The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1902-08-19
A VOTER OF ELLIS COUNTY
10 the
Business Men OF Waxahachie.
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Of last week in which you appeal
to me, together with the voters
of the county, to refrain from
voting for a prohibition which
shall include the entire county,
has come to hand
There are too many of you
whose names are signed to the
above mentioned letter, for me
to attempt the labor and expense
of giving each one personal
letter in reply; 90 ! shall take
the liberty of answering after
your own style, through the
newspapers,
take it that you are asking
me to vote against prohibition,
not in order to benefit myself.
but to accommodate you. Such
being the case, it becomes my
privilege to inquire into your
reasons for desiring TO retain for
| Waxahachie the liquor traffl =
also to seek to learn in what
manner the business men Of
WaXahachie hope to be benefit
ted by such retention.
Since you assure me that you
ara in no way Interested in the
liquor traffic, the question OF d.
rect pecuniary gain is eliminat-
ed, and | am forced to conclude
that you either derive indirect
financial profit from the sale OF
liquor, or else simply want the
liquor because you like it and
make a practice Of drinking it..
Assuming the latter to be the
case, it hardly strikes me as a
winning business proposition to
advance as argument in favor of
my voting as you desire. Among
the list of names signed to your
letter | find those to cover every
kind of business engaged in in
Waxahachle, Except preaching
and | must say, gentlemen, that
what little business have TO
transae. in Waxahachie, | should
prefer to conduct with men who
do not make a practice of drink
ing. Furthermore, my wife and
daughters frequently go to your
town shopping, and would hes
itate to allow them TO GO unat-
tended if / thought they would
be forced TO trade with mer-
chants who had been drinking.
An exhaustive reasoning along
this line convinces me that you
are not all drinking men, and
that you do not allow your clerks,
bookkeepers and cashiers to in
dulge in the habit. II am in
correct, please notify me at once
Having thus eliminated the
personal desire hypothesis, all
that remains is my first theory,
that of indirect financial gain.
Now. il you expect to make
money out of the saloon bust
ness, and are not connected
with the traffic, there are only
three ways by which you can
hope to DE benefited. First,
from license money paid into
your city treasury by the sa-
looms. Second, trade brought
to your town by country people
who 90 there to make their pur-
chases and who use the trade as
a cloak to their real intention OF
going where liquor is for sale.
Third, money which the country
people will have to spend in the
courts in defending or prescott.
ling cases in which liquor is the
"casus belli. "
If it is the license money you
are after, am afraid | cannot
assist you in securing it. 1t all
comes from the country people,
and only about two per cent Of
the money the country boys
spend in saloons finds its way
lHLO Tue tICCf50 luuQs Ia 'ot4OA
words, it takes Fifty Dollars oil
Cotton and Corn Money to make
One Dollar OF License Money.
If it is the country trade you
are after and you want the sa-
looms for an alluring bait, an en-
tirely different complexion APP
pears on the face of your desire
for my ballot.
My two boys are just now a.
the age when characters are
| formed. Like all other boys oil
their age, they are easily i'm
pressed by gaudy display, and
more so by the good fellowship,
and hail comrade air which per-
vades the saloon. As yet, / am
able to control them by virtue oil
the authority of domestic law,
but the time will soon come when
the seductions which surround
the sale of liquor will appeal
forcibly to them. They will
probably be often in Waxahachie
in the future, but, as yet they