The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-10-08
The Saloon Question


Do You own Real Estate in Honolulu
| DO You Wish to Sell Your Real Es-
tate at Good Figure? If SO, Read
This Through.
/ Lots of property owners IN Honolulu
want to sell, but cannot. Why? Be
cause there are no buyers. we know
there will be no buyers for years un-
less we can induce people to come here
from the mainland. Business will not
fetch them. But our climate Will.
Tourists are the ones we are after.
Just as they did in California they will
do here if we cater to their demands.
TESTIMONY OF SAN FRANCISCO.
On May II the San Francisco Real
/ Estate Board met and passed resolu-
lions. among them the following:
Whereas, The closing of retail liquor
saloons in San Francisco during the
past four weeks has demonstrated be-
/ yond any question the splendid fact
| that the good order and freedom Of the
| city from any crime has been almost
! entirely due to such closing of sa-
/ looms; and
Whereas, 1t has been shown in the
past that fully so per cent and more
of the energy and time of the Police
Department has been spent in making
arrests of what is termed on the prison
! registers as drunk: and
'fWhereas, A large percentage OF the
other misdemeanors and crimes are di-
rectly traceable to the influence of in
toxicating drink;
Therefore, be it resolved and so
on. About the resolutions we are not
concerned just now.
What we want you to note is that
the most conservative body of business
men west of the Missouri River wrote
these words. Listen also to the San
Francisco Chronicle. A recent editorial
in that journal, which certainly has
never yet betrayed any love for the
temperance cause. said
tSan Francisco for the past fort
night has been absolutely free from
disorder and virtually free from crimes
of violence. There have been no street
brawls. No drunken brute has beaten
his wife. No gamblers have murdered
each other in low resorts. Except for
some dealings with sneak thieves the
occupation of the police courts is gone.
1t is most impressive object lesson
Oh the value TO society OF the reSIrlc-I
ton of the liquor traffic. We are
promised a continuance of this peace
full condition for a considerable time to
come, save only as drunken men may
drift over from Oakland, where the au-
thoritfes have been SO reckless as to
allow saloons to open. We may be
compelled TO renew the quarantine
against Oakland.
This absolute demonstration that
the saloons are responsible for all
crimes of violence makes it impera-
tive that, whenever they shall be al
lowed to reopen in this city, their IL
cense fees be fixed at a rate which will
support the Police Department. There
must be increased taxation. The public
generally will protest against being
taxed for the control or suppression OF
those forms of crime for which the
saloons are now proved to be solely
responsible. The public will look to the
Board of Supervisors to place the cost
of dealing with crimes of violence on
the occupation which is responsible
for all of it,
THE TOURIST BUSINESS.
But how does this bear upon the
tourist business? Just here:
Tourists have no love for places
"hCiC odiobIS anu SdfOOI CIlln6S
ish. In 1SS9-90 Pasadena was one of
the forlornest places in the Union. 1t
had passed through the boom, its peo-
pie We're largely in debt. it had lost
its grip. The saloon men determined
to carry it for liquor. Their argument
was, Tourists avoid towns without sa-
looms. The fight was bitter one.
Liquor lost. Pasadena real estate own-l
ers were not to be fooled. Governor ,
Carter put the case square1y and truly
a. few weeks ago. He said:
But l have seen. since I went away, |
town where no liquor is permitted to
be sold-and l have seen that it is all
most an earthly paradise. That town
is Pasadena-and it is the Mecca of the
millionaires of the country. They al !
low no liquors to be sold there, and the !
people are proud of it. The cleanness
of the town. and its wholesomeness are
revelation. They can never tell me-
again, that the tourist and the traveller +
want places where they can get their |
drink. They do not. Pasadena is the
tourist magnet of the United States |
John D. Rockefeller has just bought
big lot of land there. and Busch of St /
Louis has a sunken garden in an arroyo
that would be revelation to European
princes.
Redlands. another town where no /
liquor is sold, is clean and healthful
and thriving And here I was astonish-I
ed to see that even the hackmen took
pride in the fact that it was a dry
town, and were interested in the sue
cess of the temperance cause These
things have been borne in upon me
very strongly
Is it not time that they bore strongly
upon all of us who live in and love
Honolulu?
ONE NOPE 1rn1-p1Su,