Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-02-17
TIE QUESTION OF A H1aH LIcsEsg

THE QUESTION OF HIaE LICsksE
There is being much discussed among
our citizens just now the question of plac-
ing high license upon liquor saloons. The
subject is a local issue at Chicago, and
State issue in Illinois, and it is altogether
probable that high license will in time be
the rule there. The Chicago Tribune, in
the course of the debate, says : ga license
fee which shall at once reduce the number
of saloons to decent proportion to the
population and raise revenue of 81, 000,-
600 annually, will be sustained by great
majority of the people without reference to
their political attachments or their per.
sonal habits. The petition for high license
presented to the Legislature last week and
signed by l3, 563 voters, was the result of
giving an opportunity for signatures dur
ing one day. No effort was made to pro.
cure them" In several localities high
license now prevails, and with good effects.
1t must not be confoanded with the tenn
perance question. If the friends of tenn.
perance wish high license" applied, they
must not make it temperance issue, or
treat it's possible success as victory in the
progress of the abolition and total absti-
nence movement. A more fatal policy
than that they could not pursue. 1t is an
issue that has some relation to the temper.
ance question, but it is not due to it.
"High license will not diminish the guam
tity of good liquors used, nor will it cir.
cumscribe the privilege of any man to in
dulge. 1t will, however, place the saloon.
keeper who desires in better position in
the community, and tend to discourage
the keeping of those places where the SELL
ing of liquor is the least Objectionable of
the practices common to them, and those
other places where the workingman is taken
in and feeced, and where idleness and
debauchery are encouraged. The high
license policy is advanced as a police reg.
ulstion, and measure for the enlargement
of the revenue and the leasening of the
burden of property taxation.
As an evidence of this, Our temperance
friends must remember that the PROPOSE.
ton also comes from the liquor dealers
themselves. The first communication in
this journal on the subject was penned by
IL
time the scheme has the support of most,
if not all, thoughtful and earnest friends
of the temperance cause, and they do not
consider it mere temporiziDg measure.
The fact is, there is well. settled general
conviction that saloons are too numerous
in all communities that the revenue de.
rived from the licenses dealers pay for is
inadequate; that the low dives and the
cheap resorts where vile denominations are
retailed as beverages cost us far more, in
a criminal sense, than the revenue they
produce, and that to limit them will limit
the temptations to debauchery and crime,
and lessen the expenses of the city govern
ment.
It is suggested by thoughtful CORE.
spondent, whose letter lies before us, that
the increase of the license fee, which can
be done under our charter, should be &C.
companied by other regulations, such as
petition Of approval by given number of
citizens of good repute for each application
for license that the saloon. keeper shall
give satisfactory assurance Of his ability
and intent to keep an orderly house, and
bond that he will not sell to minors and to
habitual drunkards, and that he will not
permit gambling in any form on his prem
Uses. A saloon-keeper, in concise COM
munication, says to US " In the block
where l sell liquor there are fourteen sa-
looms, or places where liquor is sold by the
drink. Three of us can make living that
is decent and adequate, and no more. l
believe three could afford, well afford, to
pay 500 month each, for that figure
would shut up the other eleven" In this
our correspondent may be mistaken. 1t is
possible that the eleven, or number of
them, might pay the high rate. In that
case the city would be better off in the
matter Of revenue, and at no greater disad.
vantage al TO the number of saloons,
than now. There is also to be con-
sidered 'Aa fact that the increased
revenue from liquor licenses would enable
this people to do what 1T has long been de-
fees for their business followings TO a nom.
inal figure, if not indeed to abolish them
entirely. Our merchants have long con-
sidersd the license system, as applied to
them, an unjust burden. They have re-
Gently petitioned the Legislature not to
approve of any Act for the levying of any
license fee whatever. In this they went
to the extreme, and were forced to do so
in order to obtain the ends they sought
But the better plan, and one they will cor
daily approve, will be to levy thu license
tax on those who deal in the luxury OF
drink, while dealers in necessaries and
those commo dities that do not contribute
to our vices shall be relieved of the bur.
den. OF course the small dealers will to a
man oppose this heavy taxation of their
business of retailing liquors. That must
be met, and they must be given to under
stand that it is the right of the community
to SO conduct its affairs as to advance the
interests of the many. High license is
not persecution, for they have not the in-
herent right TO sell at all-they sell only
by consent of the governed who make the
laws. It may be suggested also at this
point that a modification of the high
license policy may be found wise as to the
places where beer and light domestic wines