The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1889-03-30
a FAIR SAMPLE,

| Nearly Seventy-Two Per Cent. of the Crime
in Dave County, Wis, Due to Liquor
| Review of the Municipal Court Records
for 1SSS-Cost of Crime.
| If it we're not for the saloon, Judge
Reyes might go fishing five days in the
week, and several policemen might be
free to apply for positions on the rail-
road. An examination of the police
court records for 1888 show that Of
26S arrests made 205 were for causes
directly chargeable to liquor, while
others, no doubt, had their foundation
IN the same great cause of crime.
The records of the municipal court
on cases from the county Jail show a
large per cent of these cases also
chargeable to liquor.
During the year 1888 there were 1852
Migrants brought from the Jail to the
municipal court for trial. These do not
include So tramps and dodgers" hand
led by the city police. The Migrants
OF Dane County are proverbially nu-
merous. Very uncomfortable quarters
are furnished them at the Jail and
many cords of wood are furnished them
to saw as a pastime, but still they
come, every man of them without a
known exception, tramp through
kdeink.
d T,ve cases from the county brought
before the court show beside 1852
Migrants, SO arrested on the charge of
assault of different grades; 5 for being
drunk and disorderly, Sc for using
abusive and obscene language, % for
offenses against impurity. &c for theft
of different kinds, from petty larceny
to burglary and forgery, 16 for violat-
ing the excise law and 20 for other
| offenses.
OF the 268 arrested at the police sta
ton, 205 were arrested for drunken
ness, or drunkenness and disorderly
conduct, and other crimes in which
the criminal was drunk at the commit
ting of the crime. A larger proportion
Of the police cases are chargeable to
liquor than of the cases gathered from
the county at large by the sheriff and
his deputies.
Of the total 647 cases (including va
grants not brought into courD All
are directly chargeable to liquor. This
is estimating only three-fourths of all
cases of assault and cases against
purity, due to liquor, when the best of
testimony shows that sometimes ninety
- I. l.
liquor.
This shows more than y per cent.
Of the crime of the county Gan esti-
mate doubtless far too low chargeable
to liquor. The expense of this crime
to the county is enormous. The board
Of criminals, officers and attorneys
fees, the long litigation that ensues in
many of these cases, piles up costs to
the county that fall on the backs of
the taxpayers in the shape of out
rageous taxes.
Farmers are offered three cents
pound for their very choicest fat steers
per cent. on all their taxable property.
| Not one cent of the License fees of $13,-
900 from Madison saloons goes into
the pockets of the farmers of Dane
County, but the cost of all the city's
crime is shared y them on tax-paying
day.
When the problem Of farm finance
is becoming, rs it is to-day, fight for
food and Clothes. where grain, beef
and pork are hardly worth the cost of
raising, only one thing can be done to
avert poverty. and that is reduction
of expenses. No reduction can be
more protitably made than by looping
off the saloon expense.
Every tax-paying farmer, not only
of Dane County, but of every county
in the State, should demand the right
from the Legislature to unload this
burden. If the Legislature now in
session refuses to allow the farmers to
attempt this retrenchment, they are
no friends of the farmer. They
should be remembered at the polls
at another election. wv isconsin Pro-
hibitionist