of some other state, which, dis
satisfied with one system, turns to tn,
. other alternative, with which it has haC
e no actual experience. Though there
has admittedly been q trend TO pro
II hibition in the South and West in re
cent years, these states still have t,
make their test of the new system ant
learn for themselves its weaknesses, a
he well as its points of strength.
O. There is no denying that the principl
.f of local option applied to the iquo
! question commends itself to Vernon
after 13 years of trial That it is ia
i from being an ideal method, few woul
Is deny. But the annual register by tn
IF voters of all the several eommunitie
and the disposition to let the majorit
no rule in the matter appeals to the sens
OF of pride and Importance of citizenship
no And it has its effect in the enforcement
re of the verdict
u One peculiar, though perhaps natura
No effect of the referendum, is the shgf
es increase this year in the number c
le license towns, following an almost un
ty form decrease. It is remarkable, undt
la the circumstances, that the number We
not larger. Town after town vote
~ overwhelmingly against statewide pre-
on hibition, but by as heavy a vote d
he clared against the saloon for then
NC selves. The voters in most eases SCENE
to know just what they wanted ar
- how to get it. But the general tighter
tor ing of lines did bring about in a fe
ce- instances local result that, withol
err the big stirup, might not have ensue
.o The voters accepted a definite pr
posal for a direct primaries system
a majority that cannot be doubted
questioned as a pronouncement in fay
.lxs of its trial. Interest in this questit
was less keen and the verdict is OF
AS that may be considered in the light
d a temporary undertaking. The oper
ore ton of the system will be its real te'
of The law is an honest one, true 70 t
intent of statewide, open primal
use and the trial will be made under fave
ma able conditions.
red