Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-04-10
DISCRIMINATION IN LICENSES.

Some days ago we spoke in favor of 9
discrimination being made between the
county and city licenses for the sale o.
liquor and beer, and advocated that the
license for beer be considerably lower
than the license for liquor. The more we
have thought over the matter, the more
convinced we have become that it should
be done, as it will be more of benefit to
the community at large and will greatly
lessen the evils of intemperance, the
curse of the age.
Doubtless it will be urged that the
drinking of beer but leads to the drink
ing of liquor, and that the one is an in
ducement to the other. This is in part
true; but is not the step from beer drink
ing to liquor drinking oftener made be-
cause beer and liquor are kept at the same
place now and from the fact that thelicense
for either is the same, than from any
other cause? With the license for beer
as high as the license for liquor there can
be no choice as to which will be kept, and
in consequence both are kept. And then
the class of drunken loafers who infest
our streets are an entirely
different class from those who would go
to a beer hall, and yet would never go
to liquor saloon. The whisky dives
with which our town is infested would
be fewer, and those who kept liquor
saloons would keep liquors that the COM
mon drinker could not afford to buy, and
would be as much interested in the sup
preston of an illicit sale of liquors as the
county and city officials themselves.
The great majority of those who would
keep, liquors and wines would be
of a class of more means, and would
not allow of such scenes of beastiality
in their places as are now seen in the
more common saloons. 1t is not neces-
sary to name any particular saloons in
town, but all know the difference between
the saloons by the manner in which vast
crowds of men lounge around them, those
being the worst places where the greatest
crowds are and where beer and poor
whisky flow promiscuously. The best
of saloons can never be made places of
great tone, but they can be made decent,
and the way in which to do it is to keep
the license high enough to crowd out the
dive saloons.
Another reason for the discrimination
of licenses for beer and liquor is that in
communities where beer predominates
over liquor, there is vastly less drunken
ness. Take as an example the beer gar
dens of Milwaukee where all classes
meet, and where boisterous and rowdy
conduct is not known. Is this not attrib-
utable to the fact that they are beer gar
dens and that no whisky is to be had in
them? If a man asks his friends to drink
beer with him for an evening he intends
to be social while if he invites them to
drink liquor with him for an evening, he
intends, as rule, to get drunk With the
one there will be hilarity possibly;
while at the other there will probably be
brutality
The brewing interests of our city and
county are very extensive and furnish
large markets for the surplus barley of
the farmers, and give employment to
great numbers of men,, 1t is not so with
the liquor business. All the liquors of
the town arSimported, and if there were
as little harm in liquor drinking as in
beer drinking, still distilling is not local
industry, while brewing is, and should be
encouraged as such as much as possible. |
We would not he understood as favoring
drinking saloons, but we would be under
stood as favoring a much lower license
for beer halls and the sale of beer than |
for liquor saloons and the sale of whisky,
for the reason that we believe this dis
elimination would lessen intemperance in
our midst and place the liquor traffic
under better control. The conflicts be-
.ween the city and county authorities and
he saloon keepers have always been
started and kept going by the liquor men
ather than by the beermen. Weearnestly
md respectfully invite the officers who
AVE control of the subject to give the
natter their attention, believing that
hey will be inclined to make the dis
we advocate.