Signal-Copiahan. (Hazlehurst, Copiah County, Miss.) 1885-1888, 1886-06-10
Common Schools aud Liquor License.

Tor their maintenance upon the reyc.
hue derived from the license TO re.
tail spurious and vinous liquors This
is an error so paIpablc aud cgrcgious
that ! ask II small space in your col.
ums 10 present n true and correct
statement concerning the matter. We
do not wish any of orr people 10
go TO the polls on the 10Th holding to
an opinion 80 utterly groundlcss ana
false. Let us take n canGid view of
the matter, appealing to the law and
the testimony for final decision of
the question. The common school
fund of the State is fixed by law at
500. 900 per annum. regardless of
whether Il cent is derived from the
LIQUOR licenses or not. See Chapter
-. Acts Of 1882, and section 90 OF
an Act i'm relation TO Public Schools
approved March 18th 1886. The COLI
;itution provides that all money raised
from license 10 retail, and all money
arising from fines for the violation
of the criminal laws of the State, and
all money arising from the sale OF
lands belonging to the state, by cs-
cheat, purchase. forfeiture for taxes.
cor .iit Of the Uni, I'll States. shall 80
10 make up the s'Ion, OOo, but II does
not make the school fund depend up
/ on these sources. SO that the pub
lie schools of the State will receive
the $500, O00 whether one dollar Is
derived from the sale otliquor. whe It,
cr there is II single violation OF the
criminal laws, or an acre of land Is
sold or not. And the argument for
liquor license 10 raise money To sup
mort public schools will inevitably
lead 10 the advocacy OF not paying
taxes on land because il wouIl he
forfeited. and the state would sell 1t
to get money to educate the chill
drcn. II would also lead 10 the
advocacy of ;hc violation OF the
penal laws of The State, be-
cause in fact We get part OF our
school money from such in fractions.
So that the argument for the license
To retail liquor proves too much Tor
the liuuur side IN this issue. Fur
Their the Auditors rcnort for the year
1855 shows that the State received
for that year sl20,Oj0 from license
10 retail, only 10 per cent OF The
common school fund, and not the
whole IL the advocates of the liquor
license would make the people be-
licvc. Let this $40. $50 this money
realized from license TO retail, be
distributed pro rata among the cdu
cable children of the State reported
for 1880, and what il the result
The vast sum of PSI cents per child
for the period of - months! Not
the cost Of 3 drinks Of common
adultcra,cd, Rcd.cyc whisky! Voter,
of Copiah County. Colorcd men oi
Copiah County. patrons of tie com
schools of the county, look nj this
Here are stubborn facts which You
should seriously consider i'll deter
mining how YOU shall vote Oh the ~
inst. The total amount that each one
of your children gets from the sale oil
! whisky for twelve months is the I'M
mcnsc sum Of 2Si cents. This fact
cannot bc denied or explained away
10y the sophi>try of the liquor advo
Gates. Further, Coplah's pro rata oI
( the $l2O,Oj o Is ;2OGG. an amount oh
tanned hy multiplying $3.50, the
number O: cducablc children in Co.
piah county, by 2Sl cents. Less
than / days attendance n n first
grade school. Let it bc remember
cl that to get this 5000 Copiall
County, citizens would drink over
100000 of poisonous miXlurc,
carefully prepared 10y the Bar'kccpc'
warranted to send the poor fellow
home to his wife ard children /
drunken fool. so that for Copiuh Il
get 52OGG, her part Of the sl2O,OJt
her citizens must consent 10 invest
over SjO. 900 of their hard earning,
to support har rooms and barkccp
crs, An immense amount of mean
whisky to he drunk, M immense
amount Of drunkncsS To he tOlcr.
atcd by the poor wives of the coun>
ty for the paItry sum Of $20GG. But
some men will say If the Sl2O,OjO is
not realized from liquor licenses, n
sum equal 10 this will have to be
raised by direct taxation, and our
taxes are sufficiently high now. Adj
hitting this rs true, we see very
easy and satisfactory way of dispos-
ing of the matter. And We shall
confnc our view simply to Copiah
County. The annual cost Of the Cir
cult court in this county is about
$4,000. Fully ,hrcc-iiiths OF this, or
$4,000 are cxpcn ed upon State cas-
Is. We believe fully three iourihs
of these owe their existence either
directly or Indirectly to the influence
of intoxicating liquors. i am speak
ing now of the years when there were
licensed bar rooms in the county. 20
that bar rooms imposed in this one
particular of court cost the sum OF
5000, 1864 in excess of what the
County receives of the liquor license
revenue. Add to this 5000 the
employment of jailcr to attend to
these wliskcy wards, the cost OF
their board, the incidental but nee
cssary expenses incurred by the
relatives and friends of the victims OF
bar rooms for their defense during
trial; for the actual loss sustained by
their families in consequence OF their
;,,,n,.; ,nnnont M ntbar mimi shmput