The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-08-19
LIQUOR License SYSTEM
INTERESTING STORY OF EVOLUTION
OF THE EXISTING PLAN,
Accompanied by an Argument Favor
ing Abolition Of Liquor Taxa
ton and License Fees.

To the Editor OF the Indianapolis Journal:
A few days ago the Journal editoriaily
gave official statistics showing that the
revenue derived by the United States from
the products of distilleres and breweries
ran UP into the hundreds OF millions the
last fiscal year. TO which is to be added
many more millions from specific taxation
on the sale of these products, adding that
the increased manufacture of whisky is not
to be regarded as indicating an increase of
It's use as a beverage since most of it is
used i'm the arts, while the increased use of
beer is wholly attributable to its increased
use as a beverage, as no beer worth nam
ing was manufactured before about 1910.
1t would have been timely and very proper
to have added that every dollar of these
hundreds of millions is extorted from the
users of these products by an un-American,
unjust and indefensible system of taxation,
which must sooner or later be abandoned.
There is no moral or economic reason why
whisky and beer should be specifically
taxed at any stage of their career that is
not equally applicable to the products of all
factories and foundries and farms, hence
the sooner this system of collecting revenue
is abandoned the better. 1t should be with
the least possible delay; justice demands
it, and the cause of temperance and
briefly will be promoted by it, for this reve-
nue. and its next of kin, high license, are
the strongest bulwarks of the saloon evil
now remaining.
As TO the use of whisky as beverage il
is within bounds to say that not one gallon
per capita is used to-day to twenty used
three-quarters of century ago, and this
difference is not attributable in any APP
preciable degree to the difference In the cost
then and is ha rdlV to
say that then every man, woman and child
In Indiana used it when they could get it,
and very few always used il in such mod
Grafton as not to become at times more or
less drunk. 1t was then only s. a barrel, %
cents q gallon or 10 cents quart, with no
government officer to interfere as to the
quality or quantity of the article used
Small distileries abounded, and it was quite
customary for well-to-do farmers to
change fifty bushels of corn for barrel of
whisky. which they kindly sold to their less
opulent neighborS at the figures above
quoted.
A SAMPLE ACCOUNT.
Not long ago 1 had the privilege of look
ing through the account book of of
these provident men. He was a Methodist
class leader. On one page was his account
with the school teacher. who was a popular
local preacher. 1t ran: REV. Blank, DIR. to
quart of whisky, 10 cents this entry APP
pearing about every week or ten days. On
the credit side was occasionally, credit by
school bill, for the quarter, $3.50" Under
the social customs of that period such en-
tries, i'm substance, were common. 1t was
this universal use of whisky that gave rise
to the licensing of certain persons to sell
whisky 'by the small" and to allow il TO.
be drunk on the premises. 1T was assumed
that travellers much needed whisky as
they needed food, hence tavern keepers
were licensed to sell it "by the small.
,ano mi in, fhot. rorf
But to be entitled to a tavern license the
applicant must have at least one spare bed
and stables for at least four horses. and he
must be first Endorsed by twenty-four free
holders as "a man of good behavior" Later
he was TO be "a man of good moral char
acter.'' but still later, when it came to be
understood that no man of good moral char
acter would keep tavern and sell whisky,
the moral was eliminated, so that now a
liquor seller needs be only man of good
character. What that means In law Is seen
in the keepers of our winerooms and other
places. Under the workings of the first laws
it was not uncommon for the same man to
hold at the same time a, license to preach
and license to keep tavern, hence many
of the Baptist and Methodist preachers or
three-quarters of n century ago in Indiana
were both liquor sellers and preachers of no
mean repute.
A characteristic of early licenses was
that the applicant paid dollar as fee to
the clerk of the court, and about s. year
into the public treasury. in no case to be
more than S12. the exact amount being de-
termined by the local tax on a merchant,
which, in most counties in Indiana, was
The truth of history requires me to say
that the Methodists of that period were
little ahead OF the Baptists and Presby-
terians, for they expressly provided in their
discipline that local preacher should
keep tavern, and that If any Methodist al
lowed ANY improper conduct under his
roof" he should be turned out of meeting
provisions that were, however so mani
testify against personal liberty that both re-
strictions were dead letters from the be-
ginning, for there was little If any differ
ence between Methodist taverns and others.
This implied Endorsement of dram selling
by members Of the church was eliminated
from the Discipline in 1870. but the custom
continued until the progress of temperance
through the Washingtonians and the Sons
of Temperance i'm the fifties closed out
Methodist dram shops.
In the evolution of the license policy we
have drifted far away from its original
purpose 1t was primarily to forbid the keep
ing of dram shops by men who would sell
unfortunately. hence the Endorsement by
twenty-four freeholders was required as to
fitness to be intrusted with so dangerous a
business. and the cost of license was only
about what one storekeeper was required to
pay. With the quickened sensibilitieS OF the
people which came with the temperance
reformation fight fifty to sixty years ago 1T
became more and more difficult to obtain
license by the class of men willing to con-
tinue in the business. whereupon they. pro-
posed to divide the profits or their business
with the State, if the State would only al
| low them to continue in it.
OBJECTIONABLE PROPOSITION.
| TO all temperance men this proposition
| was abhorrent from the beginning, but
enough people have been found from time to
| time to accept their dividend and to thus
continue in the business to the extent that
| their share of the profits makes them part
ners. To better secure the protection of the
| State the saloon people have, from time to
time. greatly increased their dividends with
| out improving the character Of their bust
ness. dividing largely with the State and
| in many cities dividing much more literally
| with the city. BY this device they have con-
| tinued to do a business from which they
| would have been driven decades ago but for
| it. Not saloon would be found in Indiana
| to-day, operating under State protection,
! but for the dividend they make to the
| State and municipality of the profits of
| their business.
On the same page of the Journal which
| speaks Of the immense revenues derived
| from the manufacture of intoxicants Is
| short editorial calling attention to the large
| number of licenses that have been refused
under circumstances. The significance Of
1 this fact is that the people in rural dis
tricts, especially are in revolt against their
enforced partisanship with the saloon bust
| moss They spuru the briDe and will long,