Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-03-15
Denver's Dirty Dens - An $500 License
Does Not Seem to Regulate Them

DOoS MOI Secm 10 NCSulat6 lnon1s
The question of higher license is being
agitated in high-license Denver. The sa-
looms of the city pay $500 year for the
privilege of keeping open from a. m.
until midnight, $500 year for the right
to sell until a. M, and $500 a year for
license enabling them to sell twenty -four
b hours o. of the day and all of Sunday. The
bill pending in the Legislature fixes a
minimum license fee of 81, 200 for whisky
saloons and $500 for beer and wine shops
in cities Of 100000 population, and DEN
vers population is now estimated at
100. 900.
The journal that is taking the lead in
Mountatm Neus, the daily Democratic naHe
organ. Mr.. Frank I. Willsea, an ardent
Prohibtionist, while at the NeaUs Office
the other day on business. called on the
editor who writes the high-lcense articles
and showed him the Voices figures on
high license VS.. low license. Mr. Willsea
carries that document in his pocket. The
sage editor looked at the figures and said:
20, that's the Voice. l don't believe
that paper is honest"
Mr.. Willsea asked:
How about our Palace Theater, that
pays $500 license, and is the most notori-
Gus dive between the Mississippi and
the coast? Would license fee OF So, 900
stop it,"
The editor admitted that this place could
pay 50, 900 and run.
1t is significant fact that the saloons
which pay the highest license in Denver
are the lowest and most disorderly. while
those paving the lowest fee are the best
behaved. In the Palace Theater. paying
$500, four murders have been committed
during the last year. And yet two clergy
men attended one Of the performances at
BILE.
Denver not only licenses the liquor sa-
looms, but allows houses of prostitution to
take out liquor licenses. Many Of these
places are run under the auspices of the
police. Whenever any OF the demi- monde
are arrested by the State authorities, the
women plead these facts in open court, and
also set up the plea that their business"
is under the exclusive control of the CITY.
This last plea has been sustained by the
Supreme Court.
Under IA Gu sdruplcd License Arrests for
Drunkenness Increase So Per Cent
DULUTH, MINI. - High license went
luto oiieee ~ ILLS CITY Oh the lSt OF
July, 1887. Before then the license fee
was $3.50 a year; since that time it
has been $1,000 yearly. When the
license was raised there were ll3 saloons.
Forty OF them went out of bushes, Of
once, leaving 10. With quajlrupled IL
cense and reduction of one third in the
number of saloons, there has not, however.
been decrease in drunkenness.
During the last six months of low IL
cense there We're 81 arrests for drunken
ness, and during the first six months of
high license or from July l, 1887, to Dec.
81, 1850 there were 554 arrests for the
same oiiense-an increase of 50 per cent.
For the entire year 1888 (the city being I'M.
der 81 900 license all the time), there we're
LIZ arrests for drunkenness, or a little
more than twice the number during the
tirst half year of high license, showing
that the 50 per cent. increase had been
maintained. In 1883, according to Polk's
Directory, the population of the city in
creased over 1887 by trife more than
per cent. obtained the figures of arrests
from the criminal register at police head
quarters.
think no intelligent man in Duluth
will claim that high license has reduced
the CONSUMPTION of liquor. Our Chief Of