The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-03-12
MUNICIPAL REFORM.
A Few Plain Facts That Ought to BE
Well Considered.

Law and justice, equity and personal
liberty are the fundamental principles of
this free government of ours. In and
through these things have we attained a
height which has been attained by no
other nation on earth. Of all things, JUS
tice is the more necessary, for on its scale
is everything weighed But to digress.
In few short weeks the Harper law,
which has been unanimously adopted by
our city council, will go into effect Its
workings, or more properly, its results
will be felt by one class of individuals,
and by this class alone. OF course we
mean the saloons Every man that wishes
to operate saloon must pay license of
$500 Every man who wishes to obey
the law of the land. will take out his
license and sell openly, and not in an lille
Ultimate manner. At the present time
we have over eighty saloons in the city.
Out of these eighty saloons, not more
than half of them, forty, will take out a
license for another year. The revenue,
however, derived from these forty saloons
under the Harper law, will amount to
twice as much as the revenue from the
eighty saloons during the past year
In plain parlance, if forty saloons take
out license at $500 per annum, the city
will receive a revenue of $4,000. This
| is an enormous revenue to be collected
| from one class of individuals. This
money, when it finds Its way into the
treasury of the city will be judiciously
expended. There can be no doubt of it,
if only good men are selected as alder
men. So far as the ARGUS is concerned
it is willing to vouch that the Democratic
aldermen will help to place this money
where it will do the most good. This
brings US to another fact While the
revenue will be large, the expense of
running the city need not. necessarily,
be increased. One of our contemporaries
has expressed an opinion that. with but
forty saloons instead of eighty as here
tOfore, there need not te so many men
employed on our police force. While
the ARGUS is in favor of running the city
on as economical a scale as possible, it
believes that this reform-if a reform
you could call it-would be more of q
detriment to the city that it
would be benefit. This reform would
be like cutting ones nose off to spite his
face. 1t does not naturally follow, that,
because there will be but forty saloons
against eighty last year, that the people
are going to stop drinking. There will
be as much drinking-and probably more
| this year in the forty saloons as there
was last year in the eighty saloons. And
again, it does not necessarily follow that
because the saloons are fewer that crime,
such as murder, burglary, arson, theft,
etc, is going to be less. The saloons are
not the sole cause of crime At the pres
ent time our police force is none too large
indeed, it is smaller than some cities we
know. To lessen the police force is to
place premium on crime. Our police
are not employed to arrest drunkards
| alone. They are employed, however, to
arrest drunkards. wherever they are found,
but at the same time their duties are
| far more numerous and in more
demand in other places than in
the saloons, or in hanging around
saloons, piping" off fellows in order to
get chance to run EN- in" Every
policeman On our force has beat. The
beats are large, each man traversing q
large scope of territory. To lessen the
force is calculated, not only to weaken its
efficiency, but to enlarge the already large
territory. This cannot be done in safety
No city, whose leaders are wise, will
permit such a pice of hung hole econ
omy." There are other reforms more
important than this, which could, should
and will be attended to.