Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1905-10-07
COMPANY OFFERS TO
BUY ALL SALOONS
Millionaire Citizens Would Install New
GothenbGrg System
Plans Provide for Payment of $18O,OOO a Year Into
City Treasury and for Purchase of Property
and Good Will of Liquor Dealers

Twenty-Five prominent business men
and capitalists of Los Angeles, advo-
Gates of the Gothenburg system of
saloon regulation, held a conference yes
terday afternoon and decided to incor-
porate company which shall offer to
take in charge the entire retail liquor
business of Los Angeles.
For this privilege the company will
offer to pay into the treasury of the
city the present revenue derived from
the sale of saloon licenses-S1SO,OOO a
year-and will close all but seventy-five
of the 200 saloons.
Make Offer to City
Here is the proposition of the COM
mittee of twenty-five men, who repre-
sent almost unlimited capital:
The company will take the entire
two hundred saloon licenses issued by
the city and pay the present revenue
of $4,000 per annum, closing one
hundred and twenty-five of the saloons
and running seVenty-five.
After having paid the license tax to
the city the stockholders shall be en-,
titled to a dividend not exceeding b
per cent on the actual amount of their
investment. All the profits above
per cent per annum will be paid into
the city treasury for the purpose OF
lessening taxation.
While the courts have decided that
no man has vested right to sell
Iiauor and that the police commission
can revoke licenses without showing
cause, we do not favor anything that
savors of confiscation and would offer
to buy the furniture and fixtures OF
every saloon now running at their ap-
praised value and would also appraise
the good will, paying for the latter In
annual instaIlments over series OF
years and out of the profits; the pay
n,ent for good will being regarded as
a purely moral and not legal obliga-
ton.
Prominent Men Interested
In the company which met yesterday
afternoon in the Mason block to take
definite action regarding regulation OF
the Los Angeles liquor traffic were men
prominent in almost every line of bust
ness activity. William Mead, one of the
firm supporters of the Gothenburg sys-
tenn, was there with J. S. Slauson,
Homer Laughlin, Niles Pease, j. Ross
Clark. wv. NJ Garland, Abbot Kinney.
r. P. Fay, Robert N. Bulla, Charles M.
Stimson and many others.
After discussing the project the fol-
lowing resolution was adopted:
"Relying on an intelligent and pubic
spirited citizenship to remedy admitted
evils when proper remedy is ofered
we call attention to certain evils of tn"
In, nS
and suggest remedy:
First. There are too many saloons.
No one will pretend to justify the exist
ence of sixteen saloons within a radius
of one block of a given point as being
for the public good. If the 200 saloons
were reduced to seventy-five and these
properly distributed no citizen would
suffer any inconvenience and the public
order and sobriety would be greatly
promoted
"The private saloonkeeper with his
personal interest in the profits of the
business is constantly tempted to sell
to minors and to drunken men. The
same motive causes a large majority or
the saloonkeepers to adulterate their
liquors, increasing their profits, but
poisoning their patrons.
From the nature of his business the
SaloOnkeeper reels compelleu 10 ldhe >,h
active part in local politics, and THIS
activity is not conducive to good gov
ernment.
"To remedy these and other evils con-
nected with the business we propose the
adoption of a modified form of the
Gothenburg system. We will incor-
porate a company with ample capital"
Advantages Claimed
Among the advantages of such sys-
tenn compared with the present system,