The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1886-09-03
THEFARMER AND THE SALOON

The great argument used for licensing
saloons is that a revenue is thus secured to
lessen taxation; license money will build
sidewalks, support schools and do many
other things which otherwise would have
to be paid for directly ont of the pockets
of the tax payers. Professor Foster and
DIR. lIerrick Johnson have in these col
umns, so well shown the fallaey of this
claim, we spend no time on it now.
There is another phase of the question to
Which we wish to call the especial atten-
ton of eur farmer friends. IT is this
license money does not decrease your
taxes one cent, but the saloons do increase
your taxes enormously. Youaren not taxed
to build side walks, light the streets, or do
any Of the things it is claimed the license
money does for the town. But you are
taxed, and that right heavily, 10 pay the
county's bills for courts, jails, poor houses,
care of the insane and things like that
The land you own pays the bulk of the
county taxes; beside that, you are often
n ~ Dtti " VI n It AiAi DIV pt1N
son of the year to sit ON grand or petit
%iuries, two, three OF -four weeks at a time,
" hen every days absence foots up a dead
loss to you.
What do these courts do Examine the
docket Of any county where liquor is sold
and see if whiskey is not at the bottom of
fully one-half the criminal cases. A man
goes into a licensed saloon, gets drunk,
comes ont a raving lulatic, murders an
other man, and you try, convict and hang
him, or put him III prison for life. Such a
ease in my own county lately cost in u
expenses $50, 600. The county, which
means mainly the farmers, footed the bill
while the city pocketed the thousand dol
lar fee for the license which allowed the
liquor that did the deed, to be sold.
Again, We have just built a $40, 900 jail,
and it is pretty we'll filled with fruits of
the saloon. You paid a larger proportion
of the $40, 900 than the city did; it affords
accommodations to very few Of your
class, and You receive not a cent of the
license fee paid by the saloons that had the
biggest share in filling it. The poor house
and farm are just outside the city limits
and you feel battered when the state au-
thorities report it the best institution of
the kind in the state. Well you may, for
You are back of that institution, so far as
money goes, for the taxes you pay, in
large measure, sustain it. But its physi-
clan, himself a drinking man. not a tenn
perance fanatic, reports again and again
and again, to your supervisors, that at
least three ourths of its inmates come
there through drinking habit, either in
themselves or others. As though to sub
stantiate his opinion, counties where no
liquor is obtainable show few inmates in
their poor houses. and their jails often
stand empty.
The case in a nutshell is this: if there
is any good coming from license-which
we deny-the city gets it, while for all the
mischief the saloons work the farmers foot
the heaviest part of the bills.
Infinitely beyond any money eonsidera-
ton is the danger pits the licensed saloons
of the town dig for the nnwary feet of your
boys. From lack Of familiarity with their
enticemcnts farmers boys are more liable
to fall victims to the saloons when brought
under their influence than city boys are.
Where municipalities have power to grant
dram shop licenses You have no power to
hinder the eity's digging pitfalls tor your
boys. State and National prohibition, en-
forced by a party pledged to sustain it, is
the only thing that can relieve the farmer
from unjust taxation to sustain the fruits
of the liquor traffic, or make II country a
safe place for his boys and girls to grow
up in.-Union Signal.