The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-05-21
"LICENSE OR NO LICENSE"
INTER ESTTNG ADDRESS ON THE
 SUBJRCT BY MdJ0R HUH,

SUBJHCT BY lLiJOR HULL,
 New London Lawyer Protests Against
 the Present system Claims That is
 Liquor Dealers svcro Taxed Fairly
 There Would be No Licenses Issned-
 The '.No License" Movement in ston-
 ington.
 Major Hadlai A, Hull of New London
 delivered an address on the subject of l 'License and No License" in Hope Bap- l tist church last evening that was very
 interesting The speaker showed him
 self thoroughly conversant with his
 topic and added force to his remarks
 by relating personal experiences of his own. He stated that it was his belief | that not one-quarter of the business | men and those who voted for license | in a city the size of New Haven had l definite idea as to what they were do- 1 ing When a man votes for license, he said, The makes plain bargain with the liquor dealers. Tn city like INtN JIbNGll lHC llNNliVS iNS la'o VI NNA@ | saloonkeeper is an onen bribe. The | citizens vote for it because they know 1 that in so doing they are Tightening i their own taxes considerably. But is | it fair that the saloonkeeper should be 1 taxed to pay the expenses of munici- | palty? When you ask this question | you come down to a question of law. | I repeat is it legal and constitutional | to impose a tax on liquor dealers such l that it lghtens the taxes of other tax payers.
 Take as an example q plain yellow dog. Yellow dogs are not taxed for the income which such tax brings into the town. They are taxed merely that
 the burden of the damage done by them
 may not have to come entirely upon the town. Sometimes the money paid in for their tax is short of the amount of dam
 age done, other years it Is over; but in neither event is the. money used to pay an officials salary or for anything of the sort.
 As another instance, suppose each grocery man or meat merchant in town were taxed four or five hundred dollars a year on the same basis as the liquor dealers. You can all perceive what the effect would be and you all know that 'holler would go up which would reach from Rome to Calcutta. But sup posing high license on the liquor deal- CTS rests upon exactly the same basis. As in the case of the yellow dog the tax upon liquor dealers should be used merely for the purpose of providing for whatever damage may be done by drunkards. or those who cause expense to the state as a result of their visiting a saloon. The legislature should enact a law that the town should become re- sponsible for the acts of drunken man. And when 1t provides for this it should also provide that the town col lect from the liquor dealers in accord ance with the amount of the damage. That is the only theory on which the license fee can legally rest
 And if it did rest on this basis; if the license fees of the liquor dealers were used by the city merely to pay for the damage done by intoxicated persons, how long do you suppose the taxpayers would vote for license? If they saw no good to themselves com ing from it how long would they stand for it? Yet as long as the present sys- tenn continues the city of New Haven is taking money from the rum shops to pay It's debts; and the taxpayers are CO., operating with the liquor dealers for their own benefit. And therefore 1 say that high licenses as the cold right of the government to levy what tax they 1 please upon the rumseller are illegal, unjust and unconstitutional
 Here in the city of New Haven the 1 city derives about $100,000 annually 1 from the liquor dealers. Were the | dealers taxed ona just system the bene- | fit to the city would be so little that 1 the city would undoubtedly vote mo I license. And yet the liquor dealer | should have his rights as long as he is allowed to remain In business.
 But argue thus with taxpayer here and he would reply that if the license was revoked the town would lose s1oO,- 900 annually and the rum would be sold just the same. I call that the cry of fconsummate coward. Rum would be sold covertly for some time after wards to be sure, but not for long, and as a case take the town of Stonington"
 Here the speaker went on to describe the no license movement in that town In 1895 and how the liquor dealers were finally effectually squelched The years the victory the speaker showed to be the most prosperous the own had ever enjoyed. "Grocers, cloth- ng men, coal dealers and all," he said testify to a surprising increase in the amount of goods sold and the ease with which their collections are made And even the principal of the high school n letter to me in '96 assured me that never before had the children come to 'chool in such numbers or better clothed.
 The number of bound over casea in in the three years previous Q 1895 was twenty-seven, including murder, arson assault and all such The record for the three years follow ng was two and up to this year but i've bound over cases appear. That is he effect of a triumphant no license movement" 'HE YOUNG PEOPLE OF HAMP- (
 TON.