The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-06-19

Inc following facts we clip from
Richmond (Va.l paper and inyit
every thoughtful man in this count,
to their serious import. The sam
argument will apply to Mississippi
as well as Virginia. Read, ponde
and return to common sense:
The two salients of local option
are
!. What shall we lose?
2. What shall we gain?
The direct loss TO the State Is abou
S350,0O0 per annnm, and that, too, a
a time when our annual expendi
lures are five hundred thousand dol
lars more than our annual receipts
The amount paid by the liquor deal
ers of Richmond annually to til,
state treasury is oyer $50, 900, and tt
the city treasury about 1900. The
consequential losses are the destruc'
ton of our orchards and vineyards
the practical oonfiscation of the prop
erty of our liquor-dealers, the closing
of many stores which cannot be
maintained if denied the privilege o.
selling liquor, the driving ofthe ooun'
try merchants of North Carolina and
Virginia to the commercial marts OF
other States, the general depreceia,
ton of our real estate, and the exile
ofhundreds of our best citizens.
The gains may be summed up to be
that liquorrdrinking will be suppress
sed and crime and %pauperism greatly
diminished. The only proof Of this
desirable result is based on interest
ed personal testimony, Let us ex-
anime the official evidence and we
will learn that these gains are purely
imaginary,
First. AS to the use Of liquor; The
States of Maine and Vermont are
prohibitory States, and have been for
more than thirty years, giving thus
ample time to test the efficacy of
their stringent legislation against IL
quor in all its forms. BY the report
of the Commissioner of Internal Rev.
enue for 1885 we find that the number
of persons who paid special iaxes to
the United States was, in
MAINE.-l,0l4 retail liquor dealers,
7 wholesale liquor dealers, SO retail
dealers in malt liquors, s wholesale
dealers in malt liquors-total l,1O9.
VERMoNT.-426 retail liquor deal
ers, 2 wholesale liquor dealers, 50 re-
tail dealers in malt liquors, 7 whole
sale dealers in malt liquors-total 494.
(see Commissioners report, page 3D.
Second. AS to crime and pauperism
we take the whites and colored sepa-
rately,
MA1NE.-The white prisoners num-
Der one in every 1913 of white popu-
The oolored prisoners num-
Der one in every 207 of colored popu-
The white paupers In the
Observation-Disclosures ;~e-~~s, ACE
of population. The oolored paupers
number one in every Oh ofpopulation.
VERMoNT.-The white prisoners
number enc in every 1914 of white
population. The colored prisoners
number one in every III of oolored
population, The white paupers in
the poor houses number one in every
50S of population. The colofed pau
pers number one in every 264 of pop
ulation. Compare the foregoing with
VIRGINIA.-The white prisoners
number one in every 2,5l7 of white
the coloYed prisoners
number n in every 525 of eolored
population. The white paupers In the
poor houses number one in every sos
Of population; the coiored paupers
number n in every 6i5. In addi-
ion the number of outdoor paupers
n Maine is l,706, while In Virginia
he number is aO9--making a total of
Jaupers Iii Maine Of 9,211 III a pOpula-
ion of GAS, 1886, while in Virginia the
;otal number of paupers is 3,13S in a
population of 1872, 565-that is to say,
here are more than double as many
'aupers in prohibition Maine than
here are in liquor-license Virginia.
The foregoing statements are from
he census of 1880, and are submitted
n response to the fancy theories of
he local option advocates. The in
elligent reader ponder these
acts and his summary will necessa-
lily be-lst. The losses by local op-
will be great. End. The gains by
ocal option will be-nothing.
There is not a colored man in this