St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-10-14
THE QUESTION OF LICENSE.

consistency Is worthy or admiration,
wherever We encounter it. No fault
can therefore be found with the action
of the Minnesota state Baptist conven-
ton, in session at Rochester, because of
its adoption of resolutions censuring the
licensing and regulation of the liquor
traffic. The Baptist church is opposed
to liquor selling and liquor drinking.
Both are declared in the book of dis
cipline to be unchristian and immoral.
And many others besides the Baptists
believe the same thing. 1t was there
fore TO be expected, and was likewise
proper, that they should express them
selves boldly On the license system.
There will be few who will dissent
from the proposition that that which
is inherently wrong is not made right
by being tolerated or licensed. Yet
there are many ardent advocates of
temperance, who are as honestly op-
posed to the liquor traffic as are our
Baptist brethren, who will doubt the
eXpediency of abOlishing the license
system. They admit the evils created
by the liquor traffic-admit that it is a
fruitful source of crime, of poverty and
wretchedness; they admit that it fills
our prisons, our poorhouses and our
insane asylums; but they cannot see
how the situation can be improved by
refusing to license it. To refuse license
would not eXterminate the traffic; it
would only increase it ten-fold, while
the state would be deprived of a reve-
nue. which contributes largely towards
defraylng the expenses of government.
If we were to refuse the money that is
annually paid into the city and state
treasury for liquor licenses, we would
be compelled to impose additional bur-
dens upon other occupations and other
property. There are in ST. Paul about
four hundred saloons and liquor houses
that pay into the city treasury thousand
dollars each annually. This sum goes
long way toward defrayiDg the expenses
of the city government, improving our
streets, identifying our parks, main
tanning our schools, paying for police
and fire protection, and keeping our
public buildings in repair. If we were
deprived of this revenue, all equal sum
would have to be raised by the imposi-
ton of additional taxes on real estate,
household goods and stocks of mer-
chandise. Would our cit liens be willing
to submit to this additional burden, and
allow the liquor dealers to go untaxed?
We confess that it would be heroic in
them to make such a sacrifice for a
moral principle, but we do not look for
such self-abnegation, and apprehend
that there would be vigorous protest
from all classes of taxpayers, including
some of our good Baptist brethren.
1t is folly to talk in these days of
eliminating the liquor traffic from our
social and economic system. AS long as
meu indulge in alcoholic stimulants
other men will be found to pander to
their appetites. Admitting the deprav-
ity of the appetite, we cannot deny its
existence, nor is it within the power or
province of legislation to cure ii. This
can only be done by education. A boy
may he taught to shun the social glass
as he would the sting of a serpent; the
man who has acquired taste for stimu-
lants can seldom be cured. AS long as
society receives and toIeTstes the tippler
and the drunkard be will be in lis midst
If indulgence in drink should be a per-
petual bar to entrance into good society,
! many would abstain from il. If strict So
briefly were enjOined upon all employees
of corporations and business houses,
many more would leave liquor alone.
If church members themselves were to
refuse association, business or social.
with habitual drinkers or saloOnkeep-
erS, there would be far less intemper-
ance i'll the community.
1t is true, as the Baptists claim, that
the government, by accepting license
| fees from the liquor dealers, becomes,
| in a measure. responsible for the evil
they work. But is that any reason
| why the business should escape taxation
altogether? Immunity from taxation
would be a premium upon the business
an unfair discrimination against other
branches of trade that would excite
resentment and rebellion, besides being
an inducement to all to forsake other
occupations and take to liquor selling
If the liquor traffic is ever to be aboI-
ished. it will not be done by relieving it
| of its share of the burdens of taxation
| The contrary policy would seem to be
the most polite. 1t may be taxed out of
existence, provided the process of
starvation be alsu employed-the with
.H nIl