Vermont Prohibition by Traveler

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 12, 1883

Vermont Prohibition.

By Traveler

THE LIQUOR QUESTION SOLVED.

This is a State that has come nearer a practical solution of the liquor question, so far as the prohibition features of the case are concerned, than any State in the union. The prohibitory law here is very severe, and the sentiment of the people of the State generally is one of commendable vigor. A man is not only arrested and fined, but he is compelled to say where he obtained his liquor, and is used as a witness against the seller. The sale of liquor is carried on by a town agent appointed for the purpose, who can sell it only upon the certificate of a practicing physician, and a record is kept of the name of the person, the amount sold, together with the certificate upon which it is sold. Violation of the law is punishable by imprisonment in the State's Prison for a term of years. The result is that in over 8 per cent. of the towns of this State the sale of liquor for use as a beverage is practically unknown.

In the larger towns, like Rutland, Burlington, St. Albans, Brattleboro, and Montpelier, there is some laxity, and liquor can be purchased at the hotels by travelers, and by some of the local tipplers in whom the vender has confidence; but the hazards of the traffic reduce its evil effects to the minimum. The result is that the class upon whom the distressing influences of a comparatively unlimited traffic press with the greatest weight, are benefited by the prohibiting restrictions. Even among the poor, ragged and ill-clad children are almost unknown, and many a dollar that is earned through the week, instead of reaching the rum-seller's till on Saturday night, is expended for shoes for the wife or a frock for the baby. It is a fact no one can dispute that in no State of the Union are the laboring classes so well housed, clothed, and fed as in Vermont, and this is due solely to the fact that by a rigid prohibitory law the earnings of the laborer are not squandered for intoxicants.

Another effect of this legal restriction, and one quite as important, that the prohibition sentiment of the State is being constantly strengthened. The young grow up regarding the violation of the liquor law as wrong, like the infraction of any other statute. A rum-seller is regarded more and more as a criminal, and is ostracised accordingly. A man would be laughed at who would talk here about a respectable saloon or a respectable rum-dealer. You will hear in Vermont little said about personal liberty, for the traffic has so long been under the ban that the privilege of getting drunk is looked upon not as a right but as a thing to be prevented. Nor is it true as a rule, that the drinking of liquor has been transferred from the saloons to the closets of private houses. In my many calls upon friends of twenty years ago, in this State at their own homes, in no single instance has the decanter been produced or mentioned. For over thirty years Vermont has had a rigid prohibitory law, and there is not a saloon in the State. If any one thinks prohibition does not prohibit, let him make a tour of the State and see. The result is that there is less crime, pauperism, and distress in Vermont than in any other State. Its churches are larger and its schools are better attended than in any other similarly populated region upon the globe. Its poorer classes are less poor, and its laborers are more thrifty and prosperous, than in any State in the union. With all her faults, Vermont has set an example that any of her sister commonwealths might follow to the benefit of their people and the prosperity of the State.—"Traveler," in the Lever.