River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1894-05-31
High License. :"

To THE EDITOR OF THE PIONEER -
You wish an expression of minis
teral opinions on this senselcss
craze of the age. You. see | have
given mine with the first dash Of my
pen. If you prefer more details, |
object to high license for the follow
ing reasons:
!. 1t is wrong in principle. The
liquor traffic is essentially and
eternally bad. 1t is pauperizing.
delnoralizing, damning. No legal
enactments can make it right to run
a business that depends for its sue
cess upon the downfall of humanity.
No amount of revenue can Justify
the existence of such villainy as
dram-shop. Money derived from
such a source is drenched in blood
and will prove a whitening curse.
To license a great wrong is itself a
wrong. And it makes no difference
whether the fee is one dollar or one
million dollars.
2 1t is a wretched expediency.
Horace Greeley, who paid out $40
to raise a crop of corn which he fed
to some pigs that cost him $40 more,
and then sold the fattened pigs for
$40, was an expert In economy, COM
pared with our boosted statesmen
who are trying to cram down our
innocent Threats the fatal sophistry
that the saloon is a necessity to
furnish funds with which to run the
Government! Think of the incom-
prehensible millions that are squeez-
ed out of the laboring classes for
drink, to say nothing of as many
millions more to cover the con-
sequential damages of this destruc-
tive business. From the standpoint
of political economy alone, the adj
vocates of license-high or low-act
like fools who are willing to cut off
their own noses.
3. 1t is mean monopoly. 1t
seeks to build up kind of satanic
caste. 1t smiles on wealth and
frowns on poverty. If the saloon
business must be continued, why
not let the poor-who need to earn
money for their families have an
equal chance with the rich? All
monopolies are mean, but whiskey
monopoly is the meanest of all.
A. 1t does not diminish the
number of saloons. 1t may close a
few that are run by the poorer class,
especially in small towns. But there
is no evidence that it lowers the
general average. Indeed, the number
of dram-shops in Nebraska is to-day
much greater, in proportion to the
population, than it was five years
ago under low license. If there has
been any diminution in Illinois, it
is due to the local option provision,
of which many towns have taken adj
vantage. The same is true of some
other States.
5. 1t does not close the dives, the
black-holes, and the gambling bells.
This is abundantly proved by the
testimony of even the whiskey
officials of Chicago. If it multiplies
the number of guided palaces and
surrounds many drink resorts with
an air of greater "respectability," it
only multiplies our perils. This
very fact is one of my strongest OBJ
lections to high license. 1t seeks to
put angelic robes upon the blacklist
demon that ever escaped hell.
8. 1t is in no sense a temperance
measure. Even if it should limit
the number of dram-shops, no man
can show that it ever did or ever
would diminish tie amount of liquor
used by single gallon. People do
not eat less when the number of
groceries is reduced from six to five,
or from six to three. The three
would sell just double the amount
of provisions, and the eating would
90 right on. The same law applies
to the drink trade.
z. It's the DEVILS flank movement
on prohibition. 1t is at best only
miserable compromise. 1t is well
calculated to pacify weakened
temperance people, who are duped
into belief that such a measure
would be at least a partial remedy.
For this reason it tends to divide the
forces and divert attention from the
real issue. Some of the largest
liquor-dealers in this country are de-
claring in favor of high license.
They see clearly that it would be a
sure breakwater against the threaten
ing tide of prohibition. Nothing
could more effectually debauch
public conscience or give the bloody
traffic firmer anchorage. Away
with every subterfuge of the devil,
and let us make a clean sweep
A. A. PHELPS.