The Palatka news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1905-1908, 1907-09-20
GAINESVILLE'S
GREAT GROWTH
Under Prohibition-Re State
ment Of a Business Man.

InSHt W d business WAN.
The following letter addressed to
Rev. L. R. Lynn of this city is from
Hon. w. R. Thomas, president of
the button Bank, Gainesville, tells
again How Prohibition Does NOT
Kill The Town" 1t should be read
by every voter in Palatka and Put
nam county:
Gainesville, Fla. Sept. 18th, 1907.
Rev. Il, r. LYNN,
Palatka, Fla.
| Dear Sir:
am in receipt of your favor of the
10th inst, inviting me to come over
and tell the business men of your
city and county what a business
man who has seen the matter thor
Oughly tested knows about the effect
of prohibition on business and bust
ness interests generally. / assure
you that nothing could give me
more pleasure than to be able to ac-
cept your invitation, but important
business matters that call me out
West next week render it impossi-
BILE for me to do so. AS | can not
come and talk to your people, how
ever, | take the liberty of sending
you in this form some of the results
of my observation and experience
along this line, giving you full per-
mission to make whatever use of it
your judgement may dictate.
The question of the effect of pro-
hibition upon the business interests
of community is no longer an open
one. 1t has been effectually settled
by the irrefutable logic of facts.
There is absolutely no ground left
for discussion. The experience of
every community that has tried
banishing the saloon from its bor-
ders is the same. There is not, in ]
this case, even that "singIe eXcep-
ton which has been always held as
establishing the rule. This expert
ence, taking our city of Gainesville
as fair example, may be summed
up as follows: 1t has an immediate
and noticeably stimulating effect
upon every form of legitimate bust
ness, inaugurates an era of public
and private improvement, develops
and fosters business enterprises,
creates spirit of cheerful hopeful
ness, augments values, elevates the
social, moral and religious tone of
the community, increases population
by attracting desirable citizens, re-
wives tagging industries and brings
about an increased demand for labor
at better wages.
When a few years ago our county
declared for prohibition, our city,
then only fair sized country town,
was practically industrially dead.
Business of all kinds-eXcept that of
the salOons-was at a stand-still, or
decreasing Real estate was drug
on the market" unsaleable almost at
any price. Labor was begging for
employment at wages ranging from
90 to 70 cents day. The town was
full of empty houses growing more
and more dilapidated with each sea-
son because their owners were una
BILE, or found it Improbable, to keep
them in decent repair. Vice in all
its forms was rampant and our boys
were being surely and steadily de-
bauched and turned into idlers, |
drunkards, gamblers and rowdies. |
Open drunkenness, street brawls and |
other forms of rowdyism had become |
so common as to have ceased to pro-
woke more than passing notice.
ton was begun, we were confronted |
with the same old cry that it would |
impo7erish the merchants, drive |
away business and kill the town. |
But we had, to meet this, an argu-
ment the saloon crowd could not |
answer, that the merchants could |
hardly get any poorer than they |
were, that we had no business to |
speak of to drive away, and that the |
town, dead already, could hardly be |
killed any deader, and that since IA
change could not possibly make |
matters any worse, there was at
least the bare possibility that it
might make them better. | believe |
that many of the good citizens and
business men who voted with us did
so, not because they had any hope of
thereby lettering affairs, but simply
because they felt it could not posi-
bly, make them worse. Thus, more
through despair than hope, the coun-
ty was voted dry.
The results, however, are here to
bear witness for themselves. Since
the Punishment of the saloon, and
with it its kindred and inseparably
associated dens of vice and iniQuity,
our town has in few years grown to
be city, modern and up-to-date in
all its appointments and institutions.
1t has more than doubled in popula-
ton and quadrupled in value. Every
line of business, every trade and pro
fession has felt and responded to the
reviving influence. Real estate has
more than doubled in value. So
great is the demand for common la
Dor that although wages have more
than doubled, the supply is still in
sufficient. Phere are in the city no
empty business houses or residences;
and though every week sees one or
more new buildings begun, the de
nand is still in excess OF the supply
and it is rare thing for new build
ing not to be rented before the roof
has been put on. The ramshackle
wooden buildings that once sur
'Ounded the public square have Civ
al place to fine brick blocks-erected
1t an aggregate cost of several hun
ired thousand dollars. Scores of
lew and prosperous business enter
)rises have been inaugurated. The
lumber of banks has increased from
wo to four, while the number of de-
,OsitOrs and the amount of deposits
las more than quadrupled. Num-
,ers of handsome residences, ranging
n cost from $4,000 to $4,000, have
'een erected. A large part of our
aboring people now own comfortable
ZONES and nave money in their pock-
is and on deposit in the banks. The
money that formerly went for whis-
y to deaden ambition, paralyze en-
rgy, incite to vice and crime, stimu-
ate the evil nasSinns and dphasR