The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-03-01
THE PHILADELPHIA DRINKING
SALOONS

The number of drinkings saloons officially
reported in Philadelphia is 4159; and it is
estimated that nearly 5000 places at which
liquor is sold are not embraced in this list, SO
that there are about seven thousand rum
mills, of high and low degree, in constant
operation. If we grant that it is neither
liquor law, and concede that
the raging thirst of confirmed
inebriates or the Unsuitable appetites of
lovers of intoxicating beverages will prompt
them to override or evade all restrictive sta
tutes, the great question still remains
whether civilized and Christianized commu-
nifty cannot and should not prevent such an
immense number of saloons from Haunting
temptation at every street corner, and hold
ing out Irresistible lures to the weak and
wavering at every favorite resort. Even
where vice cannot be extirpated, much
may be accomplished by diminishing
the number and extent of its allurements;
and the temperance men, moderate drinkers,
and confirmed inebriates of Philadelphia, one
and all, should seriously inquire whether, for
the interests of all concerned, the present
system OF licensing is not about the worst
that could possibly be devised. 1t springs in
a great measure out of the deep hostility
manifested by the temperance men some
years ago to the old system of having tavern
licenses granted exclusively by the courts, and
of furnishing all who sold liquor without such
a license; and whatever may have been the
there can be no doubt that they
have practically made bad worse,
multiplied temptations, and increased the
number of victims of intemperance.
What can be done to remedy so startling an
evilp To let matters take their present
course is the worst possible policy. AS first
step towards reform the whole question should
be handed over, in financial sense at least,
to the control of the city. AS matters are
now arranged the whole burden imposed by
intemperance falls directly upon this munich
pality, which they must pay, in supporting
the County Prison, the Almshouse, and the
police, about two millions of dollars per
annum, while the State derives the whole
revenue from tavern licenses 1t obtains from
this source but a meagre pittance-only few
hundred thousand dollars annually-or about
one dollar for every ten that Philadelphia
must spend in consequence of the sale of
liquor within her limits. Such regulation is
so manifestly unjust that it has been
abandoned elsewhere, and Philadelphia is
probably the only large city in the United
States so shamefully swindled by unjust legis-
lation. If there is no other way of getting
at this matter, let the State Legislature pass
law requiring Philadelphia to pay the
average sum now derived by the State from
the taverns in this city, with the understand
ing that our municipal authorities, or an
excise board, can impose such a tax as they
deem proper upon our drinking saloons By
this change a municipal revenue of from
100000 to $1,000,O00 could easily be
raised; the police force could be required to
insist upon its collection and to aid in the
arrest of those who sought to evade it; and,
in the financial aspect of this matter, one
crying source of injustice would be removed.
AS an additional help, the system proposed
by Gerrit Smith, at National Temperance
Convention, few years ago, might also be
adopted. It would make the haters of bad
and especially injurious liquor allies, to some
extent, OF the prohibitionists, instead of their
inveterate foes. This end could be attained
by subjecting to punishment, by the courts,
the unscrupulous vendors of poisons labelled
whisky or brandy, just as a man who habitu-
ally poisoned his fellow-beings by dispensing
arsenic or strychnine would be punished. A
woman died suddenly in the southern part of
this city few days ago, and one of the wit
nesses at the inquest testified that the imme-