The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-06-30
DISCUSS LICENSE
FINANCE COMMITTEE HOLDS AN
 IPMORTANT MEETING.
Naham Griel Says the City Can De- rive Greater Revenue from Lew Tax on Saloons
 Than Otherwise.

 That the city can derive a greater l revenue from low saloon licenses than fromA high licenses and, prohibltory laws, was the concensus of opinion of the advocates of the present saloon license system who met last evening with the Finance Committee of the City Council in special public session. pear before the city fathers in their committee session. Naham ]. Griel, President of the Capitol Brewing Com pany A.B. Meyer. General Manager, and Lee H. Weil.. attorney. The session of the committee was well attended and enthusiastically ent- l cred into. the whole room seeming to | share in the interest of the occasion Discussion of the various matters that
 entered into the questions introduced was free and instructive, and the city l fathers adjourned the meeting with
 helpful suggestions as to the way of successfully operating the saloons of | the licenses. The committee having in charge the communication of the May or which precipitated the discussion fformed report after the dismissal of
 the public. and the interest of the cit-
 izens and of the saloon men of Mont | gomery now centers in the text of their
 report.
 The public hearing was entered in-
 to with the following Aldermen pres-
 ent: Lobman, chairman; Gunter. Fos- ter, Holloway and Tait. Alderman A. | l.. Tyson, Aldermen elect James Par rish and Berto Johnson and Mayor
 Teague were other of the city officials present, who shared in the interest of l the public.
 Naham J. Griel of the Brewery Com- pany was the first outsider to take part in the discussion, the session be- ing called to order about s:30 o'clock.
 Mir. Greil, who explained at the open- | ing his advocacy Of the interests of
 the company he represented. advised
 that the licenses of the city be raised
 without regards to business He thought that the business men of the city should come to the succor of the
 city in the present emergency. and he
 stated as his belief that the licenses
 should be increased in order to ac- | complish this end.
 The speaker thought that an increase l of the saolon licenses would undoubt- | edly be influential in driving out the | suburban saloons, class of saloons l which, he said, the city had not been troubled with.
 l "The suburban saloons" Mir. Greil l said, "are reported wrongly. They
 have not been giving the trouble l which is currently reported. They are
 under the surveillance of entirely
 adequate and capable police force. and | are accordingly prohibited from caus- | ing or producing wrong.
 An increase of the license would
 not have the effect of driving out the
 kind of saloons in the business dis
 tricts of the city that the council an- ticipates. It would, the rather, get rid
 of the higher class bar rooms that you
 desire to pay the increased license. The
 council would have to use a great deal l of discretion, and this only, to elimi-
 nate the class of saloons that are de-
 sired to be eliminated, but a radical
 increase of the licenses, without a pro-
 portionate increase in the other busi-
 nesses., would not accomplish good re- 1 suits"
 1 But" commented Alderman Hollo-
 way. haven't we already too many sa-
 looms in the city7 How about district
 ing them in the fire limits of the city,
 "No." replied Mir. Greil, i've have
 not too many saloons, and the dis
 tricting plan, according to my way of
 seeing it, would not work. The resi-
 dential saloons are doing no harm, and if they should their licenses would be recalled. I personally do not favor l putting salons where there are resi- | dences, but that Is a point that only
 the Council has authority over. Use
 discretion and there will be none."
 MT. Griel stated that in expressing | as his views that the down town | saloons should have their licenses in-
 creased to from $1,000 to $1,500 he did | not represent the consensus of opinion. | He stated. however, that he did want to see a low beer License, for he thought | this to be a solution of the temperance | problem.
 "The consumption of whiskey," MT | Griel added, gets less every year; It's ,I- 11wr 1 n-fw.e h kA sale of beer is ever on the grow. Issue
 beer license to suburban saloon and | prohibit the sale of whiskey under that l license, and inebriety in Montgomery
 You have the law which permits the arrest and conviction of such parties; you should see to 1t that It's enforced. | Where the licenses are high, statistics
 show, there are more drunkedness than | anywhere else, and principally because
 of the fact that the proprietors of such
 establishments sell fighting whiskey,
 a low grade. in order to reap the sort
 of profit that will allow t4em to pay the license"
 But don't they sell a lower grade l of whiskey in the suburban saloons" | asked Alderman Foster" then they do
 In higher class town saloons? Mr. Griel replied that they did not,
 but that the reverse generally obtained. | General Manager Meyer, of the | Capitol Brewing Company followed upon MT. Griel and advocated more
 beer and less whiskey.
 Mayor Teague, who was present at 1 the meeting, was called upon to give his views upon the license question,
 and responded to the request with the statement that he was heartily in sympathy with the movement, and that
 he thought that 1t should be carried | through
 There are two reasons" Mayor I Teague said, why there should be a
 higher saloon license. The first is to | get a better revenue, which the city | is in need of, and the second from
 moral viewpoint.
 By increasing the saloon licenses from $1, 900 to- $1,500, I calculate that
 about fifty of the 130 saloons will have l to surrender their licenses owing to
 inability of compliance. At present we are getting not quite $40,000 from whls- | key and beer licenses. Suppose that | the Council orders an increase of as
 much as $1,00O You then have eighty
 saloons giving a revenue of $80.000,
 as opposed to not quite forty thousand
 as at present. You need not fear that
 all of the saloons will leave the city.
 They'll stay ana make money.
 Also. the licenses should be same all over Montgomery. It is a reflec- ton on the City Council that the city should license salons in the residential section, as it is. and there should cer-
 tainly be no discrimination as to sec ton license"
 Tba Naavor ir,nressed uDon tha com