Waterbury Democrat., 1901-03-20
THE LICENSE FEE
Opinions Differ As to Whether
 It Should Be High or Low.
SMALL DEALERS GRUMBLE

They Say All the Men in the Busines3 Began on Small Scale-High Lts cense Might Drive Them Out, but Would Not Improve or Elevate tho Business.
 l The liquor dealers of Waterbury aps l pear to be divided on the high licensa question, some of them being verH much in favor of it and others de- nouncing it as move to create mos nopoly in the interest of the moneyed class. Those who favor high license | claim that it would result in giving uS | a better class of saloon keepers, and | thus do away with great deaf of the l fault-Gnding We hear Of from time t0 1 time about the liquor traffic and that 1 no reform worth speaking of will eveE he brought about until the license is SO ! high that no sane man would run th0 l risk of being driven out of the busi- ness for the sake of what he could make by acting contrary to law. The other men meet this by stating than high license would not materially re- | duce the number of saloons and StOut~ l ly maintain that violations are by no | means confined to dealers of modest means. Some of them go so far as to alle@e that the poorer the dealer the | closer he is watched by the officers and contend that to this can be traced the fact that more poor men are pulled than others.
 | "Nhat'S the reaSon!'' asked a liQuon man of q Democrat reporter last night, | ever takes his eye off my door Suns days and pays no attention to what is going OH at Mir So-and-So's placegs The reporter said he couldn't teH | except that he might happen to be un> | fortunate enough to get the reputatiOM of selling.
 "I haven't taken in S5.' he said, Ion Sunday during the past six months and the few occasions | have opened it
 was against my will. don't want to | open on Sunday, but it isn't pleasant for me to have my place closed and see some one else who has more means doing business. 1 say the license is high enough and the law all right prG- | vided it was enforced. but so long aA some can do as they please and others compelled to toe the mark, there will
 be trouble. If d man is seen drunk | that he got the stuff in some small place where, if the facts were knownt
 the chances are that our high license advocates would not know what to say for themselves. There are very few rich saloon keepers in Waters 1 bury that had much money when they | went into the business, and if tho law some of them want passed now | had been in force some time ago theY | would be no better off than their nelShbOrs to-day, because they never would have been able to get enough together to start the business. This is a move in the interest Of the rich
 man and those who pretend that their aim is to benefit the laboring classes are not honest in their representa> | tlonS. The same thing might be said Cf limiting the number of saloons. The only remedy l see unless you want tQ stop the sale of it altogether, is to eds 1 ucate people up to a higher standard ill the drink habit. Leave the licensa as it is, enforce the law and let those
 whose duty it is to educate the mass es try and show people the folly on treating and more good will be ac> comDlished than in any other way. Ii the treating business was not su general there would be less drunken4 ness and the salOOnkeepers would ba
 better off. for too many men are tempted to drink more than is good
 for them and spend more than thew can spare on account of the habit 0f treating.''
 Private individuals are divided on the subject, too. so that it is mightu hard to know where the public standa, on the question.