The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1891-05-23
ELKTON. MAY 90. 1891.
Bad News, Not Good News.

of seven thousand two hundred and
fifty dollars has up to this date been
paid into the county treasury on &C
count of liquor licenses issued on or
about the first of May for the en-.
suing year. This large sum coming
into the county treasury will assist
materially in reducing the tax rate
for this year, aohich is certainly good
ueaOs. Is there a single taxpayer in
the county who will ask the COM
missioners to compute his taxes on
basis minus this s., $50? Maybe
there is-but we doubt it.-Ceczl
Democrat.
We cut the above extract from
the last issue OF our contemporary.
The italics are our own, meant to
make palmer the felicitation of the
writer's language, and to emphasize
its meaning
This magnificent sum of 81, $50
has been covered into the Treasury
of Cecil county, as the price of the
privilege, to promote individual
drunkenness IN Cecil county, to pun
ish innocent women and children,
for the follies of their husbands and
fathers, which our local license law
promotes.
Good news indeed What mon
strous perversion of the fact
Would our contemporary have us
believe, that this monstrous sum Of
$3.50 is in any sense fair
or just compensation 10 the
taxpayers of Cecil county, for the
evils the licensed traffic in whiskey
inficts upon our communities
We contend that ninety dollars
out of every hundred, spent over
the counters of the saloons and
hotels of Cecil county, come out OF
the pockets of the wage earners and
laboring men OF Cecil county, and
that they are the men least able to
afford to spend this money, because
the dimes and dollars so squandered,
are spent at the expense of the wives
and children of these same daily
laborers.
This sum of $3.50 then, this
drunkard makers privilege fee, rep
resents but fraction ofthe aggregate
profit OF the liquor traffic in Cecil
county for the past five months.
1t must pay to sell liquor in Cecil
county, otherwise the privilege fee
could not be paid.
This sum of $3.50 being but a
small portion of the aggregate an
nual profit of the sale of rum in
Cecil county, what amount are the
innocent women and children Of the
county, the wives and dependents Of
its drinkers, robbed OF annually?
Here's a nice sum in political
mathematics
In the meantime, who will COM
pute the amount in dollars and
cents. of the aggregate loss in the
productive capacity of the wage
earning classes OF Cecil county?
As basis to start figuring on, we
will inform any taxpayer disposed to
compute the amount, that reliable
authorities estimate the decrease of
productive power of wage earners
addicted to the drink habit, as
varying in different trades from eight
to thirty per cent. of their gross
daily earnings.
Will some ardent advocate of the
license system In Cecil, kindly give
the figures, showing the amount of
annual loss, in our productive in
dustries caused by our local whiskey
traffic, and deducting the credit for
the privilege paid the county of
$3.50, show us what the actual
balance is against the taxpayers
Now we ask our contemporary
what the material prosperity OF the
people of Cecil county peremptorlly
demands?
We anSwer,-an increase in the
number of productive laborers in
our communities, and local laws
tending to promote individual enter
prise and industry, and an increase
of the trrits OF individual labor.
Does the present license system
in Cecil county foster or promote
either?
Elkton has recently organized a
local board of trade.
What's the object OF its organic
alton
Is it not to increase the popula,
ton OF the town, and thereby pro
mote the general prosperity, by
securing the location here, of pro-
ductive industries, that will give
men and women remunerative EN-.
ployment
Do we promote this desirable
object by encouraging drunkenness
in our laboring classes by means OF
numerous open saloons?
Is the dram shop a desirable
annex to the mandatory?
If we want Elkton and other
towns in this county to reap the
local advantages of manufacturing
plants, and enterprises, is it any in
ducement to the employer OF labor,
to plant saloon next door to his
mandatory, when he knows, and
we know, that its inevitable ten