West Virginia freeman. (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1881-1886, 1885-10-07
VIRGINIA FREEMAN
The High-License Revival.


rus of utterances from many quar-
tiers in favor of so-called "high IL
,cense." Just what constitutes
*'high" license is by no means
clearly defined. 1t may mean a Il
cense-fee of 800, or $500, or 81, 900.
But whatever the sum exacted, in
consideration of its payment the
holder of the license issued there
for is authorized by the State to
open his saloon and to sell intoxi-
cants according to law"
The liquor-Iicense system has
long been the subject of discussion
in connection with the temperance
reform. 1t has over and over again
been shown to be false in principle
and ruinous in results. The differ
ence of 800, or $500, or $1,000 in
the amount of the license-fee does
not, and cannot, make one iota of
d ference with the principle in
volved and the immortality of the
traffic LOCALIZED. Nor is alcohol
sold under a $500 or $1,000 IL
cense any less poison to those who
drink it, any less likely to beget
disease, poverty, vice and crime.
The journals, the clergymen, and
Others who help to swell the pres
ent hig h-license chorus assume that
adding a few dollars-one hundred,
or five hundred, as the case may be
will greatly lessen the number of
saloons and diminish the quantity
OF intoxicants sold, and, conse-
quently, prove "practical" tenn
perance measure. But this is sheer
assumption. We have yet to see
any well-attested proof of their
claim. On the contrary, there is
abundant and indisputable evil
dence that, under what has been
called ''high license" in some cases
the saloons have actually increased
in number; and where they have
been lessened in numbers, the few
er saloons, with increased attrac-
tions, have done more business, and
drunkenness and drinking have
been in nowise diminished. The
Lincoln (Neb.) Register but con-
firms much other kindred testimo-
ny from Nebraska, when it says:
Under the high-license law of this
State, the saloons flourish; the
men who keep them grow rich and
defy the law in every city. Sun
days the saloons in Lincoln are
open. Liquors are sold to chill dren
who are too young to talk plain.
The saloons here are steadily in
creasing." Nebraska, it will be re-
membered, was the birthplace of
high license. The Secretary of the
Liquor Dealers Association of Ne
braska says: "The thousand dollar
license has in no measure decreas-
ed the amount of liquor consumed"
Des Moines, Iowa, tried a thousand
dollar license "only to find" says
the Des Moines Register, "that it
has increased the number of its sa-
looms and the daily cases of drunk
enness." Kindred results have fol-
lowed high-license regulation in
Missouri and Illinois. The Chica-
go Tribune, the most Jealous organ
of high license in the country, says:
The saloon keepers, as class, do
not suffer, tor those who remain in
the business have larger sales and
greater profits under the high
license system than they have I'M
der the low-license system. At
.Plainfeld, New Jersey, where the
license fee was raised to $500, the
saloons have increased three in
number, and, says the Plainfeld
Central Neao Jersey Times, rum and
beer flow freely"
Why the high-license revival at
che present time? Is it deemed a
"political necessity" Why the
zeal of the Chicago Tribune, the
New York Tribune, the Utica
Herald, the Albany Journal, the
Christian Union, the New York IN.
dependent, and other kindred jour.
nails advocating it? Do they sup
pose the fortunes Of the Republican
party will be promoted by commit
ting it throughout the country to
the support OF high license instead
Of const itDtiOnal nrOhi hilton tho