Los Angeles herald., 1905-05-23
CHOOSE THE LESSER EVIL
AS Between Intellectual Prohibition
and High License, Latter Is Better

anu T1I9n LICENSE Latter is bGItcT
LOS ANGELES, May 20.-(Editor
Herald): 1t Is common and true
saying that "of two evils, choose the
lesser"
The people of Los Angeles are face
to face with a problem that should be
considered of vital importance to every
voter, as the business interests of the
city are at stake and it is a question
which requires man to use sound
judgment and good common sense to
decide and not be carried along with
the present temporary wave of re-
ligious excitement to do that which
will prove detrimental to the future
progress of the city's welfare. Not that
to forever rid the earth from the curse
of intemperance would not be bless
ing to humanity, but that is not the
question now before the people. At the
coming election they will have an op-
portunity to chose which of two great
evils would be the lesser. We should
establish high license, with laws to
govern the same properly enforced,
under which conditions 1t Is made to
be a legitimate business by the United
States government, which collects
three revenues from every drop of
| liquor sold before the saloonkeeper gets
his profit. And yet all the abuse is
heaped upon the saloonkeeper. Now 1t
| would be just as sensible to send few
| of these so-called reformers out to the
seashore with buckets to dip the ocean
dry as to try and stop the sale of liquid
fire and distilled damnation in land
where it is legal to manufacture,
wholesale and retail it.
From standpoint of good common
sense and reason, knowing that these
are the cold, hard facts of the case, it
simply becomes question as whether
law and order under high license
(Which will furnish a revenue sufficient
to relieve some of the great burden of
taxation from the property owners) is
not far superior and to the best in
terests of this or any other city, to
no license. which would only breed all
kinds of dives, blind pigs and trickery
~ ucCelNt, Will ldlSely, SO-CdllGu pro-
hibition that does not prohibit, to en-
courage such lawlessness in the lowest
forms of vice that are disgrace to
any civilized community.
For example, look at the effects of
so-called prohibition in the state of
Kansas, where just as much liquor
and of the very poorest quality is
sold and consumed as in any high
license state of its size, according to
the number of inhabitants in the
Union, and no reasonable man has
failed to observe who has lived under
such conditions for ten or twelve years.
as / have, and can reasonably deny
that prohibition in Kansas at least is
not only failure but is also a farce
and burlesque and a reproach to the
cause and the name of prohibition, and
from financial and business point of
view is a detriment to the best in
terests of every property owner in the
state, as the revenue which is right
fully hers Is being divided between her
rival sister states, Missouri and Ne
braska, both of which are thriving and
prospering, while Kansas gets nothing
but the results from the sale of the
very poorest of liquors drank by it's
people behind closed doors in drug
store saloons, joints and dives. The
greatest curse of these is the drug
stores which are only saloons in dis
guise; for example, in town of 5000
In Il
stores which have free druggist per-
mits, granted them to sell intoxicating
liquors. Now 1t is estimated that for
a city Of that size three frst-class drug
stores, and | think that two would be
sufficient, would amply supply all the
needs of people with necessary med
ical assistance, thus leaving balance
of ten unnecessary open violations of
law, where the greatest harvest is their
Sunday trade. Besides this there are
enough dives, bootleggers and blind
pigs to swell the number to more than
score of places where intoxicating
liquors are illegally sold, not only to
men but TO women and children also.
as It is no uncommon thing to see a
child intoxicated where such condi-
tions abound. for the keepers of these
low dives are generally men void of all
principle and in open defiance of all
law will sell to any person who has the
price These are only samples OF the
effects OF so-called and the much
boasted Of prohibition in the state OF
Kansas. and where is there man of
good sense who win not acknowledge