Smyrna times., 1891-10-28

The Whiskev Tag.


In dealing with the liquor evil there
are many methods that will kill or
scotch the monster. Let us not fight
the battles of the saloon by striking at
each other, but rather let us aid every
one his neighbor, that it may fall the
sooner. Yet it is necessary to distin.
guish between attacks that hurt, and
those that only help. Where is the
line? Plainly here. Whatever places
the saloon upon the road toward res
probability, or makes the state or COM
munity partner of its deeds, though
it seem and promise to restrain the
traffic, adds to its strength for evil.
The hoop restraints the slaves, but at
the same time it makes them a barrel.
have described the essential effect
of the license system. The very means
we have taken to curtail the curse has
made it strong against us. A test of
the effectiveness of measures, that we
may always rely on, is the attitude of
the liquor folks toward it. If they
like it we may as we'll look for some
thing else; if they hate it, we have
pierced the quick. License they
always like.
The core of the license system of the
United States is the Whiskey Tax.
Each manufacturer pays license fee
to the Internal Revenue Department,
Of $25 or $50 according to the size of
his plant. He builds a warehouse,
where his products (save the mark!) are
stored in bond. When they come
out he pays a tax of 80 cents a gallon
first proof on spirituous liquors and
ST. per barrel (if not more than 81 gal
lOns) on malt liquors. On cOnsidera-
ton of these payments, the govern
ment agrees to keep anybody else
from making a gallon. The agreement
is carried out by a system of inspec-
tors, marshals, etc, at cost of much
expense, and Often life.
Every time we read of a mOOnshine
still, Talded by revenue officers, with a
fight, killed and wounded on both
sides, and prisoners sent up for a term
of years, we learn. of another incident
of this unprotected monopoly, for
monopoly it is of the viest sort. All
| other trusts, companies, and what YOU
will-are established by a common
agreement, and owe their strength
simply to the power of combination.
They undersell competitors. and drive
them to the wall. 1t is cruel, unjust.
injurious to the people, and laws are
passed dissOlving or prohibiting them
Here Is trust ready fashioned bV
our government, into which all who
wish To engage in the business are
! driven by the arm of prOstituted ius-
tice, and the pistols of special sold
r
liOerty, now Is your goddess slain in
the house of her friends! Is the Stan
dard Oil Company, the Western Union,
or The Sugar Trust, so hedged about
by law aud force, that is capital Of
fence to sell petroleum, send messages
or rehne sugar outside those corpora-
lions But this thing is done, not to
gorge useful and legitimate business
but to fatten vulture, proving on the
vltals of the people, feeding not on
carriOn, but ON honor and honesty.
truth and purity-aye, upon lives and
sous. Its talCns clutch Mothers
heartstrings, its beak drips with the
| blood of beauty and of youth. It tears
fond hopes, rends homes and poisons
friendship.
But the liquor barous love the
| whlskey tax, for it saves them toll and
trouble. They never have to sit down
beside fellow who tries 10 undersell
them, and kill him Off" as other mo.
D0polles do, to make him Join the ring.
| The government attends to that for
them. And they have no trouble fixing
the price. They may put it where
they please, nobody interferes. S115
a gallon pays the making and the tax.
the rest is profit, fifty, a hundred. a
hundred and fifty per cent! No won.
der they like the whiskey tax. And it
makes it easy for them to regulate the
number and location of saloons. so that
they wont get too close to nav. The
extra man they can use some place
else, that needs O. to be supplied.
Oh, the Whiskey Tax is a beautiful
thing!
There is another delightful quality
about the whlskey tax. Sometimes a
state goes crazy over temperance and
PROMPTS liquor making and selling.
! That lnterferes with the business. But
! the whiskey tax enables them to make
beautiful little GASES where they can
Keep plenty of liquor, by means of the
little agreement with the Internal
Revenue Department. Did YOU ever
wonder how it is that so MANY likeness
are issued in prohibition states ? Thew
are United States Revenue licenses.
Get good many of these and then
raise the cry that prohibition doesn't
prohibit" After a while. maybe
enough people will believe it to wipe
out the law, then the work goes better.
or course, the revenue law saws that
its permission is not to conflict with
state laws, but In prohibition states the
whiskey barrels leak very badly, leak
into hand grenades, and canes, and all
sorts of impossible places-when the
inspector isn't around.
Finally, the whiskey tax is fatty op-
posed to Constitutional Prohibition.
We can't have both. Before Prohibi.
ton can find place in the national La,Os
or constitution, the IVhiskey IaG must be
abolished. No one need fear that the
land would swim in liquor. Cut the
hoops, and the barrel will soon hold
no more. CROFTON C.. ADAMS