The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-04-28
The Raines Law at Work.

Reports from New York state with
reference to the Raines law, which has
now been in operation for nearly a
month. indicate that a change is taking
place in the public temper with refer
ence to this much discussed measure.
Before it went into effect there were
few persons in the Empire state who did
not have avowed or secret misgivings
that it would prove a serious disap-
pointment, while the brewers and dis
tilers were for time almost frantic.
They argued that in the whole state Co.,
900 persons would be thrown out of
work by the law, to compete with other
labor, and predicted that 500, 900 a
year would not cover the shrnkage in
liquor receipts, with it's consequent cur
tailment of the market for corn, rice,
barley and hops. They affected to
foresee, also, loss to the cigar trade of
100000 II year, falling mostly upon
the labor employed in stripping tobacco
and wrapping cigars; and tried to
friShten the furniture dealers of the
state by holding before them the spectre
of lost millions of dollars in the furni-
ture trade, by reason of the laws clos
ing of many saloons.
But as we said at the beginning, there
are already evidences of fuctuation
of opinion. When Mr.. j. A. Lansing,
of this city, last week made business
Ton f,ct ha
cities, such as Utica, Albany, Troy,
Syracuse and Rochester, he learned by
casual inquiry that the law was work.
ing decidedly less hardship than had
been anticipated, and found that it was
winning over to its advocacy many of
its buterest early opponents. We by
chance observe an interview in the
Washington Post with Judge c. w.
Meade. of New York city, which con-
firms the accuracy os Mr.. Lansing's OBJ
servations. Says Judge Meade: I'm
the beginning it looked as though the
Raines law was going to be so distaste-
full to the public that the Republican
party would be made to suffer for it's
enactment. Since then there has been
a great change of public sentiment the
people are beginning to realize the many
good pod ae ..as utrr
| satisfied that the Republicans will reap
1t is about as good a statute as the
ingenuity of man could contrlve; it
| wipes out the little dives, where
the poorer classes of the tenements loaf
ana squander their earnings; 1t puts
the business of selling spirits on the
best possible plane by putting it in the
hands of responsible men; it does away
with the corruption and blackmail of
| the old regime, for now no saloonkeeD-
er feels under the necessity of giving
up to the police, and it treats all men
with absolute impartiality. The $500
| tax once paid is all that the dealer has
~ pay; as it used to be while his license
did not amount to that sum, by the time
eXtort money, it really cost him much
more than the present tax. About the
only dissatisfied people left are the ones
J who furnished the saloons with free
lunches. Their business is hurt by the
abolition of the free lunch counter but
the saloon men themselves are highly
Pleased that the institution is defunct.
They not only save money, but are able
to keep their places in q far cleanlier
condition"
A perusal of exchanges from nearly
all of the principal towns and cities Of
the Empire state does not reveal to us
as yet any serious losses to labor by
reason of the wedding out of the low
down ~roggeries and dives. 1t is pos
siblc tAat throughout the state a few
hundred barkeepers have been dis
placed, but there are no signs up to this
writing that the corn, rice or barley
crop will lack purchasers or that cigar
makers or workers In furniture facto-
ries will be cast adrift in sufficient
numbers to disturb the equilibrium of
the industrial world. On the contrary.
trade lost by the closing of the bar
| rooms seems to he pretty generally re-