The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-07-30
Would Have Intoxicating
Liquors Defined as Five
Per Cent Alcohol
WOULD INCREASE
TAX ON BIG AUTOS
Favors a $4,000 Man to Have Charge
of Road Construction - Opposed to
Vermont Primary Law - Addresses
Burlington Chamber of Commerce.


Burlington Chamber of Commerce.
BURLINGTON, July 3O.--Frank w.
Agan OF Ludlow, candidate for the
nomination for the governorship on the
Republican ticket, was the speaker at
luncheon of the Chamber of Com
meree held at the Hotel Vermont yes
terday and attended by 60 Burlington
business men. The principal topics
dealt with by Mr.. Agan, were the 18th
amendment, the Volstead act, state
rights, personal liberty and the road
question.
Mr.. Agan strongly defended the 10
cal option law which he helped to pass
in 1902 On the subject of the Vol
stead act, he declared that it should
not be modified, but should be replaced
by another enforcement act, which
would fix the line, defining intoxicat-
ing liquors at per cent. If this were
the case, he said, the states could cut
down the percentage, but they could
not raise it.
lie declared that the issue was to be
fought out OH wet and dry lines in
every town in the state at this cleo
| ton, and the people would ask whether
or not the candidates for the legisla
| ture stood for the local option law. In
speaking of the manner in which the
| 18th amendment had been ratified in
Vermont, Mr. Agan charged that l55
men had gone to Montpelier and had
| given away the right of $4,000 people
| At no other time than during the stress
| of war could such an act have been
passed, he said.
cit couldn t be now or it couldn t
| be five years from now he said
| '.Scven years are allowed in which to
| pass the ratification but it was forced
| through by the legislature. when there
wa plenty of time To submit it to the
| people The whole truth of the matter
is that those in favor of the act did
| not dare submit it to the people.
con every occasion that such action
| has been submitted to the electorate.
the majority have been overwhelmingly
| in favor of the local option law a
| shown by the defeat of the Perry bill.
! I'm voting away the liberties of Yer
monters, the legislature has voted
| AWAY rights which were fought for by
| Vcrmonters and which were guaranteed
| them by the state constitution
| Mr.. Agan made it plain that not in
| this election would men 90 to Montpel-
| Ter without making clear their stand
! on such matters to the voters.
On the subject Of good roads, Mr.
| Agan declared the present system of
| automobile taxation was wrong, because
| it was not equally distributed in the
| taxing of automobiles. Under the pres
cnt law, he said, the man owning a
| $1,000 ear, is taxed only according to
| horse power and might be paying $40
| while the owner of a 500 machine
| would be taxed SO, The big car takes
| five times out of the road as the
small car did he said
| As compared with TIE man who
owned his own home, the owner of the
big car is only paying small fraction
| of the taxes cXacted of the home owner
of equal value, according to Mr. Agan
| He favored increasing road receipts
| from automobI,~ -..uney to twice the
present amount by taxing the big ma
chimes more. They in turn would be
! benefited because this money, when put
| into roads. would bring great savings
in the wear and tear on machines, tires
and gasoline. He quoted statistics to
! prove that the saving would amount
! to millions of dollars per year if the
| raw III th"S" FePsects Incorporated the
minimum reached in some states.
Mr. Agan also favors a complete
change in the method of spending the
| state 5 road money. He would have
a competent man in charge-not u
$4,000 man, but an engineer capable
of earning 10000 lie would dispense
with the idea Of road commissioner
| going through the country with a poe
| ketful of money, placing few dollars
! here and there. He said the trouble in
getting people on the farms is not the
/ work but the isolation. He also advo-
! Gated the French system of road build
| ing, which stresses the Importance of
| drainage, a powerful factor in the pres
/ ervation of roads he declared
lie said that whether he was nomi-
|