Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1886-02-27
EFFECTS OF HIGH LICENSE.
From the Christian Union.

From the Christian Union.I
There are certain very honest TEN
Derance men whose aim is to secure
such legislation rs will relieve them o
all responsibility for the liquor trafic'
This done, they are content. Ihey de
sire to cast a ballot which will enable
them to wash their hands and say
''The blood of the murdered be upol
Won and YOUR children" Such mel
are uninfiuenced by any information
respecting the practical working o
law: and to such men the Information
i'm this article is, therefore, not address
ed, But there are a great many, W.
think a vast majority, of temperance
thinkers and workers, who are no
particular to embody i'll the statute
book their own notions on the subJec
of temperance; we desire, before
everything. to secure such Legislation
as will be practically most efficient IL
reducing the evils of the drink traffic
Such men will be interested to know
what has been the practical effect o.
the high license law in the state o
Illinois. Official Investigations nav
been made as to the results OF this law
and it has been in operation long
enough to produce results which, Il
not decisive, are certainly significant:
The reports which lie before us, and
from which our Information is gather
ed, are partly nom official, the latter
being gathered by the Chicago Tribune
They bear date last March.
The license is fixed, by what is
known as the Harper Law, at $500.
In the city of Chicago this law has in
creased the revenue to the city from
S2OO, 900 to 1900, 900, and reduced the
saloons from $500 to $500. In Hyde
Park, "a suburb of Chicago, though the
population has increased, the saloons
have been reduced nearly IL half
while income, and tie consequent re
duction OF taxation, has been multi
piled tenfold. What is more signifi.
cant is a reduction in the number OF
arrests from 1895 to CTS. In Spring
field, the capital of Illinois, the saloons
have been reduced SO per cent. in
number, and the revenue from them
has been increased 231 per cent. In
Peoria the saloons have been reduced
nearly one-half; the revenue has beeu
trebled. These are reports from the
larger cities. In the smaller towns
similar effects have been produced. In
some of them no licenses are granted,
aud prohibition is secured by local
option. In nearly if not quite all the
others the number of saloons has been
somewhat reduced, the amount OF rev.
enue to the state largely increased, and
the amount of drunkenness and disor-
der notably diminished. From six col
umns of reports that lie before us we
take come specimen reports at hap
hazard.
Cairo, Il.-Increase of revenue fifty
per cent. decrease of saloons nearly
fifty per cent. decrease OF notable i'll
temperance thirty per cent.
Quincy.-Increase of revenue nearly
forty per cent. decreaseI of saloons
thirty per cent.
acknowledgements doubled; business
of police courts diminished ninety per
cent.
Toledo-All the low ~groggeries shut
up.
Vandalia.-No decrease of saloons;
increase of revenue sixty-siX per cent. ;
lie wei cases of drunkenness and fewer
disturbances.
Manifestations reduced from tWen-
to sixteen; revenue increased
$2,400 to $4,000.
We need not, perhaps, continue
these reports. The general result is
expressed by the fact that in the state
at large the II OF the state have
been increased from 500 900 to over
81, 900, 900, the number of saloons has
been reduced from $4,000 to less than
1000, the best elements of both parties
unite in supporting and enforcing the
law, and disregard of it apparently
finds little sa ION from either the peo-
pie or their natural representatives, the
courts, the sheriffs, and the iuries.-
III county after county. in
the small villages, the high license has
had the effect to close up all liquor
shops. The report from Fayette coun
ty may be regarded as a typical n i'll
this regard: Gin several-small towns
in this county the high license law has
practically resulted i'll prohibition,
there being no one in these places will
ing to pay the required fee." In the
reports before us we do not find a sim
gle town or county which indicates un-
results.
We desire our readers to keep con-
in mind the fact that the object
of legislation is practical results, while
the object of moral agitation is a gen.
eral elevation OF public sentiment.
That it is in the great cities that the
greatest evils of the drink traffic are
felt will be questioned by few; and
that it is in the great cities that the
greatest difficulties are experienced in
enforcing any temperance legislation
will be questioned by none. The dis
of a state p%rohihitory sys-
tenn is that it is not enforced in the great
whether III Maine, Vermont,
Kansas, or Iowa. The advantage of a
high tax or a high license system is that
1t can be and is at once enforced in
the cities, whether In the state of Hi
nois or Missouri; that it shuts up, if
not the worst saloons, certainly those
which are most productive OF disorder
and of crime. while it has q tendency
to shut up all saloons in the smaller
Villages, and, if accompanied by local
option, gives the people in the rural
districts absolute power to close them.
all events, we think these definite
from the various counties of
Illinois + quite conclusive as to one
fact; that a high license or high tax,
whatever may be thought of it in theo.
ry, does practically have the effect to
limit the liquor traffic and diminish the
evils which flow from it. Those who
oppose this method of dealing with the
drink traffic must either shut their
eyes to the facts, or oppose the system
on some other ground than the asserv-
alton that a high tax increases the evil
it is intended TO reduce,
riley BOYD's WIFE.