Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1896-06-17
". c. I. U. COLUMN.
SELECTED BY NORRIS UNION.
How the Dram-shop Helps Business
IBy Prof. George E. Foster, n. P.l

4. The dram-Snop burdens ousl-
ness with heavy taxes. Business is
always better, other things being
equal, when it is most lightly taxed,
Heavy taxes drive away business.
Take your tax bill and scan its items;
Item l. For schools-"A just, fair,
tax" you say, and pay it willingly.
AS people grow more intelligently,
prosperity increases, and property is
safer.
Item 2. For fire department. Just
think moment. How many tires
occur from drunken, carelessness. A
victim fresh from the dram-shop
staggers into barn or clubhouse and
tries to light his pipe. A blaze starts,
and before it IS put out, thousands OF
dollars lost, and so much expense to
the department. Mark a goodly pro-
portion of your fire to the credit OF
the dram-shop.
Item 8. For poor Ninety out OF
every one hundred paupers and occa-
sional poor are SO because Of the,
dram shop. Mark go per cent OF
your poor tax to that institution
Item 4. For police. What con
sti,utes the main work of the police
ia our towns and cities? Looking
after the dram shops and their pro-
ducts. Vineland, with $4,000 people,
pays only 500 per year for police.
WHY? Tiu-Mnd mas had 10 dram
shop 70, the last twentv-one years.
Marx large part OF your tax Tor po-
lice to the dram-shop.
Item 5. For criminal expenses.
Whence come our criminals? The
experience of judges, sheriffs and
grand iuries, and the Investigations
of parliaments and legislatures, go to
prove that rs per cent of all punish
able criminals are graduates OF the
dram-shop. Credit large part OF
your tax for criminal expenses to that
institution. Now, what have you?
You have the fact staring you IN the
face that the dram-shop helps busl-
ness by laying upon it at least three
quarters of all the taxes it pays.
Should business submit to this great
burden lust that here and there a
dram shop might get a lazy living2
But worse still Every dram seller
is an able bodied pauper who lives OF
the earnings and business OF the
country. Suppose Jones puts up a
bar, stands behind it from January
to December; takes in $1,000, and
gives out nothing but brown paper
Who has kept Jones and his family
The earners and business men OF this
country. He has produced nothing
and given nothing valuable in return
for the $1,000. He is an able-bodied
pauper.
Suppose Smith sets up bar;
stands behind it from January to
December; takes in $1,000, and gives
out nothing but whisky. Who has
kept Smith and his family? The
earners and business men Of the
country. He has produced nothing
and given nothing valuable in return
for the $1,000. He is an able-bodied
pauper.
What is the difference between the
two? Jones was considerate enough
to take his living for no return, and
harmed nobody Smith was not con-
tented with simply taking his living,
but harmed everybod he could. If
he had given brown paper instead OF
whisky, he would have been as inno-
cent man as Jones. Jones was a
harmless pauper; Smith was de-
structive pauper-that is all the diff
ference.
Is it good for the business of this
country that it has to support 10000
able-bodied men and their families,
and, in addition, to bear the burden
of taxation and ruin they impose2
But say the dram sellers, you
ale not fair; do you not see that we
must eat, wear clothes, have homes
built, and so are continually buying
and helping trade? Surely our Gus
tom is something, and there are TO-
| 900 of US in Canada?"
Wouldn't you eat and wear clothes
and live in houses if you were not
dram sellers? Surely you don't mean
to say that you would then go about
naked, or become Tanners or live