Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-11-20
$4,000 SALOON TRADE.

| Is lUU per ceHl pTOlll III every GTlIll
sold, the seventeen saloons would hav
to do $1S7.0OO worth of business in
year to be as profitable as saloons
| generally are. This estimate was baset
upon such fixed charges as 5000 70
county license, 5000 for town license
| $50 per month for bartender, $25 pc
| month rent, SIS per month carriage
| heat, light, etc, including bare living
| for twelve saloon owners and none.
making profit for five of them, which
! is a fair and conservative estimate ant
cannot be attacked. Some will say tina
saloons will do more business than the
estimate and some will contend tina
there will be more than seventeen sa-
looms in twelve towns, but the estimate
is fair one. Now what does it NEAR
for the people of Butler county to pa!
out of their pockets s1S7,000 every veal
for drinks and keep on paying this tan
every year, even unto succeeding gener.
ations?
1t would mean that the saloons, fol
instance, would get in money value ali
of the chickens and eggs produced in
Butler county every year according tc
the figures Of the state census of 1906
The farmers of Butler county are
proud of their timothy hay and every
farm has some Of it, but if every ton
of timothy raised in the county should
be hauled to the saloons, there would
still be a balance due the saloon keep
err of several thousand dollars.
If the saloons would accept hogs in
ste,sd of money. they would get just a
tride more than half of all the hogs in
the county, according to the census es-
innate.
If they should prefer produce, all the
potatoes, fruit vegetables, sweet corn
flax seed, clover and timothy seed
wheat, clover hay, wild hay, rye, barr
ley, millet, sheep and wool raised in
the county would fall far short of pay
ing their bill.
Without knowing exactly the tax
levy in Butler county, it is more thar
likely that this saloon tax Of $4,000
would be more than four times the
county tax paid by the farms Of Butler
county and more than half of all the
taxes, county, state township, school
and road, paid by these farms.
There are approximately SIS miles OF
highway in Butler county on section
lines. A brick pavement like a city
street, can be built fifteen feet wide for
$4,000 per mile. If Butler county
should issue % year bonds at four per
cent to build such roads, $1S7, 900 per
year beer money would pay the inter-
est and pay off the principal in % years
Of enough such bonds to pave with
brick one third of all the section lines
roads in Butler county
The value of all the churches IN
Butler county is given in the state
census as $137,435, and the parsonages
at $33,Os5. This $1S7,OO0 annual beer
tax on the people of Butler county
would rebuild all the churches and
parsonages in the county every year,
and leave enough besides, to erect one
additional $4,000 church somewhere in
the county, every year.
There are twelve fair sized towns in
Butler county This beer money Of
$4,000 per year would build a hand
some $4,000 Carnegie library in every
one of the twelve towns every year.
In ten years it would build $4,000
library, $4,000 hospital, $4,000
opera house, two handsome $4,000
churches, a $4,000 town heating plant,
a $4,000 town water works, a $4,000
electric lighting plant, a 100000 high
school and a $4,000 hotel, $4,000 CO.
operative elevator and $4,000 cream
cry in each and every one of the twelve
towns in Butler county and the coun-
ty would own all this property, clear of
debt at the end of the ten years
InterErbans cost $4,000 a mile to
build and equip. An interurban start
ing at Greene and running to Allison
and Parkersburg, with spurs over to
Allison from Dumont thru Bristow and
from Shell Rock thru GAINESVILLE and
from New Hartford to Parkersburg
and then the main line running on
down to Marshalltown by way of Grun-
dy Center, would be about 100 miles
long This $4,000 annual beer money
would pay four per cent interest on
enough bonds to build this entire line
and pay off the bonds in twenty years,
leaving the road out Of debt as the
property of Butler county
Suppose each township in Butler
county should borrow the money with
which to build $4,000 central town
ship school, This yearly beer money
would pay off that loan with interest.