Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-05-24
THE FARMER AND TIE SALOON.

THE FARMER AND THE SALOON.
The great argument used for Licensing
the saloons. is that 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 out of the pockets OF the
taxpayer. Professor Foster and DR..
Herrick johnson have 50 well shown the
fallacY of this claim we spend no time
on it now. There is another phase of
the question to which we wish TO call
the special attention of our farmer
friends. 1t is this; license money does
not decrease your taxes one cent, bat
the saloons do increase your taxes en-
ormously. You are not taxed to build
sidewalks, light the streets. or do any
OF these things it is claimed the license
money does for the town. But your are
taxed, and that right heavily, to pay
the Connty's bills for courts, iails and
poorhouses, care of the insane, and
things like that. The land you own
pays for the bulk of the County taxes,
besides that you are often taken from
your work at the busiest season of the
year to sit on grand or petite iuries
two, three or four weeks at q time
when every days time foots up dead
loss to you.
What do the 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 licensed
saloon, gets drunk, comes out a raving
lunatic, murders another man, and you
try, convict, and hang him, or put him
in prison for life. Such a case in my
own county cost in court expenses $50,
600. The county which means mainly
the farmers, footed the bill while the city
pocketed the thousand dollars for the
license, which allowed the liquor which
did the deed 10 be sold.
Again we have Just built $40, 900
Jail, and it is pretty well filled with the
fruits of the saloon. You paid larger
proportion of the $4,000 than the city
did; it affords accommodate" to a
very few of your class, and You receive
not cent of the license fee paid by the
saloons that had the biggest share in
filling it.
The poorhouse and farm are just
outside the city limits and you feel lat
tered when the state authorities report
it the best kept institution of the kind
in the state. Well you may for you are
back of that institution, as far as money
goes, for the taxes You pay in large
measure sustain it. But its physician
himself drinking man, not temper
ance fanatic, reports again and again
to your supervisors that at least three
fourths of its inmates come there
through drunken habits, either in them
selves or others. As though to substian-
tate his opinion, counties where no
liquor is obtainable show few inmates
in their poorhouses, 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 far
mers foot the heaviest part of the bills.
Infinitely beyond any money consid-
Grafton is the danger-pits that the Ii
cenised saloons of the town dig tor the
unwary feet of your boys. From lack
of familiarity with their enticements
farmers boys are moro liable to fall
victims to the saloons when brought
under their influnce than city boys are
When municipalities have power to
grant dram shops licenses, you have no
power to hinder the city's digging pit
falls for your boys. State and National
prohibition enforced by 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 our country safe place for
his boys and girls to grow up in.
MARY ALLEN WEST.