The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-03-10
Fifty Dollors or Six Months.
bennington Banner. J

Thursday the Vermont senate passed a
bill imposing fine of $50 or a six-month $
term in jail upon citizen who shall be
three times convicted of intoxication dur
ing one year Most of us know the kind
OF men who are likely to be convicted of
intoyication three times during T. months.
Every community has them. For the
most part they are poverty stricken,
nerve-broken wrecks of humanity for
whose condition the state in its failure
rigorous methods of punishment, IS, to
a considerable degree, responsible.
Medical men who have made a study
of the condition arising from the excess
sive use of alcohol are agreed that the
type of individual who is fined for intoH-
ieation three times a year III the Vermont
police courts is physically and mentally
diseased, but the only treatment that the
lawmaking body of the state prescrlbes
is an operation upon the emaclated and
aenemie poeketbook of the victim or SIX
months of inactivity in the unwholesome
surroundings of the average county jail.
Under the present statute the pocket
book operation has not been particularly
serious, $40 with court costs of half as
much more for a first treatment, but nov
it is the purpose of the senate to raise
the third offence to the dignity of major
surgery. It will require some deep cnt.
ting 10 remove $50 from the anatomy OF
the man who pays such continuous atten-
ton to the consumption OF booze that
he becomes eligible to the third degree
clinic Usually the poor devil has no
more symptoms of filthy lucre than on
the day when he first made the aequaint,
anee Of an NJ ID.
In case this bill becomes a law, how
ever, there will still remain aged parents,
wives, children and good-hearted friends
all Of whom usually needing the money
who will come across" with the $50 and
costs to keep the thirst victim out Of
jail On the other hand if the six months
sentence is imposed the man will be
placed in enforced idleness for half d
year and human energy, at the lowest
estimate worth from $500 to 800, vii
have been, wasted During this perioc
the man must become a burden upon the
state for his existence If he has fam
ily, and more often than rot he has, thost
dependent upon him are deprived OF VIVA
he might otherwise be earning. Afte
the sentence has been completed it turn
out that the released prisoner, the stat
and his family have all been losers and j
is difficult to see wherein anything look
ing toward an Improvement OF condition
has been accomplished.
Some day an enlightened society is 60
ing to take steps looking toward the re
!. covery instead of the punishment OF tn
. habitual drunkard. When a man. reache
the physical and nervous condition tina
makes him eligible for the new, regim
, proposed by the senate he isn't going t
: derive any benefit from a treatment tina
, merely deprives him of $50. Neither ]
he going to be IN any better eonditio
) to tackle the problem of existence ate
; Il half year of inactivity In a county lsi
Instead of depriving such an indivit
. nal of the few dollars that he may hay
] or may be able to secure from his rel;
tives the state some day is going to max
/ IN effort to put into use whatever abiilt
! he may have for his own benefit. lnstea
: of being made to give up money to II
state he is going to be given an opport'
nifty to earn money for himself and h
dependents Instead of being jailed
idleness for half year, as the sena
bill proposes, he is going to be seienti
cally treated for his moral and physic
!, defects. Then we will be making progre
with a big problem.