Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-01
A FINAL ROUNDUP.
Continued from First Pune.

Continued from First Page.
biased review Of each of the counties it was
deemed best not to rely upon resident cor
respondents or upon communication with
politicians in the different counties. The
commissioner detailed from this Office for
the work accomplished his task in exactly
40 days. To cover great State like Penn
sylvania, State the area of which is A, 1856
square miles, in that period is some
what extraordinary feat.
In going from one county seat to the other
he Travelled nearly 2, 800 miles. Reduce this
to an average per day, and add to 1t the in
terviewing of dozen OF more persons in
each town and the writing Of two columns
regularly every day, and any newspaper
man will appreciate the amount Of labor
expended. The travelling, and writing en-
route, was done by both night and day. In
some counties (even in the advanced State
OF Pennsylvania) staging and travel oy
horses was necessary. These letters and
dispatches from our commissioner amount
ed in the aggregate to 73 columns, which is
equal to all the space in more than two
whole numbers Of the eight-page Dis
PATCH.
POOR DRUMMERRS.
It is marvellous what widespread agita-
tion thereis on the issue. Our commissioner
heard the amendment talked of everywhere.
On railroad trains, especially, the travelling
public discuss it, and there the people from
other States ask how the State will go.
Commercial travellers, as rule, are found
opposing prohibition. They do not fear
stagnation of business as the result so much
as they do the relieving of hotel proprie-
tors from all compulsion in the matter of
e
says that under the Brooks law, and under
other. license laws, the granting of liquor.
licenses is contingent upon the accommoda-
tions a hotel or tavern keeper has for the
travelling public. If no licenses are to be
granted, they say, the tavern keeper can go
to bed at o'oclock if he chooses, and if
traveller knocks at his door an hour later,
there is nothing to hinder him from ad
vising the belated drummer, from an up
stair window, to 60 to Gehenna or some
other lodging place until morning, as he
cannot be. disturbed. Several travelling
salesn1en declare that has already been their
experience in some of the country towns of
Pennsylvania now under prohibitory law.
TAKE ONE.
In every railroad station, and at every
country crossroads throughout the State
boxes have been nailed up. bearing the in
scription, Take one." They contain tracts
and all sorts of prohibition literature sent
out BY the temperance societies. The Good
Templars, who have their headquarters in
this city, have distributed among these
boxes nearly 100000 of these documents
Already the W. G. T. U. of the State, with
its headquarters in this city also, have sent
throughout the length and breadth of the
Commonwealth 10, 600 copies of "The Dew
iTs Toboggan Slide" 500 copies of ''The
Overawing Curse" and $4,000 copies of
Thirty Reasons Why"
Liquor men too are busily engaged pre-
pairing tracts for circulation at every rail-
road depot, in every country store, and on
all the city streets. These will contain sta
tistics about the amount of taxable property
which would be swept out of existence and
the vast monetary loss they would suffer as
business men if the amendment is adopted.
They are also preparing to make all the
capital possible out OF any want of harmony,
or any weakness on the part of temperance
organizations, for, as one of their number
said, if this amendment is to be killed it
will be by the temperance people them
selves as much as by us. What he meant
was that great many drinking men were
too firmly fixed in their intention to vote for
the issue to be persuaded otherwise.
MILLIONS AT STAKE.
AS to the figures on their loss the liquor
mems tracts will show that distilleries in
this district (Twenty-third Internal Rev
enue) use annually Az, 900 bushels of rye,
/ which at 75 cents by the bushel, amounts to
81 ,104, 900. About 32s, 900 bushels of barley
or malt is also used, which costs 81 per
bushel. To hold the whisky 140, 900 barrels
are either made or purchased by the distiller
each year, and cost $3.50, 900. The whisky,
when new, is worth $25 per barrel, ana the
total value amounts to s., 500, 900, and the
Government tax on this at $40 per barrel
aggregates So, SOC, 600. Their plants are
worth several millions more in this district.
Everywhere the tremendous importance
of the struggle is recognized. That the peo-
pie of the second greatest State in the union
have been called upon to exercise their
sovereignty and decide the liquor question
purely on its merits, is to the minds of
thousands of thinking people, second in its
grave character only to the question of
abolition in ante-bellum days.
IMPORTANCE OF THE ISSUE.
In his travels THE DISPATCH commits
sioner was frequently reminded that the
adoption of prohibitory amendments in
Iowa, Maine or Kansas was nothing to what
the victory or defeat of the movement will
be here. Those three States put together
did not have the population, under the last
census, which Pennsylvania alone had. The
Keystone States population then was 4, 4,2S2,-
891, and is now considerably over 5000, 900.
We have ], 900, 900 voters who will vote upon
this question. The population of Iowa was
1,624, ,635; of Maine, GAS, 1856; of Kansas,
996, ,O96. And to crown the Importance of
the issue, it will affect the second city of the
United States.
Philadelphia and Allegheny counties
were not included in THE DIsPATCH's
special canvass, because nothing definite
the State until the fight develops. However,
it is of course conceded that both the coun-
ties will be against the amendment, and are
therefore put in the table above to make the