The American citizen. [volume] (Topeka, Kan.) 1888-1909, 1889-04-05
A FAIR SAMPLE.


in Dane County, WIS.,, Due to Liquor
Review of the Municipal Court Records
for 1S8S-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
268 arrests made 205 were for causes
directly chargeable to liquor, while
others, no doubt, had their foundation
In the same great cause of crlme.
The records of the municipal court ,
on cases from the county Jail show
large per cent of these cases also
chargeable to liquor.
During the year 1888 there were 15z
Migrants brought from the jail to the
municipal court for trial. These do not
include 55 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
known exception, a tramp through
drink.
The cases from the county brought
before the court show beside 1oz
Migrants, 53 arrested on the charge OF
assault of different grades; 5 for being
drunk and disorderly, SO for using
abusive and obscene language, y for
offenses against impurity. 66 for theft
of different kinds, from petty larceny
to burglary and forgery, Is for violat-
ing the excise law and 90 for other
| offenses-
OF the 268 arrested at the police sta
ton, POS 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 COURT AT
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
per cent of such crime has its birth In
liquor.
This shows more than Y per cent
of the crime of the county Gan est
mate doubtless far too low chargeablt
to liquor. The expense of this crime
to the county is enormous. The boart
of criminals, officers and attorney
fees, the long litigation that ensues il
many of these cases, piles up costs II
; the county that fall on the backs
the taxpayers in the shape OF out
rageous taxes.
Farmers are offered three cents 6
pound for their very choicest fat steer
and taxed from one and half to tw
. per cent. on all their taxable property
. Not one cent of the license fees of $13,
600 from Madison saloons goes Int
the pockets of the farmers OF Dan
5 County, but the cost of all the city
crime is shared by them on tax-payin
3 day.
When the problem of farm fnanc
y is becoming. as it is to-day, fight TO
9 food and clothes, where grain, bee
9 and pork are hardly worth the cost {
l. raising, only one thing can be done
IS avert poverty. and that is reductio
of expenses. No reduction can
i more probably made than by loppin
l. off the saloon expense.
l. Every tax-paying farmer, not onl
q of Dane County, but of every count
r in the State, should demand the rigl
'r from the Legislature to unload tn
"a burden. If the Legislature now
10 session refuses to allow the farmers
Is attempt this retrenchment, they a
10 no friends of the farmer. The
- should be remembered at the pol
- at another election. w isconsin Pr
ia hibitionist.